# Advice or Tips



## CICHthis (Oct 10, 2008)

Any or all advice from all you plant experts is greatly appreciated. Every time I try my hand with plants, I end up killing them. I have one right now, its under a 15W bulb in a 10 G tank with 4 juvie Yellow Labs. Not sure about the name on the plant that was sold to me by the Fish Store from Pac Mall. All they told me was that it would be hardy enough for hard water.


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

I'm afraid you'll have to provide a little more detail regarding your plant than that. Perhaps a picture? Nobody can tell you the actual requirements of the plant (for all we know, it might be a high light plant that the store sold you just to make a buck!).

Also, I'm not aware of any fish store in Pacific Mall; did you mean Market Village (Lucky's)?


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## CICHthis (Oct 10, 2008)

Darkblade48 said:


> I'm afraid you'll have to provide a little more detail regarding your plant than that. Perhaps a picture? Nobody can tell you the actual requirements of the plant (for all we know, it might be a high light plant that the store sold you just to make a buck!).
> 
> Also, I'm not aware of any fish store in Pacific Mall; did you mean Market Village (Lucky's)?


Sorry, that's what I meant, market Village. The Plant they sold me a big leafy plant. The plant doesn't matter so much as to how do I keep any plant alive.


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## blossom112 (Mar 19, 2008)

you will need florish excel and plant supplement.....
Unless you want to go the whole Co2 thing .
Well thats what i used when i had no Co2 .
but im new at this


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## CICHthis (Oct 10, 2008)

blossom112 said:


> you will need florish excel and plant supplement.....
> Unless you want to go the whole Co2 thing .
> Well thats what i used when i had no Co2 .
> but im new at this


I was actually going to get some today at Lucky. Also, does substrate matter much as well, do I have to get aqua soil, or regular gravel do.


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 21, 2007)

CICHthis said:


> Sorry, that's what I meant, market Village. The Plant they sold me a big leafy plant. The plant doesn't matter so much as to how do I keep any plant alive.


If you are looking for general advice on how to keep plants, then that's a very loaded question  ... but for starters here's a post I made a while back in answer to someone else's similar question, so I thought I'd repost it here (with a few alterations):

***

You also have to decide what you objective is ... if all you want is to have a plant or two here or there, then an anubia or java fern will serve the purpose just fine since they are very hardy. It's hard to grow other more delicate plants in a "one or two plant in tank" scenario ... however, if your goal is to reach for a tank like you see in tons of pictures that looks beautiful then keep reading.

Personally I think the best way for a beginner to start is to follow exactly what someone else did and had success with ... the downfall usually comes when someone changes things just a little thinking they will have only slightly worse results when in reality a small change can mean the difference between a success and a complete failure.

If you're looking for low maintenance then I have the perfect solution for you. There's actually two ways to approach a low maintenance planted tank, but here's the one that's worked for me and I personally prefer:

http://www.barrreport.com/articles/433-non-co2-methods.html

It's super easy, decently cheap, and best of all ... it's actually better not to do water changes in such a tank. Here's a link to what my tank looks like by following the above instructions:

http://www.stonyx.googlepages.com/tankpictures.html

The last water change was about a month or two ago and I keep shrimp and other sensitive fish without any issues.

If you follow Tom Barr's method try to stick to it as closely as possible. You should be with the light you have. The gravel though is where you will probably run into trouble ... if at all possible change it. Breaking my rule above (about not changing someone else's method  ) you can use flourite instead of the onyx sand mentioned in his article since flourite is cheaper but everything else he mentions I would suggest sticking to otherwise you risk a complete failure.

Hope some of this info help and feel free to ask more questions.

Harry

P.S. Also make sure you follow the advice of planting all your plants at once and not a few now and a few later. Your goal is to outcompete the algae and the only way to do that is to have tons of plant mass in the tank from the beginning, otherwise you'll have constant algae issues. In my tank I started out with about $80-90 worth of plants from Menagerie ... and I only had one algae outbreak that I had to deal with ... not bad. Btw, that's a 55G tank, so you won't have to spend as much ... all depends on the plants you choose.

***

Basically if all you want is just to keep a few plants, then for best results you have to stick to a short list of plants that are almost indestructable (like Java Ferns or anubias). If you wanna go for a lush planted tank, then I would definately recommend following Tom Barr's advice since he's one of the best in the plant industry.

Thanks,
Harry


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## Prodicus (Nov 3, 2008)

Here are my two cents:

1) Match your plant choice to your tank specifications. (or vice versa). Don't try to grow high light plants with low light fixtures.

2) If you are going with lots of light and a large tank, you need CO2. A small tank can get by with carbon supplementing (Excel).

3) If you have light but only a few plants, the algae will use up the available nutrients and light. The more plants you have, the less nutrients available for algae.

4) You don't need any fertilizer or excel if you have low to medium light plants, and if you are happy with slow growth.

These are my opinions until experience (mine or others') teaches me different.


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## desjardo (Aug 30, 2008)

I have a setup much the same with shrimp, and an amazon sword plant. The thing is greener than it ever was in my planted 20 gallon, thats not saying much, and I dont use any ferts.
Just feed shrimp, and change water weekly.
I think the plant feeds off of the fresh water, and waste...
Just my exp.


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## CICHthis (Oct 10, 2008)

Thanks everyone for all your advice.

The tank I will be trying to grow the plants will be in a 5 G tank with minimal light ( 15 W / 6700 lumens ).

Hard water and minimal to no substrate, not sure yet.

I currently have a small anubias on a piece of driftwood.

How much light should I expose them too. Thats where I'm a little lost as well.


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## Prodicus (Nov 3, 2008)

One further point. I have re-read Harry's post, and I think it is excellent advice.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

For cichlids (hard water), keep with anubias, java fern and perhaps bolbitus (african water fern).


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## CICHthis (Oct 10, 2008)

Thanks, as for upkeep, what should I do with respect to how much lighting I should provide them, water parameters... etc.. 

Thanks again to those who have contributed to this.


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 21, 2007)

CICHthis said:


> Thanks, as for upkeep, what should I do with respect to how much lighting I should provide them, water parameters... etc..
> 
> Thanks again to those who have contributed to this.


If all you want to do is grow the anubia that you have and maybe add a java fern then the light you have is just fine and so is the gravel (since both the anubia and java fern don't actually grow in the gravel, they grow on top of it or on top of wood, rocks, etc.). Technically you'd have 3wpg based on your light and tank size, however, the watts per gallon (wpg) rule is a rough guide that breaks down on smaller size tanks. 15W of flourescent light over 5 gallons would be a nice low light tank that would grow both the anubia and some java fern nicely, but slowly. With just those plants there's no need for fertilizer. Fish food and fish poop will take care of the fertilizing. Anubias and Java Ferns are not picky about any other water parameters either. The only thing to remember with both those plants is to not burry the rimazone (I can't remember how to spell that) ... it's the main root that all the leaves grow from. Usually it's good to tie it to some wood or rock or place it on TOP of the gravel, never buried in the gravel.

Harry


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## CICHthis (Oct 10, 2008)

Thats awesom, thanks Harry. Thats what I wanted to know to the "T"


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