Is it okay to add live plants in an established tank?

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paulz01

Candiru
MFK Member
Jun 5, 2008
252
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california
Hi guys, I own a 168 gallon south american cichlid tank. Right now my set up has fake plants.

My questions is: Is it okay for me to add in live plants in there? I don't like the way fake plants look anymore. If it's okay will it harm my fishes? Do i need to add in any special chemicals for the plants to grow?
 
I don't know what the answer will be, but I'm hoping the answer will be yes, b/c that's exactly what I did. I haven't had any problems. In fact, it's been easier to keep my water where I need it since i did.
 
Adding live plants will be fine, but the plants will not likely be left alone by SA/CA cichlids. Adding plants will cause certain parameters to drop, as the plants use those nutrients for growth. There are no 'chemicals' that you need to add, but you may find you will need fertilizers to aid in growth.
 
Adding live plants is fine. But many cichlids love to destroy and dig up plants, so your efforts could go to waste.
 
chemicals are the last thing you ever want to add to a fishtank

yer cichlids may force you to switch back to fake plants if they figure out that destroying plants is fun... cheap tough plants like water wisteria would be my suggestion... as long as you keep it wet it grows.. planted is best and makes it grow faster but floating is fine.. you can break the stock and tear the leaves off and it just keeps growing... if it starts to look a lil weak throw it in a bowl with a spoonful of sugar and place it by a window for a day or 3 and it will be twice as strong....
 
thaanks for all the replies guys, appreciate it.

live plants don't need any special soil? Right now i have ordinary gravel in my tank? What kind of plants can grow in gravel?
 
some plants benefit from a more specialized substrate, but most do just fine with a plain gravel substrate. If you are thinking about adding plants, a way to get the roots established a lot faster is to add a "root tab" around the bases of some of the plants. These are just compacted fertilzer that will, in time, release ferts right around the base of the plant. I don't use these except when started up a planted tank, just lets it go a little faster.
 
my gf insisted on florite ($20 for a 15lb bag x 5 bags) for our 55.... it looks nice but the plants in the hospital tank thats near a window look a lot better, grow a lot faster and it has some "red fishtank gravel" that was like $6 for a 20lb bag...

so... no... you dont need fancy gravel (i can feel people on the planted tank forum punching their computers and screaming "LIAR")... as long as they are aquatic plants they will grow... bamboo is not a true aquatic plant.. it looks nice but you have to do some work to keep it alive so i would not suggest it

most lfs sell plants in lil plastic pots... if they are solid pots cut the bottoms off.. if they are the slotted pots just plant the whole thing pot and all.. this will help anchor it and protect some of the roots from your cichlids if they decide they want to beat on them..

if you were setting up a quiet planted tank i would tell you to take the pots and media off but in your case i suggest leaving them on.. with time if yer fish leave the plants alone i would go ahead and pull the pots off but once they have been in there that long that might take some work since the roots will grow through the slots... so forget all that and dont worry about it
 
paulz01;1860798; said:
thaanks for all the replies guys, appreciate it.

live plants don't need any special soil? Right now i have ordinary gravel in my tank? What kind of plants can grow in gravel?
Click to expand...
You could try a species of anubias such as barteri or lanceolata they are very hardy plants, that don't require any special substrate such as laterite.As mentioned your cichlids may dig them up though .lol.
 
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