My green thumb evades me underwater

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K

Keeper of the Ropes

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 29, 2006
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I've tried. I truly have. I can't count the times I've bought plants, buried them, then tossed them out months later when they died. I can do it OUT of water - my roses blossom nonstop and I can save just about anything in a pot, no matter how bad it looks. But aquarium plants and I just don't work well together. I know it's my fault - I have no idea what I'm doing. The only plants I can pull off are anarchis (the stuff went nuts... ) and java fern... but I want to learn what I'm doing so I can make these plants grow. I'm not interested in trying to find rare plants - as long as it's green and healthy (tall is good too!) I'm a happy girl. So, plantgrowers of MFK... if you could give a person one piece of advice, what would it be?

(I HAVE already learned to ditch the gravel and not try plants with convicts and to ditch plecos... which means I have 7 tanks left to try to successfully pull off aquascaping in - though I'd like to add that anything I do in my tanks *MUST* be bichir compatible).
 
Need a little info first:

What kind of lighting do you have?
How many watts?
What kind of substrate?
What fish are in there?

(just pick one of the 7 tanks for now, and we'll go from there)

Do you know the names of the plants you've had die?
It could be that you are initially picking plants that are hard to grow, or ones that are terrestrial... and eventually rot/die away anyway.
 
From the sounds of it, I would guess you aren't running much light over the tank. Also evercl's questions are very important.

FYI plecos and plants work fine. I have a planted tank currently with 1 royal and 1 bruno, and one ornate bichir. I have also had several convicts in the tank. All you have to do is get the plants to a healthy stage, where they are rooted well and the fish kept in the tank will not be a problem. In general for a really nice planted tank, it is recommendable to put the plants in first, and let them get established for a few days at the least, and then the more plant disturbing fish.
 
I just wanted to jump in and say for me it was the exact opposite! I killed every houseplant I got ahold of, but had no problems with aquatic gardening. Only after I learned how to care for aquarium plants, did the terrestrial thing click for me! Guess I'm just a water baby.

Sorry to divert the thread. But I think it's probably a lighting issue, too, as well as your fish digging or tearing them up.
 
I'm not too picky about the looks of most of the tanks, excluding two, a 55g in my bedroom and a 29g in the living room.

Let's work with the 55g - It's just finished cycling and isn't very stocked yet.

Lighting... Whatever it came with. I tried AquaGlo 15W (found it at Petsmart lol) in my other tank but I didn't see any differences. Probably need something else.

Substrate is black sand... and I used some type of planting media when I set it up. Can't remember the name, but it was a bunch of redish pebbles. Came in a box, yellow and green I think.

The fish will be bichirs, ranging anywhere from 4 inches to 15 inches (I occasionally have to move fish around if I have aggression problems). This tank is INTENDED for 7 to 9 inchers though. Might also have a stray angel swimming around.

I eliminated the plecos because I watched a common pleco destroy a leaf on a sword plant once... and I read an article in the Foster & Smith catalog saying they weren't recommended. Either way they aren't safe for bichir keeping because they have a knack for sucking on the slime coat of the fish.

I've managed to kill more Amazon Swords, Anubais, and Banana Plants than anyone ever should.
 
Banana plants are not permanent residents of the water. Definitely upgrade the lighting, a double strip PC hood would be recommended with 260w bringing you to 4.7 wpg. The substrate added was probably laterite. As to plecos attacking plants and eating them, it happens, but they won't be any problem I keep two big algae eaters in the 135 planted, and used to have 11 plecos in there. I also have had several plecos with my ornate bichir without a single problem in the 9 months I have had him.
 
WyldFya;566486; said:
Banana plants are not permanent residents of the water. Definitely upgrade the lighting, a double strip PC hood would be recommended with 260w bringing you to 4.7 wpg. The substrate added was probably laterite. As to plecos attacking plants and eating them, it happens, but they won't be any problem I keep two big algae eaters in the 135 planted, and used to have 11 plecos in there. I also have had several plecos with my ornate bichir without a single problem in the 9 months I have had him.
Click to expand...



Promise I'm not blond but uh... gotta ask anyway. PC hood?? 260w? (260 watt I'm assuming...) 4.7wpg?
 
oh WOW! I followed a link in another thread that went to a gallery of planted tank pictures. I didn't know it could look like that... absolutely breathtaking. My bichirs want that! What do I gotta do first? I'll go all out :) Is there an ideal size tank I should use for my first attempt at a *real* planted tank?
 
That's a beautiful tank :) I'd lose my bichirs in there, but they'd love every inch of it. I really had no idea that type of planting could be done... I have a 20 I could work with. As of today it has no fish in it... it's pretty bare. About 20 pounds of black sand, 2 white rocks and 2 small java ferns.
 
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