hello peeps, im doing a display tank(planted)and was wondering what kind of plant to use for a thick green carpeting across the bottom of the tank,moss or like mondo grass,I am not familar with plants yet but im geting more into it,I would like what I use to be a thick covering on the bottom of the front of the tank but also dont want anything that will get too tall and cover up my retaining wall I built of rock,any suggestions? or expereinced planted tankers? what ya think?
question?????
- Thread starter KING OZ
- Start date
Are you doing a high light CO2 injected tank? If so i would go with Glossostigma elatinoides, or if you want more of a grassy look, Eleocharis acicularis.
well I was'nt planning on co2 just yet just a powerful light and good gravel,I currentlly have a planted tank set up like this and it hasnt giving me any problems yet,im going with the k.i.s.s method,do you think I will need to run co2,I have heard differant take on it ,but I must say,the keep it simple method is working for my other tank,is there a good place to get plants on the net?vanimate;550425; said:
Plenty of good places. I like Aquarium Plants, Aqua Botanic, and have recently bought from Aquadise, whose site is under construction, you can find him occassionally on Aquabid, and ebay. Aquadise has some awesome plants.
i like Marsilea quadrifolia (aquatic clover) and Marsilea minuta (aquatic clover). have a look at this http://www.aquabotanic.com/gallery.htm and scroll down the galleries, might help give you ideas.
WOW thats what im looking for! do you think I can acheive this look with out running co2? one of my buddies just bought that expensive co2 injector out of dr.fosters and smith,and dam near killed all his discus in his 150 gallon 2 days later,do you guys think it had to do with the co2 or just chance? also davo, I noticed theres no L025 on your pleco list,why not? what you think of the scarlets? we have a fairly nice one at the shop,I took some pics last week,and will post that bad boy up for you when I get a chance to load the pics up,its sooo sweet,also whats your favorite pleco for the planted tank?davo;551142; said:
You could acheive this without co2, but it will cost you more in the long run. You will have to buy 10 times the plants, and they will not grow as fast, nor as full without the co2. As to the CO2 nearly killing his discus, he probably had it set to put out too much co2. Also with plants you should turn off the co2 at night as the plants will respire (use O2, and put out co2), which will be very demanding, and if you don't have an air pump, or enough surface agitation it can kill very easily. If you get the semi-automatic co2, that is not nearly as expensive, and you can also get by without buying the reactor, and bubble counter. Check out Rex griggs site, he has some great DIY stuff, and I just built a CO2 reactor for my 135, which I will post up pics of later today. A pH controller is really helpful, but they are expensive, and if you can spend the extra time, you can hold off on them for a few months. The milwaukee 122 is a cheaper model that can be found for as little as 87.99.
man he had it all,well he still has but is scared to use it,he has the bubble counter, reactor, and ph controller,how stable is it if you go diy,I need to learn so much more I just dont want to get in over my head like the discus geek,and kill any fish , but I dont have to put fish in it but what kinda tank has no fishWyldFya;551376; said:
With all that stuff, you shouldn't have to worry about killing your fish. Just make sure the solenoid (attached to the regulator) is plugged into a timer. DiY is no less stable, or more stable, just cheaper. For bubble counters all you need is an air tight small container, two holes in the top, one with rigid tubing below the water in the container, and you have a bubble counter. The reactors are easy to, but if he has them, and you can get them, go for it. Make sure you have a test kit that can test for KH (carbonate hardness), this will help you check you co2 levels.
KING OZ;551355; said:
well ive never had a problem growing the plants, but ive always had reasonably high nitrates due to all the plecos i keep. however at the hight of my plant keeping period, i unfortunately kept plecos that thought id grown them a tasty snack, and eventually gave up, although have a new pleco tank in which i am going to try and breed the L260s which i plan to furnish with some kind of carpet type vegetation, but not a grass, a bit like the "underwater clovers" some java furn and moss on and poking out the large bogwood i have, and then some floating plants, preferably limnobium laevigatum and against black gravel, should look good.
well, at the moment i don't have room for any bigger plecos like the L025, although a beautiful looking fish (some of the specimens from the sao felix looks awesome), but i'm sure it'll be added to the long list of plecos i have kept at some time or another. make sure you post a pic.
favourite plecos for a planted tank... well on my experience, anything that is more carnivorous than herbivorous lol. well depends on tank size, but some of the rubbernose sp. are cool, i like many of the Hypancistrus species- to be honest there are too many to name. it also depends on the substrate you have, some plecos look best on dark substrate, some on light so thats got to be taken into consideration.