interested in plants

[Chelseachuy]

i wanted to add a plant or to in my ten gallon. what is easiest to start with and on a low budget? do the fish benefit from the plants? i just want something to put in make it look nice and not have to worry about it!

 

[fort384]

The place to start with plants is with your lighting: What kind of lighting do you currently have? This will help us choose some plants that may be appropriate for your setup.

 

[Chelseachuy]

mmm not exactly sure the light came from a standard topfin petsmart setup. i don't think it is very good because its not like flourerescent.

Top Fin&#0174 10 Gallon Aquarium Starter Kit - Sale - Fish - PetSmart

this is the link if that helps

 

[fort384]

Ok, so it has the screw in incandescents. What I would suggest is replacing those with screw in compact florescents (those curly q lookin bulbs). This will give you usable light for your plants. Incandescent bulbs are next to worthless for plants, unfortunately.

If you were to do that, you could get away with growing a lot of low light plants like java moss, java fern, anubias, crypts, and several others.

Check out PlantGeek.net - Your Aquatic Plant Resource. It will allow you to sort by the lighting requirements, and you can look at pictures of plants you might be interested in.

It is important that you research what you want to buy first (much like you would with fish). There are a lot of non-aquatic plants out there that are often sold as aquatic (there is a link that shows the common ones in that category at plantgeek as well).

 

[Chelseachuy]

silly question where would i be able to get the bulbs. and does the lighting affect the fishes color? because this light is horrible!

 

[fort384]

The CFLs will be whiter, and I think generally will make the fish look nicer. You can usually get them about any hardware or big box store. Walmart, target, lowes, home depot, ace hardware.

Look for the ones that say "daylight" on them, or if you can find a color temperature on the package, you want a bulb that falls between 6500K and 10000K color temperature.

 

[Chelseachuy]

The CFLs will be whiter, and I think generally will make the fish look nicer. You can usually get them about any hardware or big box store. Walmart, target, lowes, home depot, ace hardware.

Look for the ones that say "daylight" on them, or if you can find a color temperature on the package, you want a bulb that falls between 6500K and 10000K color temperature.

cfls? whats that stand for

 

[fort384]

Compact fluorescents

 

[BigJim]

Daylight spectrum CFLs are a great way to upgrade the lighting on your tank. I've got a pair of 18W CFLs on both my 20L and my 29g and they're full of low-light plants.

As for plants, I'd also recommend java ferns, anubias, and crypts. Java ferns and anubias really should be attached to driftwood or rock to do well. Crypts can be planted shallowly in the substrate.