Live Plants - For a 45Gallon - Your Suggestions ?q

[Grant R]

Pretty much what it says on the tin really, I'm stepping up from an 11.1 gallon tank to a 45. Big move I know, but the bigger the better as far as I'm concerned !
The tank, may eventually be home to marine fish, but for the next year or so, it's staying freshwater.

I really want to get this tank looking as amazing as possible, wood, rock and live plants. I haven't got up to the chapter in my book about live plants yet, but from what I know already, they are a great benefit in comparison to artificial.

What I'm looking for is you're suggestions on which plants. Being a plant beginner, I'd like variety ( but not too much, two or three types of plants will be fine ) and some that won't be too difficult to keep. The tank will be of the community variety, loaches, sharks, guppies, mollies, platys and so on.

Please post you're thoughts, comments and experiences to a beginner with plants !!

 

[targaboy78]

Hi Grant,

It is all going to boil down to your own personal preferences, so with that in mind, here are my personal preferences.

- Cabomba
- Hornwort
- Anacharis
- Amazon Sword

Depending on the water hardness and the amount of light in your tank, some plants may be better suited than others.

Here's a couple of sites that may give you some ideas.
http://www.exotictropicals.com/encyclo/fresh/plants/plants.htm
http://www.fishindex.com/plants/

Hope this helps.

 

[Grant R]

Thanks for suggestions TargaBoy , noted !

Please keep you're suggestions coming in, as this is something I want to research in plenty of good time.

 

[Guest]

Here are a couple of sites that let you search for plants based on things like tank depth, temperature, light levels, difficulty, etc. Quite useful!

http://www.tropica.com/frameset_search.asp
http://www.disky-design.dk/fish/PlantSearch/PlantSearch.html
I had one more, but can't find the bookmark at the moment!

 

[targaboy78]

Hey stargurl,

Thanks alot for the Wicked links.

I've bookmarked them for future reference.

 

[Grant R]

Yep, many thanks StarGurl, very good and helpful links.

 

[Guest]

Here's the third link: http://aquaplant.org/

 

[EMS503]

Watch the mollies and platys with plants such as water sprites etc. (thin fine leaved plants) They love to munch on them.

 

[Wowzers]

I don't have anything against standard community aquariums, but have you looked into cichlids at all? I used to have community tanks, but I keep cichlids almost exclusively now. Some of the small West African riverine or dwarf South American cichlids are great in a planted tank. Just sharin' my appreciation of cichlids.

 

[EMS503]

Don't read things into posts that are not there. I have nothing against Cichlids, They are beautiful fish. But some not all will uproot plants.
As for research yes I have checked them out and SOME not all will and do uproot plants.

 

[Wowzers]

Don't read things into posts that are not there. I have nothing against Cichlids, They are beautiful fish. But some not all will uproot plants.
As for research yes I have checked them out and SOME not all will and do uproot plants.

Sorry for the confusion, I was talking to Grant R. I wasn't commenting on anyones post.