looking for planted tank low maintenance advice

[brokenarrowjbe]

Hello , I Have recently been gifted with an aquarium, coralife 29 gallon. Tried putting plants in it but ended up with snail infestation and the plants were literally eaten in a short time. Now have a green algae that needs to be scraped off to control, and about 10 assorted fishes. Couple of plecos, 4 marbled hatchet fish, 8 0r 10 tetra's. Also have a 20 gallon half moon shaped tank, has nothing in it but substrate. looking for plants that will survive till I am more experienced.Thanks for any advice. John

 

[librarygirl]

Hi and welcome to AA! I am going to move your post to our planted section; you should get more help there.

 

[Aquamandan]

Welcome Brokenarrow!

I prefer water wisteria and java fern, they are easy to maintain and grow nicely without overtaking your aquarium.

Good luck!

 

[Rivercats]

First off what type lighting and bulbs are you using? How long are you leaving the lights on daily? Can you post a picture of the algae? If you cut your lighting back to 6 hours daily this will help reduce or eliminate your algae. Do you know your nitrate reading? Also how often do you do WC's and how much do you change when you do them?

Assuming you have low light you can start with a couple easy plants like Anubia or Java Fern. Then depending on your light there might be a couple other easy plants you could use.

 

[brokenarrowjbe]

Coralife 29g biocube, changed pump out as it was to much for fresh water, change out 5 gallons/wk and was not using lights due to algae. Now have a marineland 20g that is half moon shape, has whatever LED lights come with it. Still cycling it, using caribsea ecco complete for substrate. LFS did not have the best looking plants.

 

[Rivercats]

That is going to be low light so plants will be limited. Also what is your nitrate reading? I suggest changing out 40-50% of your water weekly to keep nutrient low. You can add some water sprite or wisteria which is good for absorbing nitrates and "maybe" Jungle Val. Otherwise anubia's, crypts, and java fern's and perhaps java moss would be about all that would work. But remember in low light your plants are going to grow slow. Also put your lights on a timer to run 6 hours only.