Risking changing to live plants

[Noviceafter2yea]

Currently I have an established 20 gallon freshwater. It is inhabited by 2 platy (1 male, 1 female...other female just died), 2 julii cories (yes, I will be adding 3 more), 3 bleeding hear tetras (apparently need to add more as well), 1 Molly, 1 male guppie.

10 fish currently, should add 3 more, but don't want to overstock.

Ammonia and N2 are 0. N3 is high at 20, Ph 7.9, 79 farhenheit

Currently I have a bunch of fake plants, an "abandoned house" ornament, and a fake hollow log.

I would like to start adding real plants. I believe the light is a full spectrum T8. My filter came with the tank and is a top fin 20. I do not have an airstone in this tank.

Any suggestions for the 20? How do I QT the plants before actually adding them to the tank and am I only supposed to buy them from a tank that is devoted exclusively to plants?


Next: starting to cycle a 14 gallon. Filled with water today and used the bio bag from my established tank (I had two in there so I replaced one with a new pad while keeping the other used one in there).

The tank is an Aqueon. The lights kind of suck, I think. One of the 2 actually didn't work during my set up (tank bought off Craigslist, but new, in sealed package as were all accessories). Each bulb is 15W T10 120V whatever that means.

As of now, the tank is empty of fish. I put a piece of mowpani wood in which I has already been soaked.

It has been suggested I get neons - blue and green, rasporas (spelling?), and a blue ram I think - I asked for advice for "bright, glowy fish).

I have two batches of fry. The 7 week old group of 10 is currently in my QT. The newborn batch of 12 is in a makeshift 1 gallon with bubbler. I am desperately trying to many of them away, but am not having luck.

Therefore, between the two tanks, I have to plan on at least adding 7 platy fry to be safe. If I have to, I will get yet another 5 gallon QT to use as the QT in case I have to house the remaining fry until I can re home them.

All suggestions would be helpful. In the past, I tried adding a live plant, but I was really new and I don't even think I knew that I was supposed to cycle the tank - needless to say, there was white fluff everywhere.

Thanks for reading the long post.

 

[Fishperson]

You can dip the plants in 1:2 water to hydrogen peroxide. That will kill any pests.

Be careful about stocking that 20 gallon. You'll end up very highly stocked, almost overstocked.

For the 14 a blue ram, in my opinion, would need more room. A Honey Gourami would be really nice though.

I can give more plant advice too if you need it. Do you have any plans about lighting or how technical you want to get yet?

 

[Noviceafter2yea]

You can dip the plants in 1:2 water to hydrogen peroxide. That will kill any pests.

Be careful about stocking that 20 gallon. You'll end up very highly stocked, almost overstocked.

For the 14 a blue ram, in my opinion, would need more room. A Honey Gourami would be really nice though.

I can give more plant advice too if you need it. Do you have any plans about lighting or how technical you want to get yet?

I don't want to get too technical, but one person mentioned something about the T8 light and from what I understood from that was 1 was not enough. What would be the minimum lighting wattage be? Like I said, I don't want to get too technical. With all these fish that I currently have and the ones I would really like to have, ideally, getting a larger tank would have been my preference. But, finances and urgenceny compelled me to split it up between the 2 tanks.

Where I live, craigslist does not have any affordable options - I know in other locations, it is a source of a plethora of items. I did find a brand new 14 gallon starter kit that I felt would be a good compromise. The other things would have cost nearly as much as a new 40 gallon tank which was out of my range. For example - I did not realize how expensive a hood alone costs.

Sorry, I totally got off topic. So I have to keep money in mind as well as a very deficient technical knowledge.

I definitely don't want to put any fish in a tank that is too small, so I appreciate the information on the ram.

In your opinion, am I taking on too much trying to add live plants at this time? I have a bunch of fakies, but it still looks sparse to me. Maybe I am best off adding more of those so as not to throw off the balance of the tank.

If, for some reason you think I should get live plants, the water to peroxide ratio - what amount in total would I be using? Is it a shallow amount that I turn over or one big dip?

Thanks for your time. I really appreciate it!

 

[FishCr8zy]

I would definitely go for some live plants. Fake ones just look terrible in tanks (IMO). A single T8 can probably sustain the easiest of plants like anubias, java fern, and java moss. However, you most likely want to have a wider range of plant varieties to choose from. If you upgraded to a single T5 HO or the Finnex Planted+, they will be between low-med light range and will allow to you grow most low light plants.
For the dip, I just dip the whole plant in, wait for a few seconds, pull it out and rinse it off. For whatever amount of hydrogen peroxide you use, use twice as much water.


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