RyanBenson
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Which plants are best for a freshwater 55 gallon tank?? I started my fishless cycle today.
Which plants are best for a freshwater 55 gallon tank?? I started my fishless cycle today.
What type of lighting do you have, substrate, future stock plans, co2? We need a little bit more info before we can give you suggestions.
Here are my top three favorite and beneficial
Anacharis
Anubius
Amazon sword plant
Ok, my stock plans
1 rainbow shark
1-2 angel fish
2-3 black kuhli loaches
2-3 otocinclus
6 tiger barbs
1 bristle nose pleco
Substrate: sand. Pic of bag below.
co2: I have 2 bubble wands and a scuba diver bubbler. Pic below.
And lighting: 2 fluorescent bulbs. Pic below.
Okay for starters your bubble wands are not co2 they give oxygen. Co2 can either be added using a pressurized or diy system. Happily its not required in most tanks. You have rather low lighting so I would stick to crypts, vals, anubias, anarchis.
The classifieds here usually has different plants for sale. Aqua bid is good as well.
Java fern, java moss, and anubias are extremely easy plants that'd do fine in your tank. The best part about them is you just tie them to decor or driftwood and eventually they just root directly onto them (they're not meant to be fully buried). If you do a few google image searches on them you can see how full and bushy they can become (albeit slowly under low lighting). Also, the anubias and java fern come in several different variations (big leaves, small leaves, different shaped leaves, frilly leaves, etc) to give your tank a little variation. These plants are fairly common and can often be found in AA's classified section or on a number of sites online.
That's fine ,but don't buy it from their. You can find plants much cheaper other places. Try aquabid, aquariummplants.com, like another guy said petsmart has a few different kinds of anubias, amazon swords, and java fern.
This so from aquariumplants.com, look like a good group??
I get my plants from there, very quality plants. Question for you. Are you trying for a heavily planted tank or just a few plants because if you're looking for just a few I wouldn't order online because shipping will be about 17.00. You would be better off getting from a fish store if you're going light. If you're going heavy it takes more plants than you think to fill up a 55. I have about 10 different anubias, a java fern mat, a crypt and 3 amazon swords,along with floating brazilian pennywort. So my order was about 88.00 with 17 shipping ,so it was worth it.
There is a few online plant retailers that charge honest shipping prices, you just have to dig a little bit.
I really would try some low demand stem plants like cabomba, bacopa, etc also since you get a lot more for your money vs ferns and anubias.