Newbie needs help getting started with plants...

[g_adams27]

Hello! My wife and I would like to get some plants for our 55 gallon tank (which has been running for about 2 weeks now, still just occupied by 5 "starter" fish, mostly zebra danios).

Problem is, I don't really know anything about plants. We've had some before in our smaller tanks (some floating variety, couldn't even tell you what it is) which we've either left floating, or wrapped plant sinkers to and embedded within the gravel to make something a little nicer looking.

We're not terribly picky about which plants we get, though we'd prefer those that are hardy and easy to take care of smile

So, what's the best way to get started? I guess in particular, I'm wondering...

• Do we need to have some sort of "bedding" (substrate, I guess?) besides just gravel? Or are there plants whose roots can just be buried in gravel and be fine, maybe weighted down with sinkers like we used to do?
  
• Should we introduce plants into the tank gradually, or is it OK to buy a bunch at a time and put them in? (since shipping costs online generally are the same whether it's 1 plant or 30 plants)
  
• Is there a list of generally accepted "beginner" plants that doesn't require me to, say, read through a list of hundreds of plants trying to decide among them?
  
• Will your typical home aquarium fish (danios, plattys, tetras, mollies, cories, etc.) like the tank better with nearly-wall-to-wall plants, or with a few plants spread out sparsely in the tank?
  
• And finally, are these all things we need to sort out right now before we begin stocking the aquarium with (non-starter) fish, or can we change our minds, try different things, etc. as we go along?

Thanks to anyone who can help!

 

[Wood_Dog]

Sort it out now. Always best to know where you're going and plan for that, otherwise things can get out of control and money gets wasted. It sounds like you want a fairly low maintanence tank. Some others here will give you better advice than me, but you'll need to consider lighting and how much time and money you want to spend on the tank, along with the points you have mentioned. There are heaps of plants that will be happy in gravel....so thats the minimum requirement. If you see yourself getting further involved and wanting to take it to the next level later it may be worth considering a substrate like eco complete that will allow you to do that. You can add as many plants as you want to right now, assuming your water is not way out of wack. Your fish will love the plants....but make sure you choose plant friendly fish cos some fish will just eat them and rip them up.
I'll leave it to the experts to advise you on what plants to start with. Have fun and good luck

 

[Purrbox]

First off. Read the stickies if you haven't dones so already. If you have, read them again. There is a ton of great information in them including answers to many of your questions. If there's still something that doesn't make sense after reading the stickies, go ahead and ask and we'll help you get it clarified.

Also the search engine is your friend. You'd be surprised how many times before the same questions have been asked.

More than likely, you just have standard lighting on your tank which for a 55 gallon is 40 watts. This would be considered very low light. You do have a few plant options, but most will just survive under this lighting and won't be doing much else. I'm guessing that the plant you kept before was Anacharis.

It's always easier to set things up the way they need to be from the start than to have to tear apart the tank to change something later. Further it's usually less expensive to set everything up the best way from the beginning rather than having to replace lots of equipment later on.

1. As long as the gravel is fairly fine grained and isn't sharp it will be fine for plants. You may want to supplement it with root tabs, especially near any heavy root feeders.

2. It's best to plant heavily from the beginning. With a larger plant mass it's easier to avoid algae. Of course saving on shipping doesn't hurt either. It's also a good idea to check out the Barter/Trade section. Many members will give away their trimming for the cost of shipping or less. This is a great way to get started.

3. If you stick with your current lighting, your choices will be limited to Anubias, Java Fern, Java Moss, most Crypts, and Anacharis. There are several varieties of several of these, so it's not quite as limiting as it sounds. These are all great beginner plants and fairly hardy. Check out Plant Guide at PlantGeek which has pictures of the many varieties that are out there. Some of the specific varieties are much harder to find than others, but it will give you an idea of your option.

4. The fish that you have listed should be fine with plants and will enjoy however many you give them as long as you make sure to leave some room for them to swim.

5. It's best to plant heavily before you fully stock your tank. Since the plants will act as part of your bio filter, they will help make the tank safer for your fish.

Here's a couple articles that you might find helpful in addition to the stickies at the top of the forum.
So You Want a Planted Aquarium - Purrbox
Low Light Low Tech Tanks - Steve Hampton

Oh, and welcome to AA!

 

[JustOneMore20]

You've been given some great info above.

I'll just pipe in and give you a few plant websites to check out:
AquariumPlants.com
AquaticPlantDepot

Those are the sites I buy from. The second one has alot of common plants like anubias, crypts, and java ferns and they have really good prices. Shipping is $10 no matter how much you order....so saves some money, especially if they are your first plants.

Definitely read up on the stickies and the articles Purrbox gave you. That will save you alot of money in the end. Plan out the plants you want and where you want to put them. I usually plan out my plant placement for weeks before I actually order. That way when I do order I'll know where everything goes.

You can check out some rocks and driftwood for the tank to plant around. Your LFS should have some driftwood.

Check out the Aquascaping forum and the Freshwater Show Off forum for pictures of people's planted tanks...it will give you some inspiration (it does me!).

Welcome to AA!

 

[travis simonson]

I couldn't have said it any better than Purrbox. In fact I probably would have been much less eloquent

As she says, your main concern, should you wish to successfully keep a nice planted tank, is lighting. 40 watts in a 55 gallon tank is barely enough light to keep even the least demanding plants. Consider upgrading your lighting to at least one watt per gallon (55 watts), preferably more (~75-100 watts). Light should be your first concern when considering a planted tank. Beyond that, the options begin to quickly multiply. As Purrbox said, read the stickies on this forum,; they are an incredible resource.

There are many plants that can be easily grown if you can provide them with the basic necessities. And if you ever have any questions don't hesitate to ask

 

[g_adams27]

Thanks for all the great advice! I've got the various plant articles and guides pulled up, and I'm going to get started doing my homework.

One followup question on lighting:

I tried reading a bit about it over the weekend, but quickly realized that it seems to be a rather complex subject. I caught on quickly that a 40W bulb for a 55g tank is pretty low, but I got confused about what I could do about it.

If I understand it right, 40W is the "normal" output for a 48" bulb. If I was to get a high-output or very-high-output bulb, I could get up to 110W for a 48" bulb.

"Ok, maybe I should just do that", I thought. But not so fast - another site seemed to indicate that I couldn't simply buy a VHO bulb for my existing hood, plug it in, and have everything work. The ballasts (said the site) would almost certainly be wrong for the VHO bulb, and would either have to be replaced, or a new hood would have to be bought.

Now, this is a very old 55g tank with thick glass and no center support, so my options of hoods are very limited. (We only found one, after a few weeks of looking, that would still work with this style tank.) So if it's really true that I can't get a VHO bulb without getting a new hood or new ballasts, I'm probably (sadly) just going to have to be reconciled to having plants that will never grow extremely well.

So is what I read correct?

 

[Tong]

You still have options for more lighting. Obviously you can do more than one of them at a time. They include:

1. Replace your T12 bulb with a T8 bulb. T8 bulbs use less electricity and are brighter. This will only add a little more light but is probably the easiest thing you can do.

2. Add CO2 via a pressurized system or a DIY system. Yes its not light, but having an abundance of CO2 around will help plants focus on getting stuff that is not available in abundance...namely light. DIY CO2 is not really hard. Search for directions.

3. Overdrive your single bulb. Search for overdriving bulbs or ODNO (OverDriven Normal Output). At 4x overdrive, this can double the light produced from your single bulb. You will have to buy a new ballast and you will have to mess with wiring.

4. Buy and replace your ballast and bulb with a VHO ballast and a VHO bulb. Not really recommended and I really don't know much about them.

5. Buying a AH Supply retrofit kit. These can be found [url = http://www.ahsupply.com/36-55w.htm]here[/url]. I'm not familiar with these so someone else can fill you in on the details.

6. Build your own hood. Probably the most difficult of all the options, but IMO, still not really that hard. And there are a lot of good, easy plans available out on the net. This is my favorite option as you can get whatever light levels you want.

 

[JustOneMore20]

You can get a glass top like this one. The All-Glass brand 48" top is for an older style 55g.

And for lighting, I have this fixture...the 48" 130w fixture, which allows me to grow medium and low light plants...maybe a few high light if you add CO2. It gives me 2.4 watts per gallon, which is perfect and gives you a good selection of plants to choose from.

I recommend you get the mounting legs if you get the Coralife fixture. It makes the fixture sit a few inches above the glass which really helps if you are moving things around in the tank. Get the adjustable ones if you like (I was cheap and just got the regular ones).

You can buy retrofit kits like the ones from AH Supply that should fit into your existing fixture. You can get the 2x55w kit which will give you 2 watts per gallon. Its really up to you. I just bought a new fixture for my 55g because I'm not handy and know nothing about electrician stuff....so I couldn't install the retrofit kit. Read up on the Ah Supply website for more info on the kits.