Plant Recommendations?

[Ndwatkins]

We're thinking about putting live plants in our 55-gallon tank at some point, and I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations. Is soil an absolute necessity, or will gravel work? And does anyone know if plants will be okay with gouramis and African leaf fish?

Thanks!

 

[zach_1_6]

im not sure on the african leaf fish, but plants should do fine in soil or gravel. make sure to give them lots of light. if your not very experienced with plants, stick with plants with broad leaves. also stay away from plants with little lead coils or stringes holding them together at the bottom or your tank will be a mess. trust me, i spent 10 minutes a day cleaning out dead leaves or replanting some. other then that it should all be fine hope you have fun.

 

[Jason7894561230]

Swords, Vals, Anubias are all great plants for low light plants and grow relitivly slowly

 

[FishEggs]

it mostly depends on the light you have. you probably have the stock lighting over your tank which is low light in terms of planted tanks. you will want to check/change the bulb to make sure you have a daylight or plant grow spectrum bulb. then stick to low light type plants. some of them would be any of the anubias, anacharis, java fern, java moss, and any of the cryptocoryne.
if you wanted to add some more light to the tank you have a bit more options.

 

[mgamer20o0]

anubias java ferns moss great plants you dont need substrate also low light. you dont need a special substrate for plants for the most part. like fisheggs said it really depends on what your lighting is. i would at least get a dual bulb shop light though if you really want to get into plants i would look into getting a t5 fixture.

 

[fort384]

I will echo most of the above sentiment: It all depends on your lighting. Most stock aquarium light fixtures are insufficient for growing live plants. There are a few exceptions. Check out plantgeek.net to get some ideas on some low light plants. A word of caution: Pay particular attention to the non-aquatic plants section on that website. Many of the big chain pet stores sell non-aquatic plants that are labeled as "aquatic". These plants will eventually rot and die in your tank, regardless of your lighting.

Also, if you decide you see plants that you may want to grow and decide to upgrade your lighting, keep in mind that fertilizer dosing becomes necessary when you cross a certain lighting threshold.