Planted aquarium for the incredibly lazy?

[MartinBlank]

Just being honest here (and before anybody freaks out, I do 30% water changes / cleanings every week.. not that lazy)....

So.... 75 gallon fresh water, pool filter sand substrate at about 3-4 inches...

If I got the appropriate range of lighting are there any plants I could think about that would not need any ferts or CO2 setups?

Thanks!

 

[Andrewz00]

i have a 90 gal... gravel substrate... no ferts no co2... occasionaly i add Seachem flourish excel...


lighting:
Hagen T5HO 48" with 2 Life-Glo 6700K bulbs 6hrs on 18hrs off (on 6pm - midnight)

Plants:
Octopus Plant (Isoetes lacustris)
Crypt Wendtii
micro swords
crypt spiralis
Sagittaria


i cant remember the names of the rest.. but all are doing pretty well.

 

[MartinBlank]

Ok, another question born from ignorance:

So you only have your tank lit for 6 hours per day? I currently do 10 hours and don't think I would really want to cut that down all the way to 6 hours. I guess that would be fine during the week, but on weekends...

You keep your lights off to try and avoid algae / green water? Or to keep your plants from going crazy?

 

[Andrewz00]

Yup tank is only lit for 6hrs...and yes to avoid algae....

do you have algae growth in your tank now? what type of lighting do you currently have?

there are some people here that run two different time schedules... one for during the week and another for the weekend.

 

[MartinBlank]

The tank is in the basement so gets 0 sunlight and haven't had any algae issues yet (my 10 gallon upstairs that sits in our living room is another story but I digress). My current light is a standard fluorescent bulb.

I was already planning on replacing my 48 inch single bulb fixture with a double bulb shop light... if I decided to do plants then would be the time to buy the appropriate bulbs

 

[BigJim]

Andrew has pretty potent lights. Keeping them on for a short period helps avoid algae.

If you can keep your lights on for 10 hours a day with no plants and no algae, your tank is most likely suited for low-light plants. If you really want to be lazy, get rhizome plants like anubias and java ferns. Rhizome plants grow slowly and don't need to be trimmed.

 

[MartinBlank]

Ok, so probably just stick with stock fluorescent bulbs for the low light plants?

 

[BigJim]

Start with those and upgrade later if you have to.

 

[Andrewz00]

another factor you should consider (i think) is the height of the plants you are looking to get... taller plants are closer to the surface and receive stronger/more light then say foreground shorter plants.

But im sure a few ppl here can certainly put forward a few recommendations on low-light plants for a good starting point and you can always upgrade the lights at a later time the more adventurous you become.

 

[marchmaxima]

Yeah keep the standard fluorescent blubs. With the ferts, all plants need some food source so you are unlikely to get away with nothing at all particularly if you have a gravel/stone substrate which contains no nutrients. That said, as mentioned by others if you stick with plants like Anubis and Java fern and other low-light plants you might only need to dose micro ferz and that can be done weekly after you do a water change.

Here is a list of plants for low light tanks. Check them out.

 

[MartinBlank]

Yeah keep the standard fluorescent blubs. With the ferts, all plants need some food source so you are unlikely to get away with nothing at all particularly if you have a gravel/stone substrate which contains no nutrients. That said, as mentioned by others if you stick with plants like Anubis and Java fern and other low-light plants you might only need to dose micro ferz and that can be done weekly after you do a water change.

Here is a list of plants for low light tanks. Check them out.

So what you are saying is that in your opinion there is not a plant out there that can be done with 0 fertz or CO2?

What are micro ferz?

 

[FishEggs]

a 2 light t8 shop fixture should suffice for low maintenance low light plants. you would want to get daylight spectrum bulbs for it. i currently have 60 watts t12 over my 75 gal tank and i'm growing java fern, an amazon sword, anacharis, guppy grass, crypts, java moss, jungle vals and asian ambulia. the amazon sword grew large but i dont think it has quite enough light since it isnt as full bushy as it was in another tank. the leaves are dying of slowly. i have a mineralized soil with pool filter sand over top for substrate.

 

[ChizerBunoi]

30% is not lazy. I only change about 10%. When I was super lazy, I switched to the Walstad method. Mineralized top soil, no water changes, only a small bio-load of fish and a powerhead to circulate the water.

You can find more from Diana Walstads book called "ECOLOGY of the PLANTED AQUARIUM - A Practical Manual and Scientific Treatise for the Home Aquarist".

You still have to feed the fish and prune the plants back. I have tried this before and it works great. However, it is not the easiest method to start with if you are new to plants and fish.

 

[mudraker]

Frankly, java fern, java moss and most crypts do just fine with any kind of substrate, lowlight and zero ferts or co2. I have two aquariums thus stocked and maintained and they've been going strong for over 2 years.

You can always go more high tech and more complicated, but there is nothing wrong with a simple lowlight planted aquarium.

You might not even really be lazy, just would prefer to watch your aquarium more than mess with it :0

 

[MartinBlank]

I was never trying to avoid doing water changes Sorry if I was giving that impression Basically I was just wondering if there were types of plants that I could go with without having to do a lot of research on proper lighting, ferts and getting a CO2 unit going....

It appears that opinions vary on the subject, but I have gotten enough positive feedback that I might try buying a few plants and see how it goes

 

[ChizerBunoi]

I realized that. Just felt like sharing some of my lazy moments with everyone.

Good luck with the plants.

 

[MartinBlank]

I am assuming more porous rock is better to attach it to vs smooth river rock? Or will smooth river rock work?

Thanks!

 

[BigJim]

It's easier to attach plants to porous rock, but they should grab into smooth rock eventually too.

 

[marchmaxima]

So what you are saying is that in your opinion there is not a plant out there that can be done with 0 fertz or CO2?

What are micro ferz?

The fact is that all plants, and living things need food. However, the water that gets into your tank might already have some nutrients in it. Micro fertilisers are fertilisers that contain elements such as iron, manganese, zinc, copper, nitrogen (and others) that your plants need to survive. Some of these will be in your water but the amount of each trace element varies on a whole range of factors. E.g. Where you live, how your water is treated, etc.

Sometimes you can get away with adding nothing. Most people I talk to have to add a little fertiliser occasionally. There are plenty of plants that you can have without having to inject CO2. Anything in the 'low-light' category I posted earlier don't require CO2 injection and would be fine given your current lighting. A small bottle of Seachem Flourish will not go astray if you find your plants struggle. This is an example of a good micro (or trace) fertiliser.

Seachem. Flourish

 

[jsoong]

No plants can survive with zero ferts or CO2.... BUT ....
There is CO2 in the air, and ferts comes in the form of fish poop.

So a better question would be:
Which plant can live in low light without ADDED CO2 or ferts?

For a stock light setup, my answer would be:
Java fern, Java moss, Anubias & maybe crypts.

For slightly more light (say 2 t8's over your tank), you have a much wider range of plants to choose from.