taking the plunge :-)

[AgilityIG]

I just got a really cool piece of driftwood yesterday and want to go with a more natural look for my 50 gallon. I want to start with some real plants. I have been reading all of your posts and the stickys and want to make sure I have things straight in my head

I have a 50 gallon - lights that came with the hoods. Fish are: Cory Cats, a Dwarf Gourami, Bosemani Rainbows and Otos. Substrate is PFS.

With the lighting I have, I can do java fern and java moss? What are a couple other common plants that I could use? I would need to get fertilizer also, correct? Which plants will need to be attatched to my driftwood and which ones can be put in the PFS? What should I expect to pay for live plants?

 

[Crepe]

You don't need fertilizers for stock lighting. You can also try anubias and anacharis. Stock lighting isn't very strong. Java fern and moss are cheap. I can get it a dollar per clump at my LFS.

 

[AgilityIG]

Thanks Crepe. So the lower the lighting, the less you need fertilizers?

I can just put these plants in and they will grow on their own (the fish will fertilize the, right?)

 

[Crepe]

Yes because a plants rate of consumption of nutrients is proportional the light it gets. Java fern and moss are not to be planted in the substrate;neither is anubias. They do best when their rhizome is being hit by light and is surround by water. Mount them to rock and wood.

 

[AgilityIG]

Got it.

What about Vals and Crypts and Anacharis? Do they need to be planted or attached to driftwood?

 

[Crepe]

They need to be planted in the substrate. Crypts will melt and regrow and it's almost impossible to prevent. Here is a good article on it.
Cryptocoryne Leaf Melt What happens if my cryptocoryne leaves rot away?

 

[DragonFish71]

If your stock lighting is just the plant/aquarium bulbs that puts off the purplish color you might want to go to Lowes, Ace, Home Depot or even Walmart and get a 6500K daylight bulb (or 2 if your lightstrip is a double) The plant/aquarium bulbs aren't the right spectrum for vals and crypts. Mine weren't doing well at all until I changed to the daylight bulbs. Even though in a few of our tanks, like our 55 and 29 the bulbs are low wattage, there was a big difference in how the plants are growing.

 

[AgilityIG]

I got three plants today. I got Java Moss - the guy that owns the LFS is so funny - he said he has not bought Java Moss in eighteen years - it just grows like crazy. I have a nice little handful that I split in to two chunks and attached to my driftwood. I also got an Anubias and a Moneywort (?) from PetSmart - our PetSmart here actually has really nice plants. They are nicer than the LFS (other than his Java Moss). The lady at PS said they were low on plants if I wanted to come back Tuesday - heck, I thought their stuff looked great. I am going to go back Tuesday and get more to fill things in a bit.

 

[timwag2001]

moneywort is the common name for bacopa monerii (i just guessed, i dont know how to spell monerii and i'm too lazy to open up another web page and check. even though i probably spent more time in writing this in parenthesis)

be carefull, you lucked out buying real aquatic plants at petsmart. do your homework on non aquatics before you go back