wanting to put some live plants in my tank

[supafreak]

i'v never had any live plants in my fish tanks, but i'm interested it giving it a try. Is there a particular type of lighting that i will need? Anything I should add to the water to help the plants grow? Any infromation would be great. It is a 25g tank with some neons, a barb, and a loach. Thanks

 

[SnyperP]

Java Ferns are really hardy plants. They look pretty sad the way most lfs' sell them...in bunchs that have 2 or 3 leafs per rhizome, but once they start going a few more leaves they look pretty good. Start with low light plants. Plantgeek.net is pretty good for looking up plants under specific categories (location, difficutly, light level, etc)

 

[Apocalypse_Gold]

Ditto on the java fern. They require very little work. My brother (hash_baz) says they are easier than fake plants because the roots grab onto the gravel so they never float. What lighting do you have now? The amount of light and fertilizer you need depends on how many plants you have. Large fast growing plants require more light. Then if you have a lot of light you may need fertilizer, a co2 system, a better paying job to buy all that stuff...

 

[hashbaz]

Have you read the "sticky" post by Rex Grigg. It is a great place to start. Like Apocalyse_Gold said, plants can be very expensive if you let them. Low-light plants are a lot less work and require less equipment, but I don't want to pay shipping and the only local place doesn't have a lot of low-light plants.

Post back with how much you want to spend and we can help a lot more.

 

[gheitman]

In addition to the Java ferns you should look at some of the Anubias and Cryptocorynes species. These generally do well in low light. For a more complete list of plants for low light conditions follow the link below.

http://www.plantgeek.net/plantguide_list.php?category=1&filter_by=2

 

[BASSNMAN]

I have had good luck with the bulbs sold by Petco and Walmart. They don't all sprout but they are cheap and you can send the bad ones back. I have been growing them in a 50 gal with regular gravel and a 40 watt light.

 

[gheitman]

I haven't bought any plant bulbs from Petco or Wal-Mart. I get my aquarium plants at my LFS. They generally have a pretty good selection although I will sometimes have to wait several months before they get in a particular species I want.