never tried live plants before

[nibor]

Feel free to link me if this is in another thread.

I have never bothered with live plants before and was wondering what I can get to give it a whirl. I plan on getting a moss ball as I think they are pretty cool, but I was wanting some other plant as well for my 10g.

My tank has gravel, which I read isn't good for most plants? I have an intank filter and it says not to use sandy substrates, so kind of plants can I do?

 

[Gboy66]

With regular lo lighting, java fern java moss and anubis. And some others too

 

[nibor]

I'll look into those. thanks

 

[jcolon]

It's going to depend on the lighting. Too little and your plants will not grow. What kind of lighting do you have currently? If it's stock lighting it's usually only good to look at fish ... not to support plants. You can start with low light plants check out the the link below. You can look to get a CFL bulb which would give you more than enough light for medium plants ... but note you may need to buy a new fixture. Your looking for a bulb temperature around 6500K with wattage around 10 - 20watts so your WPG is above 1.0.

An issue to consider is if you'll need to dose CO2. Generally higher light tanks (around 1.5 WPG and up) require it so plants grow well and to help combat algae.

As for substrate ... you could consider PFS .... it's a coarse enough sand to sink to the bottom, even when disturbed, but fine enough to give that sand look.

PlantGeek.net - Plant Guide

 

[nibor]

What is PFS? It won't muck up my filter?

 

[jcolon]

What is PFS? It won't muck up my filter?

Pool Filter Sand. Many members use it ... myself included. Unlike playsand ... it doesn't tend to cloud up the water when disturbed as it is coarse enough to just sink back to the bottom. I don't have an internal filter ... but I'm certain a member who does can offer additional advice.

***EDIT*** IMO about the only filter PFS probably wouldn't work with are under gravel filters.

 

[Gboy66]

Dosing co2 isnt absolutly necessary, just helps. Also look into ferts and root tabs

 

[FastFly67]

You can use gravel. It will work perfectly fine. All of my tanks are planted and I have some that are sand, some that are gravel. The only difference between the two that I've notices is obviously the look and I have a bit harder time planting individual stem plants in gravel but it can be done.

 

[marchmaxima]

I've used internal filters, hang on back filters and canister filters on tanks with pool sand.

Never had any issues at all with any of them.