I am pretty new to the whole aquarium thing, but even newer to plants. I am pretty confident and prepared with the fish and cycling, but I never really had much of a green thumb, nor any botony classes in college.
I added five plants to my 30 gal tank at the same time I added 5 zebra danios to begin cycling my tank (after having it prep for a week with just water). I got two Anacharis plants, two Amazon Swords and another slightly different sword plant (thinner leave, shorter stem, half the height). Substrate is 1" flourite and 1" normal gravel. Filter is a Bio-Wheel 330, no airstones, try to keep the Bio-Wheel from developing much splash, no bubble-makers and no CO2 system. Light is a normal flourescent, not sure the wattage offhand.
The tank itself is cycling, ammonia spiked to about .5 the first day, but has been nil since then. The nitrites jumped after three days of fish/plants and is still attempting to drop down, but has leveled off around 5.0 I think. The tank is entering it's first full week.
The fish are doing great, but the plants will have me worried for now. The Swords with their broad leaves have been a bit spotty, I have had one shoot die from each bunch, and another was viciously attacked by a rogue snail that I didn't get washed off (still waiting on the prognosis on how the leaf will fare). The Anacharis are also looking a slight shade of brown.
my questions:
1) Are you supposed to take the ties/baskets/wool off the bottom of the plants? I took all of mine off, but does it matter? I guess it just made planting a bit harder as they all like to float away...
2) Flourite I have heard is good, but do I need any fertilizer, and if so, what should I look into?
3) I'm definintely not the best in diagnosing how healthy a plant is, or what certain symptoms indicate, but is an initial struggle normal for plants? I remember reading somewhere that many plants will look a little brown at first, but after things get situated, they tend to get happy again.
4) Any other tips on caring for plants?
Also, my anticipation is that all my plants will die, and my pre-determined "success threshold" will be to have even just one plant live a healthy long life. Whereas losing a fish will be pushing my personal "success threshold."
Thanks in advance for any input!
I added five plants to my 30 gal tank at the same time I added 5 zebra danios to begin cycling my tank (after having it prep for a week with just water). I got two Anacharis plants, two Amazon Swords and another slightly different sword plant (thinner leave, shorter stem, half the height). Substrate is 1" flourite and 1" normal gravel. Filter is a Bio-Wheel 330, no airstones, try to keep the Bio-Wheel from developing much splash, no bubble-makers and no CO2 system. Light is a normal flourescent, not sure the wattage offhand.
The tank itself is cycling, ammonia spiked to about .5 the first day, but has been nil since then. The nitrites jumped after three days of fish/plants and is still attempting to drop down, but has leveled off around 5.0 I think. The tank is entering it's first full week.
The fish are doing great, but the plants will have me worried for now. The Swords with their broad leaves have been a bit spotty, I have had one shoot die from each bunch, and another was viciously attacked by a rogue snail that I didn't get washed off (still waiting on the prognosis on how the leaf will fare). The Anacharis are also looking a slight shade of brown.
my questions:
1) Are you supposed to take the ties/baskets/wool off the bottom of the plants? I took all of mine off, but does it matter? I guess it just made planting a bit harder as they all like to float away...
2) Flourite I have heard is good, but do I need any fertilizer, and if so, what should I look into?
3) I'm definintely not the best in diagnosing how healthy a plant is, or what certain symptoms indicate, but is an initial struggle normal for plants? I remember reading somewhere that many plants will look a little brown at first, but after things get situated, they tend to get happy again.
4) Any other tips on caring for plants?
Also, my anticipation is that all my plants will die, and my pre-determined "success threshold" will be to have even just one plant live a healthy long life. Whereas losing a fish will be pushing my personal "success threshold."
Thanks in advance for any input!