Plantable plants without C02?

[BDawg90]

I have a 10 gal. tank setup and I wanted to plant some live plants, are there any plants that I can put in that don't need a CO2 setup?

 

[Mr. Limpet]

I have a 10 gal. tank setup and I wanted to plant some live plants, are there any plants that I can put in that don't need a CO2 setup?

There's lots of plants you can have in your 10g, check out plantgeek.net for low light plants.

What kind of lighting do you have (watts, K factor, etc.) on your tank?

 

[The_Desacrator]

I have 3 anubias and 4 amazon swords in my 10 gallon. I dont use CO2, but I use fertilizer and I got a new bulb for both my tanks.

 

[Mr. Limpet]

I have 3 anubias and 4 amazon swords in my 10 gallon. I dont use CO2, but I use fertilizer and I got a new bulb for both my tanks.

Sounds like you're already set. Plants are great IMO and all my tanks have them .

 

[BDawg90]

I'm very new to this hobby, before my 10 gal, I had a 1 gal for my betta. I have two 15 watt bulbs and I heard somewhere that your supposed to have 2 watts per gal to grow. But then the lady at petco told me to just go for the plastic because the live plants are a pain. Are they really that hard to grow? Because I just don't like fake plants. And how would you use fertilizer.

 

[James_in_MN]

There are some low light plants that aren't difficult to grow at all. My 20g has a Marineland LED light, and the plants I have in it are an amazon sword, two java ferns, a few corkscrew vals, and a bunch of wisteria, and all are doing relatively well. The wisteria is growing like a weed, and is a great background plant.

 

[rocstar629]

I bought some bulbs at Walmart and dropped them in my 10 gallon with no fertilizer or special lights and they grew like crazy. The red plant I have to trim weekly..

 

[Mr. Limpet]

I'm very new to this hobby, before my 10 gal, I had a 1 gal for my betta. I have two 15 watt bulbs and I heard somewhere that your supposed to have 2 watts per gal to grow. But then the lady at petco told me to just go for the plastic because the live plants are a pain. Are they really that hard to grow? Because I just don't like fake plants. And how would you use fertilizer.

2wpg is fine, but it depends on the K factor your bulbs have too. Ferts can be liquid you add to the water, or tabs you put in the substrate.

Tell the lady at petco, sure plastic plants are easy to care for, can you show me the plastic fish too lol.

 

[The_Desacrator]

I add fertilizer as a liquid every time I do a water change.

 

[BDawg90]

What brand of Fertilizer would you recommend?

 

[Revenantwing]

Java Moss looks great!!!

 

[fort384]

Welcome to AA BDawg.

You may not need any fertilizer to successfully grow low light plants. If you do things right, plants are not a pain... in fact they can be just as rewarding and interesting as keeping fish.

For now, the important thing is light. If you are going to keep a low light low tech tank, fertilizer will come much later. What kind of bulbs do you have on the tank? (florescent, compact florescent, incandescent, power compact, etc)
See if you can find a K rating as well, as Mr. L alluded to. These factors will be the difference between success and failure with live plants.

2 WPG is by no means a requirement to grow plants, and in fact, the WPG "rule" cannot even be applied to a tank of only 10gal, so don't worry about that for now.

 

[BDawg90]

What brand of Fertilizer would you recommend?

 

[fort384]

None at this point. Adding fert when you don't need it is a bad idea. The type you will need to add depends on the type of plants you are growing, the particular deficiencies that your tank might have, and what kind of light you are using, etc. There are many brands of fertilizers, and they are not all the same. All however boil down to one or a combination of the nutrients below:

Nitrogen
Potassium
Phosphorus
Trace elements (like Fe, Mg, Mn, Cu, B, etc)

Plants also need a source of Carbon, and this can be dosed using either CO2 injection, or a product like Seachem Excel.

Ferts are dosed using liquid formulas, dry powders, or root tabs.

Recommending a fert without knowing information would not do you any good... in fact it would probably do more harm than good, in the form of algae growth from excess nutrients in your water.

 

[BDawg90]

Welcome to AA BDawg.

You may not need any fertilizer to successfully grow low light plants. If you do things right, plants are not a pain... in fact they can be just as rewarding and interesting as keeping fish.

For now, the important thing is light. If you are going to keep a low light low tech tank, fertilizer will come much later. What kind of bulbs do you have on the tank? (florescent, compact florescent, incandescent, power compact, etc)
See if you can find a K rating as well, as Mr. L alluded to. These factors will be the difference between success and failure with live plants.

2 WPG is by no means a requirement to grow plants, and in fact, the WPG "rule" cannot even be applied to a tank of only 10gal, so don't worry about that for now.

I have no idea what kind or the K rating the box only says 15 watt(120v) clear lol. But I went ahead and planted 4 plants yesterday so we'll see.

 

[fort384]

What do the bulbs look like? Are they like regular incandescent bulbs, or florescent bulbs, or the spiral compact florescent bulbs?

What kind of plants did you get? If you don't know the names, you can post pics, and we can identify them for you.

 

[BDawg90]

None at this point. Adding fert when you don't need it is a bad idea. The type you will need to add depends on the type of plants you are growing, the particular deficiencies that your tank might have, and what kind of light you are using, etc. There are many brands of fertilizers, and they are not all the same. All however boil down to one or a combination of the nutrients below:

Nitrogen
Potassium
Phosphorus
Trace elements (like Fe, Mg, Mn, Cu, B, etc)

Plants also need a source of Carbon, and this can be dosed using either CO2 injection, or a product like Seachem Excel.

Ferts are dosed using liquid formulas, dry powders, or root tabs.

Recommending a fert without knowing information would not do you any good... in fact it would probably do more harm than good, in the form of algae growth from excess nutrients in your water.

Alright, how would I figure out what deficiencies my tank has? I have 2 15 watt bulbs, but that's all I know about them the box is pretty blank. Yesterday I planted an amazon sword, peacock fern, compacta and a wistaria.

 

[fort384]

Unfortunately the peacock fern is not aquatic... it will not survive long term submerged in your tank. It will eventually start to rot, which will foul the water.

We can figure out what you might need to dose by starting with the light. I can't answer much more about the tank without more info there. The bulbs themselves may have the K rating on them. Also like I posted above, what kind of bulbs are they (just tell me what they look like)? It is the most important part. If the light isn't right, there is no sense even worrying about anything else because it just won't matter.

 

[BDawg90]

Sorry not peacock fern, umbrella plant lol. I attached a picture of one of the bulbs. It's only 4 ins long.

 

[fort384]

Unfortunately, umbrella plants are also not aquatic.

Your light bulbs are incandescent. They really aren't appropriate for growing any plants, even low light. The particular plants you chose won't last very long under those lights, I am afraid. The good news is you could get something suitable for not much money (assuming the bulbs will fit into your hood)... swap out those incandescent bulbs for some of the screw in spiral Compact Florescent (CF) bulbs. They are sold at places like walmart and any hardware store. Look for the ones that say daylight on them (as opposed to "soft" or whatever). If you are able to put the CFL bulbs in, it will be a suitable amount of light to grow low light plants.