Pros and cons

[jackwagon]

I currently have a 55 gallon with
5 yoyo loaches
3 pictus catfish
7 tiger barbs
1 spotted Raphael catfish

I was wondering if keeping plants was a possibility for me right now I have a gravel substrate and fake plants. My lights are full spectrum but I am unsure what exactly they are. I was also planning on getting a pleco but do all plecos eat plants if not which one. Could I get if I grew plants?

 

[CorallineAlgae]

Do your cats ever uproot any of your fake plants? Pictus cats get HUGE!

 

[jackwagon]

Pictus only get to 4 to 5 inches and no they never uproot my plant

 

[CorallineAlgae]

The first step would be to put a fresh daylight bulb in your light fixture. Consider it food for your plants. Get a few easy to keep plants like java fern and anubias and tie them onto any rock or driftwood you have in the tank with cotton thread or thin fishing line until they attach themselves naturally to the surfaces. You may want to try a crypt. It's a family of mostly low light plants that do fine in many types of gravel.
The best thing to do would be to read the stickies at the top of the forums here and a good book that covers all the basic steps in detail. I've been doing this for years and still read everything I can get my hands on.

 

[jackwagon]

Would i need CO2

 

[maxwellag]

No. You really only need co2 if you have a ton of light.

 

[jackwagon]

Do I need anything for the plants besides light then. Do I need fertilizer

 

[CorallineAlgae]

Would i need CO2

Not for the kinds of plants I mentioned above. CO2 is only needed when a tank is given bright lights. You can always add a CO2 system to a planted tank with any amount of light, though. I feel that when it comes to planted tanks CO2 is a much better investment than high lights in the order of buying equipment. Most people get bright lights before a CO2 setup and end up with algae headaches. It's better, if you aren't interested in CO2 to simply get new bulbs for the fixture you have, get plants that'll grow well with them and see how you like the outcome. Those plants are easy to keep, have few needs, and are easy to find. Many people who have a very high tech tank, including me, still love growing them. I've had all of them for about 10 years and for the first 5 I NEVER used high lights, special plant substrate or CO2.

 

[ejaramillo01]

For low light plants, you Won't need CO2,
Also, Plecos normally don't eat plants... At least that as been my experience, I recommend you to get a brittle nose Pleco, the stay small for the size of your tank.

 

[jackwagon]

I was planning on getting a bristlenose actually so that's good and I think I will try my hand at this and see how it goes. Thanks for the help

 

[jackwagon]

My Lfs had a bamboo plant for sale that looked really neat could that work or does it need special care?

 

[jetajockey]

My Lfs had a bamboo plant for sale that looked really neat could that work or does it need special care?

Bamboo plants are not truly aquatic, but they work fine in aquaria, just keep the top out of the water.

 

[jackwagon]

Ok thanks

 

[CorallineAlgae]

Bamboo plants are not truly aquatic, but they work fine in aquaria, just keep the top out of the water.

I've seen a cichlid tank that was planted with a bunch of them like that. The guy used large dry bamboo at the bottom as caves and vertically as planters (pots) for the live bamboo that grew out of the water. Looked amazing! A whole bamboo forest effect in a 20 gallon for a mated pair of some kind of African cichlid. I wish I had taken a picture!

 

[jackwagon]

Since I have lids on my tank could I just cut the top off of the bamboo when it gets too tall?

 

[jetajockey]

Yes you could. I'd probably cut the bottoms off instead of the tops, just to make sure it's got some leaves on top.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

Keep in mind that the top part of the plant must be above the water. Could you possibly run the tank without a lid. You may not need to depending on how high you keep your water level but it looks pretty cool with the top leaves showing. I guess it would depend on how you have your lights situated. It would be cool to see a picture after you have it setup no mater how you work it out!

 

[jackwagon]

Ok well I looked online at bamboo in aquariums and it is. Ool but the bamboo my Lfs had was all twisted in a spiral. Is this still bamboo because it looked like it but I didn't find any pictures of it online and the top was under the water

 

[jackwagon]

Also my bulbs are t8 15w is that enough

 

[CorallineAlgae]

No bamboo that I know can survive entirely under water. That LFS is slowly suffocating it unless it's simply something else but I haven't see it so it's impossible to be sure. I have seen spiral bamboo. These are plants that are grown in a jig that only allows it to spiral. It isn't it's natural shape so it's just esthetics. Fish stores get an ordering list from their suppliers and unless they know the plant they just see "spiral bamboo" mixed in with the list of other plants and simply put them in whatever aquarium they have to keep it until it gets sold or dies. it doesn't mean it'll survive underwater, sadly.