Just a few questions!

[Jupiter]

I bought 2 HMPKs a few days ago and I'm interested in setting up some nice planted tanks for them.

Atm I'm a bit tight on cash so I don't think I can afford fancy lighting or substrate, so I'm looking for something low maintenance.

What I have in my 3 gallon right now (which is a Marineland Crescent) is a thin layer of white sand and the LED light it came with. I think I also have some Seachem Flourish somewhere...

Currently I'm considering corkscrew vals, however...

I have no idea if the LED light would be sufficient enough for the plants? Anyone with this tank have any experience?

I'm also wondering if the white sand by itself is okay?

[JackisLost]

Originally Posted by Jupiter

I bought 2 HMPKs a few days ago and I'm interested in setting up some nice planted tanks for them.

Atm I'm a bit tight on cash so I don't think I can afford fancy lighting or substrate, so I'm looking for something low maintenance.

What I have in my 3 gallon right now (which is a Marineland Crescent) is a thin layer of white sand and the LED light it came with. I think I also have some Seachem Flourish somewhere...

Currently I'm considering corkscrew vals, however...

I have no idea if the LED light would be sufficient enough for the plants? Anyone with this tank have any experience?

I'm also wondering if the white sand by itself is okay?

get different varieties of anubias, tie them to small pieces of rock and driftwood. it will look amazing, grows a bit slow, places to swim around, easy to clean, low light demand, no real need for fertilizers :D

[Jupiter]

I've never liked anubias tbh, I already have it in one of my other tanks.

Thanks for the idea though, but this is mainly targeted towards the possibility of me being able to keep corkscrew vals.

[JackisLost]

a small bag of mr. aqua soil is around or just at 10 dollars. i used plastic canvas (2 sheets for a dollar) and used fishing wire to make a basket to hold the soil. i consider this method low maint and you might be able to keep the corkscrew vals in the basket with soil. although moving the basket around smaller pieces of soil will fall out, maybe a clay pot might do better and wrap the clay pot with moss?

[Jupiter]

Don't think i can get the soil...maybe I'll stick to hornwort or something. Thanks for the help.

Do you know of any other plants you'd recommend with my setup outside of Java moss & fern?

[aokashi]

you would probably need more sand for the vals..
The problem you have is the thin substrate. Also vals can grow quite high :O if you want something cheap, I'd say anacharis/elodea is the cheapest thing out there...
water wisteria and water sprite can also be left floating and are quite cheap.

[Jupiter]

Ah okay. How thick should the substrate layer be?

I got some hornwort for now but I'm looking at other plants too. Haven't had much luck with anacharis but I'm willing to try it again. Wisteria...not sure if I've seen it for sale around here, I'll have to keep an eye on it.

[Aus]

I have tanks like that, with LED lamps. Aside from anubias, java moss & java fern I've found susswassertang and cryptocorenes do okay, wisteria does better floating than planted and banana lilies do well too. LED is best for low light plants, and you might have trouble getting stems to grow that would do well under even low-Kelvin flourescents and the like.

My java fern is much greener and more lush under LEDs, I've noticed. I don't think it likes too much light at all. The mosses are incredible, green and healthy and growing like mad. I understand if you don't like them, but they do look good and grow well in those conditions.

[aokashi]

you're right Aus... my javafern HATES light.... I need to untie mine from the lava rock and replace those with something else...

[Jupiter]

It's not that I hate them, I quite like them actually (except my moss just always looks like a giant mess I can never tie down lol), but I have them in almost all of my tanks so i wanted to try something else out too. :)