Mom thinks I'm building a bomb. (amusing tales of supply runs)

[kesomon]

I wonder if I should look into live plants in a tank. I'd avoided it at first but it might be worth the effort. And maybe water plants are spared my black thumbs.

[Bombalurina]

Live plants are a great idea! I kill land plants just by looking at them, but I have a beautiful planted tank, and two more tanks that are lightly planted. Aquatic plants are a million times easier to care for. :)

Wouldn't jobs in petshops be wonderful if they were staffed by people who knew stuff? :)

[laughing]

Planted tanks are not difficult one bit if you research BEFORE and match plants to your water/situation.

For example, I have a 6500k 10watt daylight bulb in my 5 gallon so it's pretty moderate/high light. Therefore my 5 can hold a large variety of plants due to such light.

My water is very hard, so I don't buy soft water plants (like banana plants..aw). I know in my 2.5 it will be taken apart monthly, so I chose a plant that doesn't root. (Hornwort). Other plants are mosses, java ferns, moss balls, anubias, etc!

In my 10 gallon I have 'moderate' light (soon to be high, I hope) so I used lower lighting plants. Because I will never take it apart, so I used rooting plants that are more 'sensitive' with root tabs.

I use large sized gravel. No substrate fertilizer. Just liquid fert and root tabs!

Bulb- $10
Liquid Fert- $10-20 (Depends on type/quality but lasts FOREVER. Mine has lasted 5 months.)

That's it!