[Aus]

A few of us would like to collaborate on a really comprehensive plant/planted tank info thread. I thought as there's several of us, it might be easier to hold discussions of who is doing what for it here, rather than PM'ing back and forth for every little thing. And we can request the thread deleted when the posts go up for real. Also, people may like to add suggestions/info here, in case we forget something, saves you being asked to edit posts for us.

Does that sound okay to you?

The people who'd be using this thread are:

kfryman
Aus
ravenwinds

and OldFishLady if she agrees to help out, when I ask her. =P

 

[ao]

Hi Aus,
I've done a somewhat bare bottom planted tank before. As in none of my plants were actually... planted. it worked wonderfully. and will work exceptionally well for those people who loves to move things around.

 

[Oldfishlady]

Sounds like a great idea...

 

[registereduser]

You could get Mo to help or incorporate the thread she already made, it's in my siggy :-D

 

[Aus]

Yes, that's a good idea. Mo's plant thread is great for the easy care plants.

 

[Aus]

Okay, here's a few tasks I think need doing. Some may take some research :

- List of undesirable submersed plants & pictures.
(I'm already on this - Aus)

- List of plants useful to water quality in NPT (ammonia & nitrate sinks, roots plants, floaters) with pics & fert/light needs.

- How to set up and maintain both a small and a large NPT with stage by stage pics if possible.

- Description of the various 'planted' tanks you can have (barebottom, inert substrate, active substrate (plant feeding gravels), NPT, maybe even riparium? -- with general outlay costs, descriptions and pictures.

- Post on lighting for planted tanks, including info on white vs blue/red light, kelvins watts and other light measurements and what they mean for the tank, LED, flourescent, incandescant, halide, low light, high light, how much light for what size tank, etc.

- How to cope with/avoid algal bloom, including list of relevant fixes/products.


whew... I have run out of ideas. Hands up for any of those jobs. Ideas welcome.

 

[Shadyr]

Hey, I can help you with a picture of an undesirable plant that new people (like myself at the time) might be suckered into getting! I bought a tubed plant that turned out to be a Dracaena variegatus from Petsmart and was told by the people there that they were fully aquatic. I thought they looked very sharp in the tank. While they *are* water loving they are *not* aquatic, one did eventually die, rot, and led to a bout of flicking which I suspect is when Ghost damaged an eye (he's blind or near blind on one side now)

Terribly enough, I think this is my official picture for Ghost's tank. I need to update it to show off his lot of ACTUAL water plants!

 

[Spazzfish]

If you guys have the time it would be cool if you could find certian shrimp that eat algea fish that make good "gardners" (eat algea or something like that.) I have a baby chines algea eateer and he keeps my plants and decor spotless(but he wont take the green stuff off the glass) he even swims up the filter outflow and nibbles on that stuff.

 

[Mo]

I'll try to do the different substrates and which plants do well with each substrate.

 

[Aus]

Great suggestions - and awesome pic. It'd be great to have a lot of members contribute their own pics/experiences like that here on this thread so we can add them in. Makes all it quite unique to the forum.

Mo, I think kfryman and raven were on the plants/substrates.. let me check? Your input would be great, though - your plant thread here is really good. I notice you breed shrimp and snails.. would you be interested in doing the post requested above by Spazzfish on shrimp/snail tank companions for algae control/which ones are best/ which to avoid/how to keep them healthy/what size tank with a betta, etc? Those get asked about a lot, as well as algae issues, so that'd be awesome if someone experienced with both could do that.

 

[Mo]

what about something like a thread with pictures of eachother's tanks. and a little thing to fill out with information about there tank such as stocking, substrate type, plants, water change schedule, age, If its a natural planted tank or not, Co2, lighting and fertilizers added,

 

[Mo]

If you like the first part. If you like it I'll finish the rest with different substrate types. please gives opinions

 

[Mo]

This is a guide to any type of planted tank, and the different substrates used with the benefits of each one.


The Bare - Bottomed Tank

Plant Selection

Floating Plants

• Anacharis
• Hornwort
• Frogbit
• Duckweed

Non Substrate Rooted plants

• Java Fern
• Anubias Nana

Moss

• Christmas Moss
• Java moss
• Willow moss

Benefits


There are many Benefits to a bare bottomed tank. The Benefits differ between opinion and differ between each person as each person has a different preference in how they want a tank to look or what plants they are limited to. A bare bottomed tank will limit you to only Floating or Non Substrate Rooted Plants which I find con, There are some things I do like about the Bare Bottomed Tank. In My Opinion I think These style tanks are very easy to clean as waste will sit on the bottom of the tank instead of falling in the cracks and crevices of the gravel which in turn, fouls the water, with this style tank you can just simply use a turkey baster or siphon to remove any waste, debris or uneaten food. With a bare bottomed tank you can easily plant are rearrange your aquatic plants without the hassle of constantly uprooting and replanting the plants, In My Experience, tanks with gravel tend to have a betta with ripped edges of there fins as the gravel is sometimes sharp.



Pro's

• Easy to clean
• Easy to aquascape with
• Since there is no substrate the edges of a bettas fins will not rip
• great for floating plants
• easy to maintain

Con's

• Cannot Have certain plants
• Sometimes waste and debris will become unsightly
• No substrate can be unsightly to some people, it differs between opinions

 

[Aus]

Mo, that's great A 'show us your planted tank' thread!

.. would you like to kick that one off? :-D

It''ll need the 'form' to fill out. Maybe a dsclaimer to the effect that any tank with live plants is welcome to be in it..

& a request to resize pics to fit the forum would be awesome.. >< some are so big! they take all day to load...but maybe that bothers just me

I love this idea!

(And yes, that first part is very cool)

 

[Mo]

Yeah, that would be awesome. I'll kick it off..... Once we have a form

 

[Aus]

What will we put in it? You suggested:


Substrate type:
Plant species:
Water change schedule:
Age of tank:
Co2:
Lighting
Fertilizers:
Stock:

Anything else? (I think the NPT question goes with 'substrate type', yes?)

 

[Mo]

I think that that is great! Should I start the thread

 

[Aus]

:thumbsup:

I liked the dimension/volume bit too!

 

[Mo]

Okay. I'll start it right now!

 

[Aus]

OldFishLady.. I wondered if you'd do us a step by step 'How To NPT' type thread.. maybe with some pics? If no pics, we can probably dig some up..

That sort of step by step / pictoral guide is really useful.