New to plants

[mistahoo]

I recently started the hobby back in April and I was always amazed by planted tanks and monster fish. I've gotten down the handle on monster fish now and still learning from one of the best along with several old forum posts on HFB. I'm constantly on HFB and posting, but this is really the first time I've started getting on this forum. I want to turn my monster fish tank into a planted tank, but I'm not familiar with plant types/species.

I've gotten a list of recommendations based on my livestock from a member on HFB. The list goes as: Vals, crypts, mosses, crinium, swords, stems, wisteria, and java fern.

My equipment: Proclear (not sure which model) wet/dry. Eheim 1060 return pump. AC110 (temp). Penguin 170 (temp). 48" coralife fixture with 4 10,000k bulbs and 4 blue LED.

Lights are on a timer. 8am-2am lights on. If schedule needs to be changed for plants, that can be arranged.

Substrate/Decor: Black Diamond sand (30-60 version). River rocks (temp). Four pieces of driftwood.

I'm planning on removing rocks, unless I can get them to look nice with the plants, and placing a lot more driftwood.

Livestock: 13x silver dollars. 3x peacock bass. 2x endlicheri bichir. 1x delhezi bichir. 1x ornate bichir. 1x Senegal bichir. 1x salvini. 2x flowerhorn. 1x largemouth bass. 1x datnoid. 1x red tail cat. 1x pink paratheraps fenestratus. 1x L-144. 1x BN pleco. 1x texas cichlid. 8x lemon barbs

I will be removing silver dollars because I'm going a different direction with my monster tank. Besides, they eat vegetation like no other!

Are there any other plants I could add to my list? Any specific types from general list? I don't want anything that requires any more equipment than what I have (i.e. co2, etc.). It must thrive well in hard water. As far as maintenance goes, if they grow fast, I can handle trimming. Keep in mind the livestock, equipment, and substrate/decor listed. The tank is slowly becoming a CA/SA theme tank, but plants from any part of the world is fine.

TIA!

[xxUnRaTeDxxRkOxx]

How big is the tank you're using?

Also I would replace at least 2 of the 10000k bulbs for 6500k or 6700k bulbs, your plants will thank you 6500k bulbs are closest to actual sunlight, so they will help your plants alot.

I also recommend a planted substrate like aqua-soil, flourite, or eco-complete as the base layer of substrate, then covering it with 1/2" deep bed of black diamond.

As for the lighting schedule I would go for 9am to 4pm, just so your plants get a good amount of light for the day, but gives you a 7 hour window of lighting on the tank so the tank doesn't get an abundance of light causing algae blooms.

Also what you doing for Co2?

You can go with Anubias plants, and Java Ferns and attach them to driftwood, but never bury the anubias and java ferns into the substrate or they'll die off.

[spifff]

with at much stock i hope you have a 400 gallon minimum! yow! the post above gives good information i'm just learning plants myself but have done all kinds of cichlids over the years. the peacock bass alone can get close to 20 inches each! personally i'd think about starting a separate planted tank most of what you have will redecorate how ever they see fit they could care less what you want, so i would think it would be a constant battle of you vs the fish with plants in there.
not trying to sound rude i'm learning too i just don't think a mix like that even minus the SD's would leave plants alone very long it's also possible once they mature that you could have a blood bath between them on your hands.
whatever you choose good luck and i'll follow along.
Dave

[mistahoo]

Originally Posted by xxUnRaTeDxxRkOxx

How big is the tank you're using?

Also I would replace at least 2 of the 10000k bulbs for 6500k or 6700k bulbs, your plants will thank you 6500k bulbs are closest to actual sunlight, so they will help your plants alot.

Forgot to mention, I'd like to keep the 10000k bulbs. I know 6500k and 6700k are better for plants. Learned that from my brother who used to have some nice setups years ago. I think he has pics of them on here, but not sure. Would the plants grow at all with 10000k bulbs? I have the tank next to a window. I could open the blinds for a certain time of day for the plants or is that a bad thing?

I also recommend a planted substrate like aqua-soil, flourite, or eco-complete as the base layer of substrate, then covering it with 1/2" deep bed of black diamond.

Also would like to keep to just the black diamond. Is that possible? I've seen some nice setups with monster fish and plants and they only use pool filter sand as substrate.

As for the lighting schedule I would go for 9am to 4pm, just so your plants get a good amount of light for the day, but gives you a 7 hour window of lighting on the tank so the tank doesn't get an abundance of light causing algae blooms.

Wouldn't there be algae growing right now since I have the lights on for a quite a while? I was trying to get a nice coat of algae growing for the plecos.

Also what you doing for Co2?

I was hoping that I wouldn't have to add any. Is it possible to have some plants and not use a Co2 bottle?

You can go with Anubias plants, and Java Ferns and attach them to driftwood, but never bury the anubias and java ferns into the substrate or they'll die off.

Yeah, I remember something about attaching those to driftwood. I was planning on putting the other plants in the substrate, but not those two.

Thanks for the good info! I put comments/questions in red

[PRSRocker3390]

What size tank though? That will help judge what plants will work out using those lights. Also I may have missed it but what kind of lights are in the coralife? T5HO, T5NO, T8?

[mistahoo]

Originally Posted by spifff

with at much stock i hope you have a 400 gallon minimum! yow! the post above gives good information i'm just learning plants myself but have done all kinds of cichlids over the years. the peacock bass alone can get close to 20 inches each! personally i'd think about starting a separate planted tank most of what you have will redecorate how ever they see fit they could care less what you want, so i would think it would be a constant battle of you vs the fish with plants in there.

Yeah tank is quite small at the moment (100g). I will be upgrading to a 180 in about a year, and hopefully I can get a massive 500gal+ tank going after the 180. All the fish are juvies except the salvini and fenestratus. I know the pbass gets quite big. Seen a tank that had like 3 Orinos and 3 Monos... they were quite massive! I have a 10gal that I also wanted to turn into a planted once everything gets settled. But concerning the tank I'm trying to turn into a planted, the fish actually don't redecorate that much from what I've seen. The only one that moves anything is the two Oscars that I forgot to mention. I'm holding them for my brother, so they're only going to be in there temporarily.

not trying to sound rude i'm learning too i just don't think a mix like that even minus the SD's would leave plants alone very long it's also possible once they mature that you could have a blood bath between them on your hands.

I didn't think you came off as rude. Not too sure if the fish would leave the plants alone. Most of the fish listed are piscivores except for the SDs, barbs, and plecos. The SDs are going, and I think everything else shouldn't really mess with the plants. I'm not sure about the blood bath part though. At the moment, two of the bass are about 10-11" and they've eaten a five SDs and one lemon barb since they've been introduced (it's only been a few days). The other bass is about 4". I finally got them to stop eating fish and eating Hikari Jumbo Carnisticks. The only fish that actually tries to attack another is the Pink Paratheraps Fenestratus and the Salvini. The Salvini and the Pink PF is the only two that are really aggressive. The Salvini is only 6" and was picking on the Pbass and chasing them around.

whatever you choose good luck and i'll follow along.
Dave

Thanks! What I have pictured is going to be nice, but not sure if it will all go as planned.

Replies in red

[mistahoo]

Originally Posted by PRSRocker3390

What size tank though? That will help judge what plants will work out using those lights. Also I may have missed it but what kind of lights are in the coralife? T5HO, T5NO, T8?

100g. I didn't mention the bulbs, nice catch. The bulbs I'm using are TRU Straight Pin Compact Fluorescent 65watt 10000k.