[iplants]

Hey guys,

Sometimes I get overwhelmed and buy a wide variety of plants to use in my tanks and then I find it hard to place each one. How many types of plants do you usually have in your tank (aside from the lighting, co2, fert needs of them).

How many types would you recommend for a 10, 5, 7.5, and 6?

I usually try to get a few foreground and more stems

 

[ADJAquariums]

Well, I believe that there's really no set amount for plants in a tank, I think it's all about the look you want in a tank.

In my 40 I have like 5 Amazon Swords, a Brazillian Sword, aponogeton, Bacopa, Ludwigia Repens, Rotala Rotundifolia, Anubia Nana, Anubias Congensis, Crypt wendtii, Dwarf sag, Java fern, Java Moss, and water wisteria, I think I got them all.

As you can tell i have a good deal of diversity plant wise in that tank, I was looking for a jungles edge type of feeling with my scape. Like I said before the amount and types of plants to get would probably have to do with the scape and look you want out of the tank

 

[Geniusdudekiran]

However many fit the scape. Keep it as simple as you can and don't fall prey to "collectoritis" if you're going for a simple, traditional look. For a jungle scape or similar style requiring lots of different textures and types of plants, you might want as many as 25 different species.

In my Mini S, as you can see in my signature, I have only three different main plants. But in my 20-C, as you can also see in my signature, I probably have at least 12 different types of plants.

 

[DogFish]

It's really about what you want to look at.

I prefer a "loose" bio-type. ie. plants/fish/inverts basically from the same region from basically the same ecosystem vs. a strict bio-type that is found in one specific place.

In nature one seldom finds more that 3-4 species of plants living in close proxismity. In my 40 display tank I have 3 types of plants, two sp. of Crypts, Java fern and Taiwan moss.

If you look a tanks that win Aquascaping contests you see 3-4 types of plants used in the award winning tanks.

There is the Dutch style of Aquascaping that I understand has rules of how many sp. of plants are used based on the size of the tank, also there are placement and hardscape materiel rules.

The more plants sp. you add the harder it gets to provide conditions suitable for all. In my case I picked plants that all come from the same environment in nature.

I agree with Geniusdudekiran "Keep it as simple".

 

[iplants]

Thank you all for your help!

I definitely need to stick to only a few species. I'm just a beginner so I'm trying to learn how to scape and keep it simple. I get all happy when i see all the plants and want all of them lol. I'm sticking to low light plants for now. All my tanks are 10 gallon and under so I can't have too much.

One last question. What is a low light plant I can use to carpet?

 

[HybridHerp]

I tend to overdue it and keep more species than I should together. However, now that most of my tanks are bare, I can somewhat alleviate that, minus the fact that I want everything XD

One thing for sure though, is that the worst plants are the ones you end up getting that you don't want, aka hitchhikers. And the funny thing about some plants is, you can remove all of a particular species, and then notice that it appears again out of nowhere, which is what I just had happen to me with a crypt.

All in all, I say think hard and long about what plants you for sure want in your scape. Some plants just don't even look good together, or you might not have the space to do everything.

 

[AnotherHobby]

This thread is right up your alley: Excellent List of Low Light Plants

 

[ghost shrimp]

I tend to overdue it and keep more species than I should together. However, now that most of my tanks are bare, I can somewhat alleviate that, minus the fact that I want everything XD

One thing for sure though, is that the worst plants are the ones you end up getting that you don't want, aka hitchhikers. And the funny thing about some plants is, you can remove all of a particular species, and then notice that it appears again out of nowhere, which is what I just had happen to me with a crypt.

All in all, I say think hard and long about what plants you for sure want in your scape. Some plants just don't even look good together, or you might not have the space to do everything.

Sounds Just like me, I never have enough money when it comes to all the plants I find online.

 

[BBradbury]

How Many Plants

Hey guys,

Sometimes I get overwhelmed and buy a wide variety of plants to use in my tanks and then I find it hard to place each one. How many types of plants do you usually have in your tank (aside from the lighting, co2, fert needs of them).

How many types would you recommend for a 10, 5, 7.5, and 6?

I usually try to get a few foreground and more stems

Hello ip...

If you're creative, you can have a few plants and use driftwood and rocks to make it look like you have more of a variety. I keep low light, low tech tanks and use Anubias, Java fern, Anacharis, Pennywort and Aglaonema. I attach Java fern to floating driftwood and attach Anubias to lava rock. I float the Anacharis and Pennywort and emerse the Aglaonema.

B

 

[@[email protected]]

i use a ton of different plants.
what i tend to do, is start with a ton, and then remove some as the tank matures and i need more room to make a better bush of another type. i chose which one to remove based on how well/poorly its growing and how it looks in that scape.

 

[Aquatic Delight]

i keep as many plants in the tank as i can keep healthy.

i have 14 different speices of plants in my 29 gal, in my other 29 i have 7 different speices but i have twice as many stems in that tank of everything. its all about what you like. i love to try new plants and see how well i can grow them, and them trade them off when i get good at that plant, for something more challenging.

 

[MABJ]

For me, it's KISS - keep it simple, stupid.

I use as many mosses as I can with a few plants in between


MABJ's iDevice used for this message

 

[james1542]

I don't see anything wrong with having one specimen each of a dozen plant species in a tank. The main thing I would reccommend is don't get plants that are too big for your tank. Many of the dwarf varieties given the right conditions grow too large for the mid ground in tanks 10 gallons and under. Tall Stems or moss covered sticks make a good back row.

For low light carpet, maybe do a moss on mesh.

 

[zimbo]

Most planted tanks are a Darwinian experiment of survival, the thousands of threads seeking advice on how to keep certain plants alive here is testament to that!! Its not easy to take 15 plants from different rivers around the globe all with different parameters and place them in a single glass box and expect them to all do well under the same set of conditions we impose on them.

I start with lots and thin them out depending on what they do. Once you get a good set, trade the extras, sell them, or better yet if you want get a larger tank or another one for the extras =)