[dietz31684]

Here are a few shots of my tank as it stands right now. I live pretty close to "that fish place" and am going to make a trip there to pick up some things, but need some advise first. Current plants include wendtii red, java fern, anacharis, and mini lilly (dont know much about this but got the bulb for free) Other than that they are plastic. The java fern is the only plant that i have had in there for a long time, about a year. The other plants have only been in there for a week.

I have a home-made cheapie light set up, running two of these bulbs. Targeting lower light plants obviously.

crypt wendtii

I currently have only play sand for substrate. I have planted swords in pots with aqua soil in aquariums with pretty good success, but never planted right in the substrate. I tried planting some amazon swords in the sand with minimal success. I am looking for lower maintenance and am thinking about taking everything out and putting down some plant friendly substrate...ecocomplete or something like that.

This is what is available at TFP according to their website, will this work? Also what kind of depth should i be looking to achieve?

I am hoping that by using this type of substrate and hardy plants that i will not have to do any fertilizing and all of that fun stuff, just pruning off old leaves and letting them go...looking to add some plants such as crypts and swords...vals?

well i think that is about where i am at right now, thanks in advance for any help!

- Dietz

 

[Digsy]

There is very little difference between Fluorite and sand as they are both inert so, if you like the look of the play sand, why not save the money and stick with what you have? Swords and crypts are root feeders and need some type of nutrients in the substrate, either the substrate itself or fertilizer tablets, which work just fine.

It's good to see another convert from plastic to live!

 

[dietz31684]

great! I was under the impression that there were useful nutrients in flourite. I def. wanna keep the sand. So i should just be able to plant them directly into the sand and supplement with root tabs then? off to research root tabs. Thanks -

 

[Postal Penguin]

I would give swords a few root tabs under them regardless of what substrate you use. They are heavy root feeders and since sand can compact easily, any fertilizer you add to the water column will be slow to reach the roots.

I started my planted tanks the same way. Started replacing my plastics with real plants one by one.

And if you haven't been there before, you'll love That Fish Place. I trek out there once every couple of months and spend an hour or two just browsing. Massive selection of fish and they have tons of equipment available. Their plant selection was a bit sparse the few times I went there but it may have just been timing.