Plant help

Hey all,

You have all convinced me to go and get started with aquarium plants, which I dutifully went and purchased this morning. (Along with a pair of Cory catifish's)

I bought something called Ambula and something the LPS called "Long Water Grass". Anyone got any idea what the "technical term" of these plants are so I can see care instuctions?

These plants came in a plastic slotted basket... do I need to take the plants out the baskets and plant them into my substrate, or is it ok to plant them still in their basket?

Ash

 

Hi Ash

Keep them in the basket - If your substrate is nice and thick > 5cm then you can take them out the basket..

If the tall one is a number of long single thin leaves then it could be Vallisneria
(I would check the spelling my knowledge of plant names is not great )

 

Thanks Zafgak- that's it!

Found it on Wikipedia... your spelling was perfect too.

What is the care I need to do?

 

Veegal and myself have our "FOOLPROOF" method of caring for the plants -
Chuck them in the substrate - and let the fish poop provide food for them - cut them back when they get too big ......:bigsmile:

Other than that we do bugger all for the plants

 

Gee wiz... that sounds too easy to be true...

I thought there was so much more to looking after plants than that...

 

There are plant fertilisers you can add to the water - Used them once and it made no difference :blink1:

Some people use C02 injection systems - way too much effort required

Essentially if your fish are pooping and some food is getting to the bottom of the tank then you have ammonia - This is converted by nitrobacter ( bacteria that gobble ammonia and produce nitrite) - This is converted by nitribacter to produce nitrate !! ( If you look at your lawn and garden plant fertilizer it will be nitrate based ) This nitrate is what the plants chew on and convert to their energy source etc.. and they dont need much.

So - enough fish poop and vrot food and hey presto - good plants..... :bigsmile:

The trick is to let your system settle and create it's own natural balance.

BTW - we still do our weekly siphon, clean and water change. Dont let that poop and vrot stuff ( They call it MULM ) build up.:noworry: