Rant on live plants!
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Now don’t get me wrong. I love the way live plants look, so lush and natural and the way they grow so you get more from cuttings and not have to buy more, but it’s those pests that come with them that really get me mad. :x
Every time I buy a new plant I get pests. I’d gotten pest snails, hydras, micoworms, and this weird wigglily things I can’t even identify! :evil:
Not to mention that live plants are bloody expensive. And one of my plants simply went to bits. Parts of it rotted and the sections fell off. I think I have a few bits left somewhere. I stuck em in the sand but they don’t grow roots too well at all. Plus I need the UV light to keep them alive, and considering that I’m just out of highschool and don’t have much cash those are priced pretty steep.
(Of course, I did pay $12 canadian for each galaxy, but they are so, so worth it.
)Any way, it’s plastic plants from now on!
pest’s i find the best way to get rid of pest snails etc is a bleach dip
use a ratio of 1:21 (1 bleach : 21 water)
1)get 2 buckets one with the bleach in and one with 3 times the recomended chlorine remover
2) dip plants into bleach solution for 30 seconds
3) rinse of uunder the tap then place them in the water with the chlorine remover.
4) empty the bleach soloution and fill with fresh water and 3 x the recomended chlorine remover
5) rinse plants under fresh water again and place in the new bucket of water
6)plant plants in tank
this is the way i do it and dont have any in my planted tank however some plants dont like this but most (95%) will be fine
there alot more to live plants than people think
do you know what type of plants you had (names)
do you have any co2 or dose ferts?
do you have any other substrte other than sand?
how much light do you have? (wattage and us gallons and ill work it out for you)
the easyest plant to grow is polysperma (carnt remember its first name but it begins with a h) will grow with little light levels and is not demanding
chris
Thanks for the info on the plant dipping.
Unfortunately I don’t know what plants I have exactly except the last one I bought “lilaeopsis novaezelandiae” which was alright, but it was that one that brought the hydras. Another I think might be fanwort, that’s the one that rotted and felll apart.
I keep a book now recording all my aquarium doings and additions, but that was after I added most of my plants.
I used to grow all these plants in gravel except the recent addition of the “lilae-“, but now I put all of them in my galaxy tank with sand. They. the plants are doing fine, but I’m finding lots and lots of buggers, and cannot clean the tank of them well without disturbing everything. Not something I really want to do in a “breeding” tank.
Anyway for light, the aquarium gets indirect light from my window and a 15 watt UV light pointed down next to it at my nectarine plants and baby snail raising jar. Pointing the light over the tank just gave me too much algae and I doubt the plants enjoyed me wiping off their leaves of it every other day or so.
The tank is 10 gallon.
Sorry I can’t be more accurate, I’ll try to post a pic if I can.
Thanks for trying to help.what type of uv light are you talking about? if you can find a link it would help alot
it could be your choose of tube as to them growing well andf rotting
i beleive most lilaeopsis species are quite hard to keep and have fairly hight demands (might be wrong though as im not an expert on plants)
your right about the diopping it can only be done before the plants go into the water as once there in and the bugs spread the no stoping them unless you completly drain and wash everything (which you carnt do unless you have another tank to put the galaxy in while your tank cycles again!)
chris
Well I don’t know about other lilaeopsis species but this one’s doing great. It looks like grass and sends out little baby plants with roots already that can be cut off and transplanted. Also grows very fast. The Galaxies don’t actually seem to go through it, but love darting in between .
Sorry, I can’t find the light I’ve got on the internet. It says “life glow” and “GLO” on the base of the bulb but searching from this led me nowhere, and I didn’t keep the package.
Any way, for the new 20 gallon tank I’ll be setting up I’m going with plastic. Not only because I don’t want another tank with buggers in it to make me clean the glass alot, and get vexed, and it doesn’t need UV light, and especially because I don’t want to move any plants from my “breeding” tank.
Atlantis Child
Check out plantgeek.net they have a list of low light plants.
Some good ones are
java moss
java fern
rotala indica
some sword plants
various crypt species
dwarf sag
hygrophila
vallisneria
lots more!You do not need to buy special lights for your plants. I buy regular “daylight” bulbs from Lowes, probably have them at some mega department stores too.
If you have low/med light you do not need to dose ferts or use CO2. Having low light means plants grow slower, use less nutrients (probably just whats in the tank) and don’t NEED CO2. I don’t use CO2 in any of my tanks, and only dose when i remember (rarely!)
Check out aquabid, and place want ads on forums to buy plants from fellow hobbyists. You will most likely get better quality plants for less $ than if you buy in the LFS. I would send you some, but it seems you are in Canada, and sending across the border is a major hassle!
Good luck!Ah but plants are so worth the hassle! If you’re doing it right, they will grow well without much hassle. Make sure u hv full-spectrum lighting, with a timer so that it’s on during daylight hours (plants need sleep too). And they should be fine… some extra CO2 is a bonus… maybe some plant fertilizer would be nice too… take a look at Glenn’s photos, his planted tanks are beautiful!
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