Substrates and plants for low tech aquarium

[sbladerz]

Hi everyone,

I have a 28 L tank measuring 30x33x30.
I would like to add some simple plants in the tank mainly for my swordtails to hide.
I would pretty much prefer my tank to be a low tech setup without CO2 or fertilizer.
Any recommendation for which substrate to go for?
And any easy to care for plants?

I appreciate all the help i can get.
Thank you!

[sbladerz]

Hi everyone,

I have attached the photo of my tank with some plants (but i have no idea what those plants are except the marimo)

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...4130212068.jpg
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...1232230205.jpg
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...4125332420.jpg


Thank you!

[wongce]

See my blog for the answers you seek....http://theplantedtankblog.blogspot.s...-yeartank.html

Your plants
Left Bacopa
Mid Rotala
Right pond weed
front Marimo...

eh, all are considered as easy plants... your sand substrate is fine for them... you can trim the plants and ctie to ss mesh and leave them in desired location... they grow fast, so don't worry about trimming.

[sbladerz]

Hi Wongce, thank you for ur reply. I chance upon ur blog and I must say I like it. Very informative.
I would like to check, with the current gravels I have. Will I be able to plant the roots of my aquatic plants into the gravels?
Thanks!

[Urban Aquaria]

Here are the ID names for those plants in your tank:

Left: Bacopa Monnieri (medium growth rate)
Middle: Rotala sp "Nanjenshan" (fast growth rate, the leaves are currently in emersed form, they will eventually transition to bright green thin needle shaped submersed form leaves)
Right: Egeria Densa (fast growth rate, good nitrate absorber)

All of them are relatively easy plants to grow and can do okay in your setup. It'll be easier to plant those plants in aquasoil or smaller grained gravel though, so maybe can consider changing the substrate if possible.

[wongce]

for me i like sand setup... low cost, lesser headache. As you know most plants need soil to grow...but some do not... well if you already have sand and setup already completed...sit back and relax bah... i planted crypts, vallisneria, polyspema,some unknown buceps successfully in sand only tank... well google a bit before you buy plants..

you can setup another tank with aquasoil...lol then you can have more choice of plants...

[sbladerz]

Thanks for the ID Urban Aquaria.
I was thinking of smaller grain gravels if aqua soil is too costly.

[sbladerz]

Thanks again Wongce. I might be opting for smaller grain gravel. Apart from the current plants I have. I'm thinking of getting some java fern or Amazon swords if I Can find them at pasir ris farmway. Heading there now. The problem is the farmway dun exactly name their plants.

[wongce]

correction, yours is pebbles setup... not sand setup... haha eh... well use smaller grain of sand... you can go to shop and ask for Lapis sand... cheap and good...

Paris ris farms eh... long time no go ...haha good place to hunt for plants... well there is no need to go so far if you are only looking for few stuff, your local LFS should be sufficient... note, equipment price in farmway area is a bit on the high side...

[sbladerz]

Hey thanks. I saw some aqua soil for sale.
There's dymax, gex and some other brands like dennerle, aqua basis plus and porpoise (Chinese brand). They have huge price difference.
Will any of them do the job of simple plants setup?

[Urban Aquaria]

The various brands of soil will do the job of providing a substrate for the plants to root in... the difference would be how much nutrients there are in the soil and how well they buffer the tank parameters to encourage healthy plant growth.

ADA aquasoil is one of the most popular soil substrate amongst planted tank owners as it contains lots of nutrients and maintains favourable tank parameters for a longer period of time, but it releases alot of ammonia in the beginning to boost plant growth, so if you were to use it in your current tank, you'll need to re-home the fishes in another tank temporarily while the tank cycles with the new aquasoil substrate.

Btw, this will be a good excuse to *ahem* start up another tank.

[sbladerz]

Thanks alot!
Haha my current tank I got it only less than 2 weeks. Too soon to start another.
I got the dymax soil instead.
Anything I should look out for when preparing the and scaping the tank?

[Urban Aquaria]

Thanks alot!
Haha my current tank I got it only less than 2 weeks. Too soon to start another.
I got the dymax soil instead.
Anything I should look out for when preparing the and scaping the tank?

Slope the soil substrate to the back to enhance the depth perspective. The stem plants you currently have will grow tall so place them in the background.

Maybe can look at some easy carpet plants for the foreground, like glosso or marsilea hirsuta... or maybe can even try micranthemum 'monte carlo' too.

A fun alternative is to flatten the marimo ball into a mat and use as a foreground carpet, it can actually look quite nice and would be very low maintenance... just remove from the tank periodically to rinse off debris (like a rug) then put it back.

[sbladerz]

thank you so much everyone for ur advice and recommendation.
in the end i bought dymax substrate and some new plants. i passed my previous plants to my dad.
here is my new tank setup.
im really a newbie with all these but im more than happy with what i have now.

[leghair]

uploadfromtaptalk1401080157440.jpg I got the same tank as you hahaah

Sent from my LG-D802 using Tapatalk

[Danialavr]

Hahaha almost similar! No carpet?

[sbladerz]

Haha yes almost the same tank. mine is aqua japan or something.
Danialavr, i have a question.
How do I go about cleaning my tank when there are plants all over the place. Do i use gravel vacuum to slightly nudge the soil surface?

[Danialavr]

Personally i think you dont need to clean anything other than the algae build up on the tank walls. Vacuum would disrupt the soil and that is not a good thing. Besides, your tank seems easy to maintain since you have a few fishes and the plants are all big leaf types so dont worry about cleaning haha just let it sit there and run on its own.

[Urban Aquaria]

How do I go about cleaning my tank when there are plants all over the place. Do i use gravel vacuum to slightly nudge the soil surface?

For soil based planted tanks, most people don't vacuum the substrate as it'll usually be covered with plants, any dirt and waste material accumulated on the substrate are broken down by the beneficial bacteria in the soil and the nutrients are used by the plant roots.

You can still vacuum open empty spaces on soil substrates though, just hover the vacuum pipe 2-3cm above the substrate to draw up any loose bits of debris, but don't dig it into the substrate as that will tend to mess and break up the soil.

Btw, i noticed in your latest tank photo the plants in the front look like java ferns? If they are, their rhizomes should be kept above the soil (not planted into it), or else they will rot.

[sbladerz]

Btw, i noticed in your latest tank photo the plants in the front look like java ferns? If they are, their rhizomes should be kept above the soil (not planted into it), or else they will rot.

How do i plant the java ferns? I don't think the roots are long enough to be in the soil. Appreciate help, thanks.