Some of my plants

Subject: Re: Some of my plants Sun Feb 10, 2008 11:12 pm

I have plants in all my tanks, even the feeder fish storage tank. I thin out the other tanks and put extra plants in there. I'm a big fan of Anubis nana and Anubis bartari. They I believe are the small and large leafed varieties of the same plant, they require a relatively low amount of light, and they look really cool as they have roots that grow down around wood looking like mangroves or something. The nana variety goes good as a mid-way-in cover, and the large variety looks good as background on the wood I have as backdrop. They are very tough plants and most fish and snails can't eat them. I am also a big fan of Java moss, and to a lesser degree Java fern. The moss grows well on wood after you tie it down first. It attaches so well that when it gets overgrown and rangey you can tear the long stuff off and there will still be a beautiful carpet covering the wood. The fern grows well in low light like the others, but the leaves that come from the store can start to die soon after purchase because very often they have been disturbed too much through handling. The good part is that new leaves will start growing out of a dying Java fern leaf in a weird way no other kind of plant's leaves grow. These new leaves can be grown nicely if you take the old dying leaf and tie that to some wood. Java fern needs wood to grow on as it won't grow in gravel. The new leaves that appear to grow off the old dying leaf will all be the same age and can thus grow together in in a way that is visually appealing, and once these new leaves get established it's easy to keep them alive. These plants can easily be grown with fluorescent shop lights with plant growing bulbs for a very low cost. One thing to know is that lights that are sold in pet stores for aquariums that are typically 15 watts say they are for plants, but it's a lie. These lights are only good enough to showcase your fish. The 40 watt flouescents from the hardware store that say 'plant bulb' will grow the above mentioned plants very well. I've used a 4 bulb, 4 foot long fixture for my 60 gallon and the plants grow beautifully. I've used a 2 bulb, 2 foot long fixture in my 20 gallon and it works great. Thus is my 2 cents on cheap, easy, beautiful freshwater planted tanks.

Subject: Re: Some of my plants Tue Feb 12, 2008 4:54 am

It sound like you got some very nice plants there. Java Fern is one of my favorite aquarium plants. I had it to grow over 24 inches high. At one time i used to supply a lot of the others pet shops here in N.S. with many different kinds and types of aquarium plants as well as a lot of tropical fish.
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