live aquarium plants?

Question

i have a 55 gallon fishtank with 2 15 watt lights. the lights are brand new. i wanted to know what plants would be easy to care for with these conditions. also can i add snails? what will they do for my tank?

Answer 1

one of my previous answers -

firstly - there are two types of underwater plants. normal plants and "true aquarium" plants.

normal plants at a petstore will only last maybe 5 or 6 weeks in the water before they die or turn to mush and have to be replaced (theres nothing wrong with using these plants).

"true aquarium plants" are plants that do actually live in aquariums and underwater and they last for YEARS and YEARS. your petstore might have a couple, you can tell the difference because these plants are usually four or more times the price of the normal plants.

now for the normal plants, NO, you do not need soil or sand. just plant them in the gravel..... the PH and lighting you have for the fish are fine for the plants.

MOST of the true aquarium plants do NOT need soil or sand either - they can be planted in the gravel. some of them however, do need to be in little pots with soil and stuff in them. however, they will be like this when you go and see them in the petshop.... you just bring them home and put them in your tank like that.

now a heap of people will get on here saying you need fertilizers and special lighting.
thats NOT true. the fish poop from your fish is the perfect fertiliser, ive been breeding true aquarium plants for years and never used anything else.

so bottom line - no, you dont need special circumstances for plants in an aquarium. a temperature of 70 and OVER will help, but you will need these temps for most fish anyway - definitely for any tropical (which will need a heated tank 74-82F).

note: catfish and suckerfish will suck on the leaves of any plants and damage them over time, possibly kill the plants if they eat them too much - so one or two catfish/suckerfish in an aquarium with live plants is plenty.

some other fish will use them as toys or eat them and rip them to shreds.... but they are still great for the health of a tank..
snails will eat the plants too, but usually not enough to harm the plants (unless you have a HEAP of snails. so snails are no problem.
.

Answer 2

Your watts per gallon rating is very low. A "low" light level would be considered 1 watt per gallon, so if the two 15 watt tubes (30 watts total) is correct, you only have slightly more than 0.5 watts per gallon. That will be hard to grow plants in under any circumstances. You may want to reconsider using live plants under your circumstances.

http://faq.thekrib.com/plant-list.html
http://www.yamatogreen.com/plantedtank.htm
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/PlantedTksSubWebIndex/AquariumGardenSubWebIndex.html
http://www.fishlore.com/Plants.htm

By the way, plants DO require some nutrients for good growth. Nitrates they can get from your fish, and phosphates usually come in the tapwater and fish foods, so you can ignore these. But aquatic systems are deficient in iron, which is something you need to provide if you don't want to see your plants yellowing (chlorosis from iron deficiency). And the last time I checked a biology book, carbon dioxide (CO2) was required for photosynthesis so the plants can produce their own food and cellular material. Your plant will get some from the fish, but if you have a lot of plants (or moderate number of fish) in the tank, "some" isn't enough for the plants to really thrive like the ones you see in planted tank photographs. Supplementing the CO 2 is easy enough with a homemade CO2 injector (http://www.qsl.net/w2wdx/aquaria/diyco2.html ), but without stronger lighting, you won't be keeping that many plants that one would be needed.

You can add snails, and what they'll do will depend on which species you choose. Some are good algae eaters, others burrow into your gravel and eat the organic wastes (and keep the gravel stirred up so there's less chance for hydrogen sulfide gas deposits to build up (bad news for your fish). Some of the more popular snails are mystery (apple) snails, ramshorns, nerites, and Malaysian trumpet snails. I'll put some info on these below: http://www.applesnail.net/
http://www.fishpondinfo.com/snail2.htm
http://www.yamatogreen.com/MalaysianTrumpetSnails.htm

Answer 3

Have you decided on the type of fish you're putting in your tank? Cichlids will destroy live plants, not even worth the bother, although live plant are beautiful they really do make a mess of your tank. If you are going to do live plants remember to soak them in salt water for an hour before you put them in your tank or you're going to have the snail population from h***. The snails will eventually kill all your plants too.

Answer 4

You can add snails, they'll eat some of the algae and clear up some of the mess at the bottom, and some fancier ones look pretty nice.
Any aquatic plants would look good in the tank submerged but floating ones are more suitable for ponds. You will have to trim them if they grow too long. You can search for images of submerged aquatic(or water) plants to get an idea of what you might want.

Answer 5

Hi there...I am a bit late on the answering...we buy plants and they do slowly die. I have always believed it is because our lighting is inadequate. At least according to my book on aquarium plants. As for snails? My experience with them is bad! They will eat any live plants up and over run your tank...So I wouldn't get them. Now if you want something unusual in your tank...try turtles, frogs, or salamanders. I've seen them work, but they do require a few extras such as drift wood and food.

Answer 6

well there are some easy plants you can have, like java fern, but these doesn't really need much light. there are also a plant species called the cabomba sp. , these are perfect for your tank background and likes to get light a lot.
java moss are fine too.
get plants that'll grow fast, because they consume a lot of nitrate so that the growh of algae can be reduced!

snails, well some species may like to nibble on the plants, but that's their nature...

Answer 7

hi, Like 8 interior the nook pronounced-many so pronounced as aquarium vegetation are in basic terms commonly used vegetation that look intense-high quality underwater yet they do no longer oftentimes final long adequate to be sure themselves. in the previous I knew approximately this i replaced into conned into paying for a number of alongside with a Peace Lilly & a Variegated Dracaena (Dragon Plant). incredibly, the Dragon Plant has carried out o.k. in a pot on my windowsill for over a year now! regardless of the indisputable fact that, in the journey that your aquarium vegetation are incredibly aquatic alongside with Vallis or Elodea i'm afraid they are going to die out of water for any length of time.