Plant advice, 160 litre, low light, salt tolerant

[darkfalz]

I want to put some live plants in my 160 litre (42 gallon) tank.

I want them to be leafy and green (as opposed to ferny which might become messy) and easy to plant into 2-3 inch loose gravel, must tolerate the small amount of salt I put in there (1 teaspoon per 10 litres) and be able to grow in low natural light - I have lights on the aquarium but prefer not to use them often, I could give them a few hours a week though.

Any advice? I'd like a bit of variety

[shade2dope]

I dont know much about plants but i think when people say low light they mean wpg not how long they are on a day i thnk that you still need to have the lights on for 8 hours a day if iam wrong someone correct me

[Sowilu]

Originally Posted by shade2dope

I dont know much about plants but i think when people say low light they mean wpg not how long they are on a day i thnk that you still need to have the lights on for 8 hours a day if iam wrong someone correct me

Your right its not how long you keep the light on but how many wpg. I usually try to keep my light on as long as the days outside (this might be wrong but I feel it more natural.....). JustOneMore20 and others know more.

[darkfalz]

I have had java moss before, it grew great with no lighting, but it was messy and ugly. But this is what I mean, I just want it to grow with natural light and CO2/waste from the fish.

[shade2dope]

you ean you have sunlight hitting your tank... if so thats not good

[darkfalz]

It's not in direct sunlight, but it's not sitting in the dark either. Just low level natural light...

[Damon]

Here is a list of easy plants.....
http://plantgeek.net/plantguide_list.php?category=8

[darkfalz]

Here are my new plants, I know the one on the right is anibus (something like that) but I forgot what the other two are. These were recommended by the guy at the shop as being ok for not having lots of light - seemed to know his stuff as wasn't eager to sell me stuff that I wanted.

Now that I have some plants to suck up a bit more waste and a healthy supply of filter cartridges, I can get some more fish - after giving these a month to grow and make sure they are ok. I was thinking some female guppies and regular platies (I have the long bodied variegated type) and maybe a fancy molly or two for a nice collection of peaceful livebearers.

[JustOneMore20]

The Anubias should not be planted. I'd tie it to a rock or piece of wood. You don't want the thick part at the end (the rhizome) to be buried (it will rot).

The one to the left of the Anubias looks like Wisteria. It may do ok in very low light, but it won't thrive IME. The plant to the far left also looks like Wistera, though it may be Water Sprite as its leaves look a tad thinner. If you bought them together though, they are probably the same plant.

The short plant looks like a Vallisneria, though I'm not certain.

You could get alot more anubias and tie them to rocks/wood in bunches to get more planted parts in the tank if you wanted.

You should also look into Java Fern which should do well in low light and with some salt in the tank. It should be tied to wood or rocks as well....and I suggest you tie it in groups.

[Sowilu]

It looks nice I like it. I second wath JOM20 said the small ones to the left look like vallisneria I have 5 growing in my fish tank.

[mgamer20o0]

whats the salt for?

also a list of the low light plants
http://plantgeek.net/plantguide_list...=1&filter_by=2

Your right its not how long you keep the light on but how many wpg.

i feel that its both. you can have 10wpg but if you only had them on a hour it wouldnt to much good. you could have 10 watts in a 50 gal tank on 14 hours a day and still do no good because they just need more light.

i have my lights on 10 hours a day on a timer. most people have the lights on from 8-12 hours.

with the light from the sun its really hard to tell what may or may not grow. start with the easy stuff and work your way up.

[jones57742]

Df:

You have received "a ton" of good advice in this thread.

Perhaps I can add to the thread based on my experience.

The following plants will prosper in a salinity concentration of 1Tblspn/20G and light at "what I would guess could be described as" less than 1W/Gal.

Anubias barteri round leaf
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...cfm?pCatId=810

Anacharis
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...cfm?pCatId=780

Cabomba
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...cfm?pCatId=796

These plants can also prosper in water with salt concentrations ranging from 1Tblspn/15G to 1Tblspn/7.5G when present over several weeks.

TR

[darkfalz]

Strange, all the anubias were planted at the store. It does have a large bit of root that I have left sticking out of the gravel. I liked the way these looked the most but they were also the most expensive, $20 for the large.

Yes the first and third are the same plant, the bunch was huge so I split it into two. I think it may be Wisteria (it had two different size leaves, I chose the smaller one). There is some spiny looking growth at the end of the grass runners, looks almost like a fungus - something to be worried about?

I am just trying these out, I may go for better plants if I decide I am comfortable leaving the lights on 8 hours a day.

I also brought home a hitchhiker, a tiny tiny snail that was crawling around on the grass plant. I wonder if the salt will kill him - I know these can breed asexually (with themselves?) so I wonder if I should take him out before I get overrun with baby snails. I put salt in because my tank is livebearers and they like salt, and I have always used it just as a disease preventative.

Here are some closeups, maybe someone can identify them. I should have written them down (and taken some photos of the ones I liked) but I didn't

[emc7]

Hm, some people hate snails, some love them. The eat uneaten fish food and clean algae of plant leaves and some fish eat them. But they can multiply out of control if you overfeed your fish and they can get into filter impellers and make noise.

[jones57742]

Originally Posted by darkfalz

I also brought home a hitchhiker, a tiny tiny snail that was crawling around on the grass plant. I wonder if the salt will kill him

Not a concentrations of less than 1Tblspn/10G.
(Please note that I do not know if concentrations greater the above cited will be lethal to them).

Originally Posted by darkfalz

so I wonder if I should take him out before I get overrun with baby snails.

Yes!
Been there, done that and got the Tee Shirt.
The one which you see will probably grow to about half the size of tip of your little finger.
Although you only observe one probably 10 or more are present in the tank.
If you start removing them as they become visible you may can avert what may become an infestation.

The story set forth below is hard earned experience.
Due to the purchase of new plants I observed several of these little devils on the tank walls within a few days of the induction of the plants into my aquarium.
(I believe, but I could be wrong, that if I would have began removing them at this point in time the "rest of the story" would not have occurred.)
Within two weeks thereafter they were many observable on the walls of the tank and egg "sacks" began appearing on the walls of the tank.
(In my "youthful ignorance" I believed that with my "right size feeding" they would "go away".)
Within four weeks these snails were "all over" the tank walls, the plants, the rocks, the wood, etc. (their density on the tank walls as well as their egg sacks precluded significant observation into the tank).
The only reasonable "snail fighting" option (note that I did not say eradication) at that point in time was loaches and I chose to use Yoyo's.
Within 4 weeks of inducing these 1.5" Yoyo's (7 in a 110G tank) I had 3" Yoyo's and no visible snails.
Although not visible the density of snails in the tank is still fairly significant as I find many very small snail shells on my mechanical filtration media and bottom cleaning of the tank results in the removal of many very small snail shells as well.

TR

[darkfalz]

Wow, that's scary. Now I can't find him and I'm a bit worried. I know lots of people have a snail or two in their tanks and they don't get overrun. I will keep an eye out for them. I should probably have checked the plants before they went in but this guy was really quite tiny.

[jones57742]

Originally Posted by darkfalz

Wow, that's scary.

Did not mean to "scare you" but was just relating experience.

Originally Posted by darkfalz

I should probably have checked the plants before they went in but this guy was really quite tiny.

IMHO "checking the plants" would have "not done any good".
These "little devils" are many times not visible to the "naked eye".
I occasionally place some very fine mechanical media (100Mu and 50Mu) in my filtration process.
I can observe the very, very small gray snail shells due to the white white background of the fine mechanical media.
Once again and IMHO removing them from the tank "at this stage" may work.
(I really, really hope so.)

If it does not IMHO yoyo's are in your future.

(Please note that an element can be added to the tank which eradicate all snails but I will not use it and cannot recommend it's use as I do not know that this element will not cause permanent damage to fishies.)

TR

[darkfalz]

If I only brought in one and it's a baby, can it still produce offspring? I understand most of them are "hermaphrodites" but don't they still need another snail to fertilise their eggs?

I'll just keep an eye out.

[jones57742]

Originally Posted by darkfalz

If I only brought in one and it's a baby, can it still produce offspring? I understand most of them are "hermaphrodites" but don't they still need another snail to fertilise their eggs?.

Yes!

Originally Posted by darkfalz

I'll just keep an eye out.

You are not getting my "drift here".
Hopefully you do not have as many which are on the plants but are not visible as I did.
At this "point in time" when you "see one a tank wall" then remove it.
This may work.

Df:
When young these are very, very small little devils and many are too small to be observed with the "naked eye".

TR

[darkfalz]

I've split the grass into two and going to see how that grows, and I've taken the anubias out and it's now loosley tied to my fake rock. I hope it grows, then I'll cut the rhizome in two and attach them to small pieces of wood and hope to get two. Then my betta can have one, he he.