# Plant question



## jshank (Aug 16, 2008)

I never have had life plants before is there anything special I need to do? I read up on my fish before I got them but never really thought to read about plants. I have had one for about a month and notice it is looking pretty rough. I think one of my fish might be eating on it at night. There are holes in it and it is getting ripped off and strung out looking. The tips of it are turning brown. 

I included some pics to show what I mean and so you can see what type of plant it is. Thanks!


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## jerrybforl (Aug 15, 2008)

well i see the barbs and they will nip at anything also how much light do you have, what kind of substrate do you have, are you fertilizing, and do you have CO2 injection. as these are all important with planted tanks. you need between 2 and 3 watts of light per gallon of water. also the rotting may be from an iron defiency. so do some more homework about your tank and just explore and have fun with it. live plants hobby takes a lot of time and dedication for success.


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## jerrybforl (Aug 15, 2008)

anymore questions just ask


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## MediaHound (Jul 19, 2006)

Are you sure that's an aquatic plant?


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## jshank (Aug 16, 2008)

I know its not the barbs becauase I just put them in and it happend before that. I would think its an aquatic plant because I actually asked the people what would be good for my tank because I didnt want a plant they would lose its leaves all over.

No, I dont put anything in the tank for them. I didn't really realize I needed to until I did some reading after I posted this. I will have to get some stuff for them. Thanks for the replies. Is there any brand that seems to work better than others? Does the brand matter?


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## jerrybforl (Aug 15, 2008)

seachems ferts. or aquarium.com ferts


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## djrichie (May 15, 2008)

As jerry stated you will need to add ferts.... try and get seachems fourish and flourish excel and add them per the bottle. this will be good starting point for you. Also what is the Watts Per Gal in lighting are you using and how old are the bulbs


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## jshank (Aug 16, 2008)

The bulbs are 2 months old. I just looked and I only have 2 15 watt bulbs so I need to get higher wattage ones. It seems like it is really bright already though. I guess not. My tank is 55 gallon.


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## djrichie (May 15, 2008)

You have .3 (thats point 3) WPG reason being that two 15 watt strips, one strip per side of the tank. you will not be able to grow much in plant selection, without up grading you lighting system, but there is always java moss, java ferns are some really low light plants. Merdiahound asked what type of plant that is because I like him I'm not sure that is an aquatic plant. I know you probably bought it with aquatic plants, but that does mean it an aquatic plant. At chainstores, I seen mondo grass sold as an aquatic plant but its it not, and will die off in a month or two. 

Getting the ferts this will help and the florish excel has an oganic co2 release, so this will at least give that plant the right fuels to grow.


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## blackbeard52 (Nov 6, 2008)

Pet smart is selling a Mondo grass...it this the same grass that is planted in landscape beds? Also I have seen Spathiphyllum inserted into Beta jars...are they also aquatic crosses?

Bob


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## MediaHound (Jul 19, 2006)

Correct, they are not true aquatic plants Bob! I cringe when I see stores selling plants as aquatic plants but in fact they will only look good for a short while before you need to cough cough buy more.


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

I'll second that, those are not aquarium plants. Those would do great as a house plant or in a vivarium. 

Most of the plants that petco and petsmart sells can be used in vivariums and not aquariums.


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## Jubs (Nov 14, 2008)

I also agree that these are not aquatic plants and the rotting is due to the fact that it is submerged. That is the problem with "aquarium" plants from the large chains and even some of the mom and pop shops is the distributor claims they aquatic when they are merely bog plants and can only handle being submerged for short periods of time like in nature when there is a rainy season or high water due to rains. 

I have used plants like this to make an emerged plant filter on my old shrimp tank. There was some mondo grass a type of acorus (which I would suspect your plant to be some sort of), java moss, and some tiny java ferns. The edge of the spray bar on the internal filter would flow a couple of the outlets into the box and the water would flow through and back out through a notch I made in the box. 

The "box" was actually one of those flimsy plastic seedling planters. I super glued some black PVC on it to hold it out of the water as legs. It worked good and looked great once it matured with java moss growing all over the edges hiding the box part of it. The bottom layer of the box was filled with small lava rock and the top was dressed with Soil Master Select (the plant people will know what it is, but its basically a fired clay that works great for planted aquariums and it's cheap if you don't want to spend a ton on a plant substrate) and it worked great like I said. 

Here are a couple pictures of it:





















Sorry for the large pictures, I had to use them as the smaller options on my picture host weren't big enough to get a good view of the filter.


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