# Plants that work with standard gravel substrate?



## Scyry (Dec 1, 2010)

I starting up my Aqueon 26 gal. Bowfront. I hadn't thought of plants prior to reading around this forum. I just have a standard gravel stubstrate in the tank, and have started cycling it. I don't want to start over. So I have a few questions:

1.) Is there plants that will survive in this substrate with something like plant tabs and fertilizers? 

2.) If so which plants are recommended? I am guessing Amazon swords from my reading?

3.) What can I do to improve the enviroment for the plants besides changing out the substrate? (What fertilizers?)

I have an Aquaclear 50 HOB filter and a air stone driven underground filter for filtration. I plan to put in community fish; 5-8 Cories, Bristlenose/other small Pleco/Oto, some Kuhli Loaches and a few mid water fish like Tetras or Gouramis. I have a few rocks to make hiding places and plan on placing some driftwood in there if I get a pleco that needs wood.

I don't want an aquarium over grown with plants, but I would like a few in each back coner that are placed in the substrate and grow towards the top. Or something that would attach to some driftwood. I don't care for floating plants.

Thanks for the input. I'll start a build thread once I get farther along. In the future I plan on building a larger tank and will go further with the plants. So this is my baby step/learning tank for plants. I am used to fish, just not plants.


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## beaslbob (May 29, 2009)

Most plants will work in gravel but sand does allow the roots to have more to "latch" on too.

for some fish I have found peat moss keeps the kh and gh from rising therefore keeps the softness of the water in line.

I don't use ferts of any kind. Just the wastes from the fish.

anacharis will tend to pull up and float with gravel but stay put better with sand.

vals, small potted plants (small swords, crypts, anutibas etc etc) have good roots and will root nicely in gravel. as will the amazon sword you mentioned also.

One thing to do is to "super glue" on a bunch of rocks to the bottom of the plants to hold the them in place. Or at least with the bottoms in the gravel.


my .02


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## Scyry (Dec 1, 2010)

beaslbob said:


> Most plants will work in gravel but sand does allow the roots to have more to "latch" on too.
> 
> for some fish I have found peat moss keeps the kh and gh from rising therefore keeps the softness of the water in line.
> 
> ...


The gravel I have is small, and I mixed in about 25% to 33% of really small gravel. 

Where do you keep the peat moss? Bag it and throw it in the filter? Bury it in the substrate?


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## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

The first thing I would do if I were you and are considering planting, is disconnect your under-gravel filter. Plants don't like to have water flowing around their roots. Also, root tabs (in my opinion) are the only thing you would need to keep a plant happy in the substrate you have right now. I kept a tiger lotus, amazon sword, and a crypt in my 10 gallon for close to a year and raised them from bulbs with nothing but root tabs and some Leaf Zone.

Besides root tabs I would look at some Leaf Zone iron supplement and maybe some new fluorescent bulbs. The light fixture you have should have a maximum power rating (in Watts), and you can go to your local pet store and look for a nice Daylight bulb with the proper power rating that would be much better for plants than the standard fluorescents that come in the black plastic hoods.

Keep in mind with raising plants - 
Some plants have snails living on them, so you might introduce pond snails into your tank. Make sure the plants you buy don't have little white egg pouches on them. And if you do get snails, come back to us for advice!
And...:fish10:
Make sure you get "low light" plants like amazon swords, crypts, etc. Most fish stores and online aquarium suppliers will classify plants as low light.

Plants are great for water quality - they consume ammonia, nitrate, and CO2 in the tank and produce O2. They help de-stress your fish by giving them a more natural environment as well. You'll see when you get them!


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## Scyry (Dec 1, 2010)

Picked up a crypt, couple small amazon swords, an anubias, and another plant I thought was an anubias but turned out to be something else last night. I'll get some pictures tonight.

I read about 'Crypt Melt'. Is there anything I can do to prevent this or lessen it? Most of what I read is they die back when put in a new tank and take a while to come back.


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## beaslbob (May 29, 2009)

Scyry said:


> The gravel I have is small, and I mixed in about 25% to 33% of really small gravel.
> 
> Where do you keep the peat moss? Bag it and throw it in the filter? Bury it in the substrate?


I do agree that you should remove the undergravel filter.

If you do that then may I suggest you just do a one time rebuild. 

take the water out of the tank into some storage container. (or for that matter just dump it out and replace---but only of you have no fish).

The peat can make a nice bottom layer for the substrate. So put in 1" of peat moss and fill with water.

the clean up the mess and add 1" play sand. Fill with water and clean again.

Then add 1" of you gravel on top of that (I use pc select but gravel is fine). fill and clean again

Now add plants. aunbias and crypts are slow growing small plants. the Amazon sword get larger but is slow growing as well. I would recommend adding some anacharis and vals for faster growing plants.

Plant the plants in the new substrate.

Then slowly fill with tank with water poured over a dish to prevent stirring up the substrate.

That should result in a tank that is almost immediately clear and crystal clear in a couple of days. The substrate will hold down the plants nicely as well.


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## chris oe (Feb 27, 2009)

If you have an undergravel filter, you might want to get some bolbitis heudelotti (I think I'm spelling that right) lots of people have a hard time growing it because they try to bury the rhisome, and because it likes water circulation, but it loves undergravel filters. I have mine growing in gravel about half red slate half flourite and all undergravel filters, and it is gorgeous. About every six months I have to pull it all out and cut it about in half, and the LFS practically dances when they see me coming with my bucket 'cause they can't buy it as big and green as it gets in my tanks ('cause nobody runs undergravel filters anymore, I guess.) Its a great back ground plant 'cause it gets really tall, doesn't need special lighting, puts up with anything I throw at it, water wise. All you have to do is put a weight or two on the rhisome so it stays down until it puts a couple of hold fast roots into the gravel (or onto a piece of drift wood, if you want to anchor it that way some fishing line will do great)

Java fern also does just fine with UGFs, gets huge and happy almost anyplace, though, so long as the water is pretty good. Its also a little easier to find than the bolbitis.


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## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

Not much you can do about crypt melt, or melt from any other plant that is grown partially out of water. The plant will survive, don't worry.


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