Background "Wall"

[1HawksFan70]

Hello everyone! I'm getting back into fishkeeping after many years of being out of it. I'm SLOWLY setting up a 75g Peacock tank. In the past I've never had live plants, but now I wanna try. Was thinking of Anubias Barteri and Coffeefolia in the foreground,  But, what I'm really looking for is a tall plant that will spread and make a "wall" covering the back of the tank. That will do well with low/med light and African Cichlids. Any advice is much appreciated! Thank you!

[Rube_Goldfish]

@Mmiller2001 has a very cool moss wall in one of his tanks. I'd think that even cichlids would leave that alone. Otherwise, maybe vallisneria if you're willing to carefully prune and replant runners where you any them to be? Or Cryptocoryne spiralis, if you're willing to buy a whole bunch of pots of it.

Actually, on the second thought, the crypt might be too vulnerable to the cichlids' grazing...

[CJs Aquatics]

Hey @1HawksFan70, welcome back to the hobby and good luck on this awesome adventure your embarking in. To answer your question perhaps depending on maintenance val might be a nice option, it grows tall and looks similar to grass, however if not maintained regularly it can and will spread. If money is no object, the back of the tank could be lined with something like matala mat and planted with more Anubias creating a wall overtime. (Similar rhizome plants would work as well). Big fan of Java fern favorite being “thors hammer” Java fern, or bolbitis as far as hardy enough, I suppose they could work in the background as well. The go to will probably be moss, it’s the plant I see most people make backgrounds out of especially because a lot of times it already comes placed on weighted squares for easy placement. Lastly being an out of the box thinker, typically I’ve used regular black backgrounds however I saw someone carpet s repens and it made me think, If it can carpet, it can probably background. This theory isn’t tested but personally in the future I would love to try some oddball ideas like a s. Repens background or a pearlweed one. Hope something in here helps. Good luck.

[1HawksFan70]

Thanks all for your advice!

Another question; how will Val do in a  sand substrate? Alternatives to plant in sand that may do better?

Easiest way to plant it in sand? 

Thanks again!

[Rube_Goldfish]

On 1/21/2023 at 4:31 PM, 1HawksFan70 said:

Thanks all for your advice!

Another question; how will Val do in a  sand substrate? Alternatives to plant in sand that may do better?

Easiest way to plant it in sand? 

Thanks again!

Provided with root tabs it should be fine, but I'll caveat that I've never had vallisneria myself.

[CJs Aquatics]

I can confirm personally my Val grows well in sand. Best plants I personally own that grow well in sand are my lily, Amazon swords of all types, and my crypts however the Val does well in sand. I will note that it appears that if the cap is deep it struggles a bit more then when it is shallow capped, probably due to being able to reach the nutrients easier but this is speculation. Doesn’t get easier then purchasing your favorite Val, and literally burying the whole pot it comes in in the substrate perhaps with a starter root tab then watching it spread like wildfire after perhaps an initial melt. Also growing octopus plant like crazy in sand so you have quite a few options I just listed briefly some of the ones I’ve had success with.

[1HawksFan70]

On 1/22/2023 at 3:24 AM, CJs Aquatics said:

I can confirm personally my Val grows well in sand. Best plants I personally own that grow well in sand are my lily, Amazon swords of all types, and my crypts however the Val does well in sand. I will note that it appears that if the cap is deep it struggles a bit more then when it is shallow capped, probably due to being able to reach the nutrients easier but this is speculation. Doesn’t get easier then purchasing your favorite Val, and literally burying the whole pot it comes in in the substrate perhaps with a starter root tab then watching it spread like wildfire after perhaps an initial melt. Also growing octopus plant like crazy in sand so you have quite a few options I just listed briefly some of the ones I’ve had success with.

So,  it will still grow/spread if buried in the pot it came in? I figured that would severely limit its growth. 

I was thinking of strictly using sand,  but, if I did just use it as a cap,  what would you suggest for substrate underneath it for better plant growth? And,  how deep of a sand cap would you suggest?  I was only thinking of having a total of a couple inches of sand before. 

[Rube_Goldfish]

Sand alone with root tabs would be fine. There's more maintenance in the sense that you have to regular put root tabs in, but that usually isn't too big of a deal.

You could do a sand cap over an aqua soil. That's easier, in that you'd have 18 to 30 months worth of nutrients before you had to either start root tabbing or re-do the substrate, but it's definitely more expensive, especially right up front. If you do that, make sure the sand cap is think enough to lock the nutrients down and out of the water column; some aqua soils leech ammonia. Probably an inch would do, unless you have digging animals.

You could do a sand cap over top soil, which will give similar results to aqua soil much more affordably, but it's more of a wild card in terms of potential nutrient leech, and could potentially be messy, especially if you're the type to uproot and replant plants often. Search for "dirted tank" for more about this approach.

Personally, for an African cichlid tank, I would just go with straight sand (I like pool filter sand but there are a lot of options) with strategically placed root tabs as needed. Cichlids will have their own ideas about planting, so they'll make a mess of anything else you might try, and a lot of rooted plants have a potential to struggle anyway because of that. And if you're in there doing regular water changes, it's pretty trivial to just pop a couple root tabs in.

[1HawksFan70]

Thank you so much for all the advice!!

[CJs Aquatics]

I 2nd what @Rube_Goldfishsays, sand and root tabs will work perfectly and the Val will spread just fine even if left in the pot. You will see the runners jump from right out of the pot and the new plants grow from there, it’s probably the easiest way to go about it. For cichlids if you decided to go the capped route I would probably run a clay based substrate underneath 1/2 in to an inch of sand so as stated previously leach is minimal. It’s your choice but I think the bottom line is, Val regardless of whatever type you choose and sand will do just fine and eventually grow tall enough and dense enough to create a background effect for you in your tank with proper maintenance. 

[1HawksFan70]

Would Easy Green work too? Or just root tabs because of runners under the substrate?

[Rube_Goldfish]

You'd want Easy Green for the epiphytes (Java fern, anubias, bolbitis, for example) anyway, since they're water column feeders, not root feeders. Truth be told, I don't know whether vallisneria is principally a root feeder or a water column feeder.