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Starting a new fresh water aquarium


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Hi all, I've had discus, african cichlids, and reef aquarium for a number of years.  I got out of the hobby 10 years ago after my reef tank crashed due to power outage while we were away.  I will be setting up a new fresh water aquarium with discus and school of smaller fish shortly, and this time I want to put plants  in it to give it a more natural look.  I've never had live fresh water plants before.  I already have a few questions that I will be posting for guidance.

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On 1/24/2024 at 4:07 PM, stargazer said:

Hi all, I've had discus, african cichlids, and reef aquarium for a number of years.  I got out of the hobby 10 years ago after my reef tank crashed due to power outage while we were away.  I will be setting up a new fresh water aquarium with discus and school of smaller fish shortly, and this time I want to put plants  in it to give it a more natural look.  I've never had live fresh water plants before.  I already have a few questions that I will be posting for guidance.

Hello @stargazer! Welcome to the forum. I just ordered some live plants from AC! 

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Hello all! Just started my first fresh water aquarium with live plants! Looking for any tips, and confirmation on something. Is it really about as easy as using the liquid fertilizer once a week? Below is a screen grab of what I've ordered that will be the beginning of a new home for a Betta fish. 

 

 image.jpeg.631457c9cb4a779d736593b9453dfc63.jpeg

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On 1/26/2024 at 5:11 PM, MShepard40 said:

Hello all! Just started my first fresh water aquarium with live plants! Looking for any tips, and confirmation on something. Is it really about as easy as using the liquid fertilizer once a week? Below is a screen grab of what I've ordered that will be the beginning of a new home for a Betta fish. 

 

 image.jpeg.631457c9cb4a779d736593b9453dfc63.jpeg

Hello there and I am actually about to find out myself with these products I just ordered and coming tomorrow!😂here is a pic⬇️

0E628D9A-34E4-42B2-ADB4-B9756505774B.jpeg

Also got some fish food for my future White Cloud minnows.

Cycling tank currently 

10 gallon

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 1/26/2024 at 5:11 PM, MShepard40 said:

Hello all! Just started my first fresh water aquarium with live plants! Looking for any tips, and confirmation on something. Is it really about as easy as using the liquid fertilizer once a week? Below is a screen grab of what I've ordered that will be the beginning of a new home for a Betta fish. 

 

 image.jpeg.631457c9cb4a779d736593b9453dfc63.jpeg

Hey! welcome! 

The plants you chose both benefit from liquid fertilizer AND root tabs! Don't forget about them!

At the start, I too thought that Easy Green might be the only thing I need. 

After putting in root tabs about once a month, I started to notice the growth in all my plants that were planted in gravel explode. Literally. Dwarf sag covered the entire front of my tank and my Amazon Sword was growing a new leaf every week!

All I can say is, look into it, give it a try! Very beneficial to the tank, especially if not much mulm/nutrients have been built up in the gravel yet. 

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On 2/9/2024 at 9:32 AM, maspohno said:

Hey! welcome! 

The plants you chose both benefit from liquid fertilizer AND root tabs! Don't forget about them!

At the start, I too thought that Easy Green might be the only thing I need. 

After putting in root tabs about once a month, I started to notice the growth in all my plants that were planted in gravel explode. Literally. Dwarf sag covered the entire front of my tank and my Amazon Sword was growing a new leaf every week!

All I can say is, look into it, give it a try! Very beneficial to the tank, especially if not much mulm/nutrients have been built up in the gravel yet. 

Yeah I have had anubias for maybe 2 weeks and doing great! Java fern died but that was totally on me because..long story! 🤣

 

It didn’t really…die but I had to get rid of it

Edited by Bigdog99
Misspelled
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On 1/26/2024 at 2:11 PM, MShepard40 said:

Hello all! Just started my first fresh water aquarium with live plants! Looking for any tips, and confirmation on something. Is it really about as easy as using the liquid fertilizer once a week? Below is a screen grab of what I've ordered that will be the beginning of a new home for a Betta fish. 

Welcome.  It is and it isn't!  Green aqua has some really helpful videos for planted tank basics and they give you pretty good detail.  One of the ones I would recommend is the "water parameters" video.  Basically, in addition to things like ferts, light, co2, gh, and kh play a role in the health of a planted tank.  Think of GH/KH as your "mineral ferts". 

I am sure you'll have more questions, please feel free to ask!

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I had tried the Monte Carlo. It looks great. I did mine in a small gravel and it eventually let go. Had floating Monte Carlo for 9 months maybe. It did really well floating, kind of looked like a bigger leaved duckweed. I really liked the look, but was having to scoop it out with a fish net. Every week or so. If you have aqua soil it should stay put for you. It’s just so tiny, the roots need tiny sized substrate to latch on to. 

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On 2/10/2024 at 8:26 AM, Tony s said:

I had tried the Monte Carlo. It looks great. I did mine in a small gravel and it eventually let go. Had floating Monte Carlo for 9 months maybe. It did really well floating, kind of looked like a bigger leaved duckweed. I really liked the look, but was having to scoop it out with a fish net. Every week or so. If you have aqua soil it should stay put for you. It’s just so tiny, the roots need tiny sized substrate to latch on to. 

Is there any other like floating plants besides the duckweed stuff? I have a decent current in my tank on one side (which the white clouds love) so is there a easy one out there @Tony s? I have a lot of micro sword so no room at the bottom.

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Yes there are. Although coop doesn’t appear to have any at the moment. Things like hornwort. Water lettuce. Red root floater. Salvinia. Comboba and baby tears can be grown as floaters 

I use hornwort in a lot of my tanks. It’s really good at keeping the nitrates down 

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On 2/10/2024 at 9:09 AM, Tony s said:

Yes there are. Although coop doesn’t appear to have any at the moment. Things like hornwort. Water lettuce. Red root floater. Salvinia. Comboba and baby tears can be grown as floaters 

I use hornwort in a lot of my tanks. It’s really good at keeping the nitrates down 

Then hornwort is what I need! Nitrates are kinda high in the 10g…

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 2/9/2024 at 9:32 AM, maspohno said:

Hey! welcome! 

The plants you chose both benefit from liquid fertilizer AND root tabs! Don't forget about them!

At the start, I too thought that Easy Green might be the only thing I need. 

After putting in root tabs about once a month, I started to notice the growth in all my plants that were planted in gravel explode. Literally. Dwarf sag covered the entire front of my tank and my Amazon Sword was growing a new leaf every week!

All I can say is, look into it, give it a try! Very beneficial to the tank, especially if not much mulm/nutrients have been built up in the gravel yet. If you start getting brown after a while or holes your leave go to twice a week....I don't like root tabs it worked well to have root exposed alil let them feed off water collom itself

 

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