Tired of those plastic plants? Or maybe heard about some of the benefits of live plants and want to provide the best for your fish? Just need something to compete with that algae for nutrients? Here's something to help you get started with your planting, without shelling out a few hundred bucks.

First, consider your fish. If you have single tailed fish, a planted tank may just be a no go, they tend to be a bit more interested in eating live plants than fancy golds. Try a few cheap plants out for at least 2 weeks to get an idea of if your fish are going to eat them. Just because they do at first doesn't mean they will keep doing it, mine like to taste test new plants, but then they leave them alone after a week or two.

Second, your substrate. If you have gravel, you should be able to plant in that. If you are bare bottom, you can add gravel, or plant in pots instead. You do not *need* a plant substrate for most plants, and unless you really want to get into planting, you don't need more than about an inch of gravel. No matter what substrate you get, root feeding plants will need root tabs.

Third, lighting. Stock lighting for most tanks is very little, generally less than 1 watt per gallon. This is not enough for many plants, but it IS enough for most goldfish resistant plants. You do not *need* to get really expensive lighting to have live plants, unless you want to get really into it or have your heart dead set on plants that require more light.

Fourth, ferts and co2. Unless you start to plant the tank heavily, it is unlikely you need to deal with these, the exception being a few root tabs for heavy root feeders. Co2 is not needed unless you are dealing with at least 1.5 watts per gallon.

Low light is less than 1wpg - 1.5wpg
Medium light is 1.5wpg - 2.5wpg
I won't deal with high light in this

Watts are flourescent lighting, if you have an incandescent hood head to nnnnnn or the hardware store and pick up some screw in flourescents (the 10-15w kind usually fit into the hood well).

Now the plants, which ones should you start with?

Low light/no algae issues:
Anubias - many varieties, very slow growing, thick rubbery leaves, fairly expensive, plant the roots but not the rhizome or attach it to driftwood or rocks
Crypts - many varieties, slow growing, prone to melting after a move (some leaves fall apart, it may look dead for a while), a root feeder so use root tabs around them
Java Fern - several varieties, very slow growing, easy to find, best tied to driftwood or rocks
Java Moss - good spawning place for many fish, must be tied to driftwood or rocks, slow growing

Low light/algae issues:
Anacharis - easy to find, very fast growing, some fish will like to eat it but it can usually grow faster than it's eaten, can be floated or planted
Hornwort - somewhat harder to find, very fast growing, may be eaten by some fish, can be floated or planted

Medium light/no algae issues:
All plants listed above +
Wisteria - fairly fast growing, many fish like to eat it, can be floated or planted
Water Sprite - similar to and often confused with wisteria, can be floated or planted
Compact Sword - stays about 6-8 inches tall so a good sword for smaller tanks, propagates by growing little plants on stalks that can be cut off and planted when large enough, root feeder
Amazon Sword - can get very large so more suitable for large tanks (55g+), root feeder
Madagascar Lace Plant - grows from a bulb and has unique lacy leaves, can get fairly large

Medium light/algae issues:
Green Hygro - grows like a weed with enough light, illegal in Florida and Texas
Water Sprite also works for this purpose, as do the plants listed for low light algae control

NON AQUATIC PLANTS (often sold in pet shops as aquatic):
Mondo grass
Purple Waffle
Aluminum plant
Arrowhead
Brazilian Sword
Pinapple plant
Hedge
Scarlet Hygro (Sunset Hygro is aquatic)
Sweetflag
Dragon Flame

Don't buy these, they will not grow and will eventually rot and pollute your tank.

This guide is intended just to get you started with plants, if you become more interested, and find plants work well with your fish, you may want to upgrade your substrate or lighting, I'll add info about that later. Too many people get started with the wrong plants for their setup or have a fish store tell them they need to buy 200 dollars worth of equipment to start with plants and end up discouraged, I want to help people avoid that.

I have not included all plants that will work for each setup, simply some of the most common and ones I have experience with or have seen a lot of people post they had success with with goldfish.

Some good sites to learn more about planting and to research specific plants:
http://www.plantgeek.net
http://www.plantedtank.net

That's excellent information Ceridwen! Thank you for posting.

that was very informative thank you!

That's a nice write-up Ceridwen!! I'm sure that will be very helpful for the beginner planters!

Excellent thread. I have been considering live plants and had lots of questions. With that post I will be able to start whenever I want with only a few more questions.

Thanks for taking the time to write that.
Laurie

quick question, what are root tabs? is that plant food?

Root tabs are little fertilizer tablets that you push into the substrate. I use Flourish root tabs by SeaChem.

Ceridwen, that post was very helpful indeed for me very nice information.
yeah... thanks for writing that

Ceridwen, great job!! I can only agree with you on those non aquatic plants. I got a Purple waffle from Petsupermarket, and that thing just looks horrible. NO growing, shriveled, losing leaves all over the place, while the rather difficult and light loving madagaskar lace takes off like the dickens!
BTW, I found a nice spot for this thread!....

Woot! Stickied! Cool!

Speaking of non aquatic plants, I saw mondo grass being sold in a pot (ie normal terrestrial style) at Lowe's today, got a kick out of that, it looked MUCH happier than in the tanks in pet stores!

Great job hun, I placed it as one of the research pages

http://www.kokosgoldfish.com/PlantYourGold...ldfishTank.html

Can someone post something about sterilising plants in this sticky as well? I am looking around for this and have found different suggestions so far, a tad confusing. Some say put potassium permanganate solution (light pink-purple coloured) for ?? timelength. Others say 1teaspoon of PP per ~gallon for 30 secs. I also recall reading about quarantining a plant for weeks first. Is there a link to a list of possible "safe" methods of disinfecting new plants I'm missing here? Thanks

Thank you sooooooo much!

thanks that really helps alot

YIPEE......
I was just going to look around for info on plants...and I saw this!!! Great job... This is sure to be a huge help to everyone on here!!

nice one!
never had much luck with plants though myself. My goldies tend to get peckish.

Nice topic. I printed it out so I can take it to the store with me. Plan on having plants in my new 100 gal tank, and then put some into my older, smaller tanks as well.

sick writeup...
im just starting over again with the fish tanks...
and im planting both my 50 and 29 gallon simultaneously... this thread was a lot of help.

There are a lot more non-aquatic plants being sold as aquatic now. Its sad because many are dead and rotting in the tank but the suppliers aren't getting it yet. Any plant that resembles a terrestral fern like this: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=htt...GLG:en%26sa%3DN is not aquatic. Bamboo dominates every fish store I've been too, and this will not survive long fully submerged. They are also selling small peace lilies as "umbrella plants" and they too will not last long either.

great info, someone really should pin that!

Lol, Tropicana, this thread is already pinned

could you please elaborate on what you mean by "algae issues" does that mean that they encourage algae growth?

Thanks

Tommorow I'm going to make my first attempt to plant my tank! It will be so much prettier than that plastic one I have now.. I was just wondering if anybody could give me the scoop on java moss before I go out and get any plants..is it easy to grow?