Hey everybody!

Hopefully with my next trip uptown, some live plants will be next on the list along with a heater.

Aside for those little "Grow Your Own" bulbs (Aponogeton), I have never messed with live plants and know absolutely nothing LoL. For those bulbs, all I have ever had to do is allow them to sprout in a bit of fish water, plant them in the gravel and trim back any dying leaves. No fertlizer, foods, co2, etc.

I am looking for plants for my 20 gallon tank that will be for tropicals (unless something changes, the occupants will be cories and h. rasbora). I need suggestions for some back and foreground plants.

The current lighting in the tank is an old light (no hood, just the light) from my grandma. It's a flourecent light. I'm unsure of the voltage currently for the tubes, but I can make it that the tube is only 15 watts. I will also be looking into a slightly stronger wattage with my next trip, but buying a new tube may have to be delayed for awhile. Heater is top priority next, then plants/light.

I am looking for extrememly easy to care for plants.. Very low maintence (I would really prefer not to have to purchase fertilizer.. I cannot do co2. I could perhaps look into a liquid food but I am not sure. I have never seen any carried around here, same with fertilizer.

Aside for Java Plant, I don't know of any other plants I could look for. I have not seen Java Moss for sale anywhere around here so that is out of the picture unless someplace carries it next time I'm uptown. Any other suggestions?

Since this is an uncycled tank currently, I can't be specific about my stats, but based around my other tanks, I hope this helps

PH: 7.2 (all my other tanks are right at 7.2... tap is 7.0)
Temp: 75 F (that will be about where it will be with the heater..)
Light: 15 watts (will see if I can find a higher wattage tube next trip that'll fit the light)

There are no metals, chemicles, etc in the water. We do have a softner, however I am not sure how soft the water is. I do not have a test kit for that and I can't find the results from our well when we first moved here LoL.

If any other info is needed about the water, let me know! Any suggestions on plants and their care would be helpful! I'm unsure if I can locate any food (and I know there is no type of fertilizer sold around here), so I'm looking for plants that could do okay without.

Thanks!

hi, i had a similar query to yours when i wanted to plant my tank.

after advice on this site, and reading up on plant types, i chose an anubias as it is easy to care for, slow growing (therefore requires little/no fertiliser or extra food) and requires low-medium light levels. I also found this plant appealing as it has thick leaves and is unlikely to be destroyed by hungry little goldfish!! since you are having a tropical tank, i dont know if you need to consider that issue.

other people have also suggested anacharis and java fern as good starter plants.

there are many choices depending on your lighting. simply looking through the threads in this forum you may see many suggestions, and koko's 'goldfish plants' link on the left of the main screen may give you some ideas. there are also many other plant websites if you just look on go0gle, that can show you photos and light/heat/co2/fertilizer (etc etc!) requirements of different aquarium plants.

hope this helps you!!

Hi,

Thanks for the reply! Oh yeah, forgot about Anubias! I was going to hunt for the nana one around here but my "transportation method" gets to impatient and I can't sit around and get a good look at anything for very long -_-

Hmm, Anarcharis.. I'll look that up also. Thanks

Heh, yeah, I have looked at the Goldfish Plants link on Koko's a few times before, and have tried to do many searches for plant sites and information, but it was just so confusing not knowing where to start I will see if I can track down a little more info on the ones you listed for me.. Thank you!!!

- Jen