Once I placed a potten plant a bit to close to the tank, they all wanted to nible it. So I'm cosidering to plant a 'new' tank with a combination of 'snackplants' and plants they don't eat. When you have a new tank, do you plant the plants right away or do have to wait till it's cycled? I'm cosidering to go half bare- bottom. Can I plant those plants in diches/pots with gravel? or is it not done?

I don't have the tank yet, but I like to be prepared, so that I can get started the moment I have it. And when I convinced my father that I can't wait till I 'leave the house'. The fact that my tank is a bit crowded doen't work with him. I can always threaten him that I install it in my room, because my floor can not hold such heavy stuff

You can put the plants in some gravel or other substrate within a pot or small jar and leave the rest of the tank bare bottom. With this setup you will occasionally have to pull the roots and substrate out of the container to clean out the stuff that you would normally get with a good gravel vaccuming. I think that you can put the plants in the tank right away, but I am not certain. I know that the nitrite and nitrates should not hurt the plants, but if the ammonia spikes high enough it might burn the leaves? On the other hand, those are the ingredients in most plant fertalizers.

If you are doing a fishless cycle you can use that time to quarantine the plants before introducing the fish to them.

I will help you tomorrow i hurt my back today and it hurts to type i will let you know about plant requirements and what plants are good with goldfish

Your back still hurts to much?

plants can go into a non cycled tank. As for the bare bottom, that's the way i go, get a plain tara cotta cup with no paint on it, use gravel from the original tank to plant the plant into the cup. Like the pic on the top here.

sorry i did not reply sooner i have been quite lazy lately i had to go to hospital for about 2 hours but i am fine now

as koko has said if you click on the terracotta pot at the top it has a list of plants, also at the top of the planted forum there is a sticked thread here is a link to it. I really need to get in and post part 2 lol
truly aquatic plants

Now plants can go into a non cycled tank, if you have substrate such as gravel just make sure it is deep enough for the plants or if it is a barebottom tank then you can take some aquarium gravel and plant in little terracotta pots or in little glass jars or glass just make sure it is washed well.

Okay on to lighting in a planted tank you need 2-3 watts of fluorescent lighting per gallon. 1 watt per gal is considered low lighting, 2watts per gal is considered medium lighting and 3watts per gal is considered high. So if you have a 10gal tank and want to plant that you would need about 30watts of lighting (if that make sense) if your tank is big you would need to buy a system which supports compact fluorescent lighting. The 2 lights to avoid in a planted tank as they are quite useless are incandescent and actinic which is the high blue lighting used in marine tanks for corals.

You have a couple of options for ferts depending on how much lighting you have. the i like the flourish range i use flourish and flourish excel in tandem with each other. I have high lighting but choose to use ferts as they give the plants the nutrients they need. If your tank is under 30gals you can choose to make a diy co2 injector. You can buy one but they are quite pricey it is alot cheaper to make one (this is not needed but if you wish to have bushy vibrant healthy plants you can choose to use it)

Here is a recipe for diy co2

:taken from sushi67:
Here is what I do:

Buy some baking yeast( about $1 a packet at most grocery stores)

Take a Gatorade bottle or soda bottle( 12 oz should be enough for your tank but the 2 liter soda bottle will last longer) and clean it out with hot water only.

Anyways, take the cap and screw a hole in the top of the cap. It should be a snug fit around you airline tubing of choice. Then hot glue around the hole, both on the inside and outside to prevent leaks. While it cools, you can make your mix.

I will use the mix for a 2 liter soda bottle. Just cut it in half for a 20 oz bottle. Put 1 1/2 - 2 cups of sugar into the bottle. Then get some really hot water from your sink and fill the bottle up about or under the halfway mark of the bottle. Get a stick and stir up or sugar until it dissolves or at least until it isn't all clumped in the bottom. Then take cold water and slowly fill up the bottle till you are about 2-3 inches from the top. The water should be warm but not hot. If its to hot, your yeast will die. If it still feels to hot let it cool for a while and then put in 1-2 tsp of yeast and carefully stir for 30 seconds.

Once that is done, put your cap on the bottle. The airline tubing should not be touching or in the water.You don't want yeast to get into your tank. It is not fun to clean up. Attach a airstone to the other end of the airline tubing. Put a suction cup on the airstone and place in your tank. Preferably under your filter intake. I like the cheap petsmarts topfin brand one. It makes really nice tiny bubbles.

Wait 24 hours. If you haven't seen any bubbles coming out of the airstone then you either killed the yeast or you have a leak. Hold the whole bottle under some water, including the tubing to see if there are any leaks. If it is leaking then you will see bubbles coming out of the bottle, cap, or tubing. If the bottle is leaking then try hot glue. If the cap is leaking find a new one or try hotglue. If the tubing is leaking. Cut it off and attach new tubing. If you killed the yeast with hot water, then dump it out and try again.

co2 is needed for plants to go through photosynthesis, just in case you didn't know. Just look in a high school level biology book. I'm sure it will be in there.

Are fertilizers necessary for low light plants, or is it dependant upon how many fish are in the tank?

ferts are not really necessarily for low light plants as they are genuinely alot harder and are able to get the nutrients left by your fish. The more delicate fine leave plants need ferts as they are high maintenance plants. Normally in a tank with enough lighting ie. 2-3 watts per gal can do fine with out ferts providing you have a sensible number of fish in your tank as well. I just use ferts in my tanks as extra nutrition as not all plants can survive on the organic matter left by the fish. Also if you have a high gph for example a 55gal tank with 1000gph i would use ferts as the nutrients from the fish waste get processed by the filters and your beneficial bacteria to quickly for the plants to get the nutrients out of them this can cause them to die or grow at a slow rate.

Good posting hun, very good.

my two cents Anubis plants are the best with goldfish, they don't need anything special and don't need wood to attach themselves to, I had one attach its self to a rock arch in the tank neat thing about these plants is they bloom in the tank, a small flower will come up out of a center leaf. Really neat to see.

Thanks Koko that made my day
yep anubias is a very hardy plant will attach to almost porous object, i had one attach to a food clip lol

I'll try to get those next. I go to one particular LFS, who I trust where he gets his plants from, but his shipments have been irregular lately. Hoping to find some Anubias and Java Fern.

how about some java moss lola you can attach that too anything and while the goldies may nibble on it. it grows fairly quickly with medium to high light

be careful of the moss. Story here:

Along time ago, i used to raise moss and sell it. Well my Oranda mr.T had a very big wen and I had gavel in the tank, the moss was doing so well it was growing like a weed and was crawling across the gravel. Well long story shortened, a piece of it that was still attached to a piece of gravel managed to some how get onto Mr. T wen, because of the weight of the gravel on one end it started to cut into his wen. It left a nice cut line in the wen and had to gently pull it out.
So in that little story, i don't raise it with my Orandas or any other kind of fish with a wen or with gravel in the tank, just a freaky thing to happen. It is a very easy plant, just scares me with Orandas.

wow that is scary

i think moss is fine in a barebottom tank if it is tied to a piece of driftwood or a clay pot. It does quiet well in both high and low light that is why i recommended it to my brother when he started keeping plants it is a good beginner plant and can take some abuse

I'm a PhD-student in Biology I've seen enough photosynthesis to last me a lifetime, that is why I'm doing my PhD on lizards .

The carbondioxide thing you've discribed, doesn't it lower the oxigenconcentration to much? You can only have that much dissolved gas in the water.
In the planted tank (wishfull thinking) will probably be 8 fish, don't they produce enough carbondioxide for the plants?

Now that would depend on the plant it self. Some plants need allot more and plants like Anubis don't need that much at all. All of mine I don't feed them anything and normal lights on the tank and they grow like weeds

That plant will be on my 'look pretty and won't be eaten' list. A friend of mine was going to give me 'waterpest' (don't know the English for it) in the spring. A sturdy fast growing and 'tasty' plant. So I think it will survive my comets

water pest more commonly none as elodea your goldfish will love to nibble on this

I didn't know it was the same word in English. On the other hand water and pest mean the same, so it is logical. I'm certain it will grow fast enough to withstand my commets appatite

That plant does well just make sure you dont have the tank very warm or it will come apart and just a mess in the filter.

What temperature do you mean with 'very warm'? Above 25°C or higher? The tank is normally between 20 and 22°C.
If I remember correctly temp in F= 2xC+32. Above 82F or higher? The tank is normally between 72 and 76F. If I'm wrong let me know

I've forgotten this in my last post. How many plants in a 75 gal? I don't want to many and I don't want to go 3 times to the store for an extra because it looks still to 'empty'. Is it enough for the 'harder' plants to be planted in glass jars/ ceramic pots with gravel or do I need a 'type of sand/soil' for under it?

Due to the hollidays I've forgotten to disinfect the plants I've bought. Stupid yes . The plants will be in the tank the entire cycle, should I disinfect them now after 5 days in the tank or hope that during the cycle I've quarentined enough?

it depends how planted you want to go i know from looking at pics over at the planted tank forum (if you want to have a look here is the link i got some inspiration from there) they completely pack the tank to the brim but this is a goldie tank. I would just fill the back in and leave the front empty for the goldies to swim in maybe a nice piece of driftwood or some rocks in the front? oh this is the photo section and you don't have to join to view the pics linky

umm if you forgot to qt the plants just leave them in the tank as if there was anything on them they would most likely have hatched or be in the tank by now.

Also if you are getting java moss make sure it is tied down..I had some and my goldfish pulled all apart and alot of it got into my filter making it messed up..

The tank still looks rather empty, even with the decorations we've got for christmas. I will never go for 'heavy planted' but a bit more green is welcome.

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg241/q...ke/DSC03324.jpg

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg241/q...ke/DSC03323.jpg

The next plants I'll put in the tank will be 'bleeched'.

Just wait soon you are going to have a jungle...

yep add some more if you wish and watch it fill in oh that is the same tank i have and it is not 75gals i have the medium size one which is 68.8gals and then the biggest size is 100gals the smallest is 48gals

Thanks. It is usefull to know that it is a bit smaller, if I ever have to ad meds or salt.