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Disabled person requiring assistance re suitable plants

Mr Loach

Member
Joined
20 May 2018
Messages
36
Location
west midlands
I am looking for advice on suitable plants for a new tank. All I can do is 30% water change every month but can add liquid carbon and or liquid fertilizers. can't really do much pruning and the tank will be stocked with a lot of small loaches so need plants that aren't too tasty for the fish. Tank will be jewel Rio 240 with 2 LED tubes. Basically looking for low-maintenance plants with only minimal water changes. Any help would be welcome thanks Andrew
 
You could set up extraordinary low maintenance tank with cryptocorynes only, potentially adding anubias/java ferns and moss and LOTS of floating plants to cope with relatively high light.
Rich soil substrate on the bottom, covered with thick layer of gravel, low light, almost no fertilisation (wit soil and crypts only you could only add potassium for quite long period of time) and the effect can be quite stunning. And no need for frequent water changes.
 
Many thanks for your reply what would you class as rich soil substrate and how much gravel do you think. Many thanks for your help
 
Hi
Will the water change be done in one go
Do you have to have help doing it or do you rely on someone doing it ?

The key to a low maintenance aquarium is very light stocking

What filtration will it have ?


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Hi a mate of of mine will do the water change once a month. The filtration will be the inbuilt JUWEL Rio 240 filter but I do have a Fluval 407 external which I may add as well. Your thoughts thanks
 
My brother has a juwel lido with twin led tubes (not sure if they are the latest or the one before) and it is run as a low tech but suffers from green stringy algae we believe is from the light. I use a generous amount of guppy grass to shade a good proportion of the tank and it helps alot (through a combination of shading and rapid growth) as it's essentially a floating plant.
If you know which generation of lights you have it may be easier to suggest some plants as they can be quite bright and you may have a fighting battle to keep normal low tech plants clear of algae (there is a dimmer available though).

Do you also know which loaches you have in mind as most of the smaller ones like botia striata are pretty well behaved ime.
 
The tubes are the latest ones LED as it is a brand new tank loaches will be small clowns and sidthmunki. Many thanks in advance
 
Some Ideas for you.
Anubias - You can get very Large Leafed ones aswell now
Bolbitis
Java Ferns
Amazon Swords
Marimo Moss Balls - Never need trimming and the loaches will/can move them around the tank etc
Moss Tied to Rocks
Pelia Tied to Rocks, Or Just chucked in and allowed to grow where it settles.
 
My advice would be to start with a hardscape that looks really good without plants - so a nice arrangement of rocks or wood .... I'd lean towards wood because... then you can add anubias, javafern and bolbitus to the wood - the first two are available in quite a few variations. None of those really require pruning like stem plants do. You might want to pick off the occasional old leaf, but you wouldn't have to. They are also tough, easy to grow in lower light etc.

Are you set on the clown loaches? They would out grow the tank eventually and limit a bit what you can add. I'd be tempted to go for smaller loaches, and, depending on the size, you might open the possibility of adding in some large snails/large algae shrimps and they'll help with the tank maintenance. Smaller fish will also keep the bioload down which is good if you are limited on water changes. There are quite a few smaller loach options to go for.
 
Welcome Andrew =)

Another vote for cryptocorynes - they can sulk a little at first but then go on to be trouble free citizens with minor, if any, maintenance. Aquarium Gardens do packs of plants which are great value for money and I'd recommend looking at their "jungle" range. I'd love to do a proper dirt tank at some point but so far just used Tropica plant soil as it's so easy.

As a "wheelie", water changes can be awkward but I have a small pump and a length of hose: I pump out into the loo then reverse the set up to pump back in from the kitchen sink (treated with Prime). I do have to get someone to hold the hose on the refilling though as the tank is too high to reach from the wheelchair. If you can find a work around for the water changes, I've found this to be the biggest single factor in keeping the tank algae free (along with minimal lighting period). As you have a decent sized tank at 240l you're ahead of the game anyway - small tanks are far trickier in my experience.

Personally, I don't use liquid carbon any more. For ferts I use the EI kit from Aquarium Plant Food, although the Tropica and Aquascaper range both worked well for me (just worked out expensive as I currently have 3 tanks running lol).

This tank has only been running 4 months so the crypts in the front haven't really got going...
 

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If this was my tank I would follow Tam's advice above and go for lots of slower growing epiphyte plants attacked to a nice wood hardscape. My general advice would be to also add plenty of faster growing plants to help with an excess nutrients, at least in the beginning, but realise this might not be an option. I might just be passing on my brothers experience with this lighting but he found it to be quite bright which made the tank a real mess to begin with due to a similar slower growing plant list, so I'd consider getting a dimmer to help minimise this to begin with. You might not have the same issue if you use liquid carbon which he didn't however but you'll have to find a balancing act that works for you.
If you have hard water than vallis is a great background plant that can offer some shading and decent nutrient uptake. It would provide some nice cover for fish and its easy to remove the excess plant runners once a month when the water change is done.
 
I would like to throw in some Suggestions for Small Loaches, that offer lots of entertainment and stay Small.

Rosy Loach - Lovely Peach colores loach that only grow to 5-6 sm and stay slender. They like to swim at a between 30-45Degrees. And Very Active
Sidithmunki - Or Dwarf Chain Loach - Again a lovely small loach with Cream and Brown/Black Markings
Panda Loach - Stripes and Panda patterns when young, and do fade as mature. Again stay smallish and very active.

If you like Clowns, but dont want to tie down to them getting over a foot long in 15-20 years time. How about Tiger Barbs, They have the same colors and are chunky in size and stay around 2 inches.
 
I would like to throw in some Suggestions for Small Loaches, that offer lots of entertainment and stay Small.

Rosy Loach - Lovely Peach colores loach that only grow to 5-6 sm and stay slender. They like to swim at a between 30-45Degrees. And Very Active
Sidithmunki - Or Dwarf Chain Loach - Again a lovely small loach with Cream and Brown/Black Markings
Panda Loach - Stripes and Panda patterns when young, and do fade as mature. Again stay smallish and very active.

If you like Clowns, but dont want to tie down to them getting over a foot long in 15-20 years time. How about Tiger Barbs, They have the same colors and are chunky in size and stay around 2 inches.
A couple of other species that would be more suited than the clowns are botia Dario and botia striata, both striped species that don’t get much bigger than four inches so would be perfectly suited to the tank. I also really like botia kubotai and botia histrionica, both beautiful species. However they do not give you that same striped look as the clowns.

Like the others have mentioned try and go for easy stuff like Anubias and various crypts and you won’t go wrong, they won’t require much maintenance at all. The great thing with crypts is there is so much variation in size and colour that you can scape an aquarium almost exclusively with these no problem.

cheers

conor
 
Excellent info thank you very much. Good idea on how to do the water changes so do you think the plants would be ok ok with a 30% water change once a month? Tropica plant soil sounds easier so how much depth and mixed with what what would you recommend? Thanks
 
Most loaches seem to be very long lived. I still have a handful of clown loaches that are well over 25 years now. Only a couple of the original 11 ever got near a foot, with each fish lower in the hierarchy maxing out at slightly smaller than the one above it down to about 7". That was in a 6ft tank so they had space to grow.
I also have one remaining botia striata that my brother bought in 1997, so they can be a commitment to. He bought another 5 last year for his new tank and we were going to unite them before everything started to happen.

My biggest advice for loaches is to keep them in as big a group as you sensibly can as they are really engaging and often not shy if you have enough. I'm considering dwarf chain loaches myself and planning a dozen. It could be pretty pricey but not when you consider how long you could potentially have them.
 
Hi can I ask you how do you find the big clowns and plants as I have some big ones in a different tank and they eat almost any plants I add. Thanks
 
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I'm considering dwarf chain loaches myself and planning a dozen. It could be pretty pricey but not when you consider how long you could potentially have them.
Also, they may spawn if you have a good-sized group. If a few babies survive in the tank you can have a self-sustaining shoal. And if you can remove some eggs and raise a batch of babies, they find a ready market and fetch a fair price. Sadly I haven't got mine any more due to a house move, otherwise I could have let you have some babies.
 
Also, they may spawn if you have a good-sized group. If a few babies survive in the tank you can have a self-sustaining shoal. And if you can remove some eggs and raise a batch of babies, they find a ready market and fetch a fair price. Sadly I haven't got mine any more due to a house move, otherwise I could have let you have some babies.

That's interesting. I never considered the possibility they might breed. I'm use to having the clown loaches that nearly never reproduce in captivity unless you inject them. I like a good breeding challenge so they might have just topped the list.
 
Hi I also have some big clown loach in another tank but I find they pretty well eat all plants including Anubis. Do you have the same problem
 
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