First time planter

[Gracemil]

Hi, I recently upgraded my fish tank and in my previous fish tank, I didn’t have plants and I now have an 80ltr. When I first set up the tank, I set it up with basic black gravel, not knowing that it would be difficult to grow plants in it. Knowing this, I don’t plan to change all the gravel in the tank, and plan to put the gravel in certain areas of the tank where I plan to put the plant to keep cost down and to hopefully reduce ammonia which I recently read can be increased with the substrate. There are 2 substrates which i am unsure which to chose from, fluval stratum and tropica aquarium soil?
Also, do people have better experience with it without co2, as i am trying to keep costs down, but if i want don’t want to kill my plant? And would soaking my substrate for at least a week before putting it in the aquarium lower the ammonia that the substrate would release? And would it allow me to put it in my tank without putting my fish in a temporary tank/tub for my current tank to cycle as unfortunately that isn’t an option for me?

And a general tank question, does anyone have experience using rainwater in their fish tank? Before planting my tank I’m trying to lower my gh which is quite high, and my Kh and ph, which are slightly too high. I’m lowering my kh and ph using tetra easy balance, but reverse osmosis seems too expensive. When collecting the rainwater I wouldn’t collect it off the roof to avoid bugs and other contaminants, and collect the bucket from outside as soon as it stops raining so that the water isn’t sitting still for long and treat it just to be safe. What is people’s experience with it? I should also say that where I live it rains frequently so I would probably more frequent smaller water changes to make sure to get as much rain water in the tank as possible.

 

[FishNerm]

If you're just looking to add plants without too much hassle, you could try some epiphyte plants first as these don't need to be rooted in soil. I run 2 of my tanks without any soil at all and just add fertiliser to the water.

Look for anubias, bucephalandra and java ferns for a starting point. These have the added bonus of being relatively easy to grow and are quite forgiving in terms of the parameters you keep them in. You can wedge/glue them to hardscape so you wouldn't need to completely overhaul your tank to add them.

 

[sparkyweasel]

Welcome! 🙂
Lots of plants will grow well in plain gravel. Also you can get fertiliser tablets to push into the gravel for those plants that need it.
If you do choose active substrate you are right that you can presoak it to get the ammonia out before use.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
Welcome to UKAPS.

And a general tank question, does anyone have experience using rainwater in their fish tank?

A number of us are rainwater users. Have a look at <"If it's yellow, let it mellow and RO is the devil> & <"Low Tech Ei">.

you could try some epiphyte plants first as these don't need to be rooted in soil. I run 2 of my tanks without any soil at all and just add fertiliser to the water.

That one, have a look at <"Starting a Betta tank"> & <"Using stem plants as a filtering aid at Start Up!">.

cheers Darrel

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Also, do people have better experience with it without co2, as i am trying to keep costs down

You don't need to use CO2, a lot of us don't use it. We have a forum - <"El Natural & Low Tech">. Have a look at <"What is the “Duckweed Index” all about?">.

I’m lowering my kh and ph using tetra easy balance,

You can stop, these sorts of products don't <"serve any useful purpose">. <"Tetra suggest"> that it stabilises pH, by "increasing carbonate hardness", but don't actually tell you what it contains.

cheers Darrel

 

[MarcusA]

Inert gravel is fine for plants so long as it is able to hold them down. Most plants grow fine taking nutrients from the water column. I would research which plants are not heavy root feeders and just get a few of those and forgo the aquarium soil.

 

[ValleyMykel]

I see you would like to keep the costs down with the transition to planted, I love being frugal myself so I understand completely.

When I first set up the tank, I set it up with basic black gravel, not knowing that it would be difficult to grow plants in it.

Technically, yes you will struggle to get plants to root in the gravel. However, you can simply make it denser by adding a layer of sand overtop of the gravel. This will help anchor any plants you wish to have in that substrate, while providing a larger surface area to trap organic waste and overtime recycle as nutrients for those plants. And as dw mentions, most stem plants can be used as floaters. So they wouldn't have much issue with living in inert sand temporarily.

This will hopefully avoid your original plan of spending money on aquasoil and redoing the aquarium. (Unless you just would like to rescape it anyway). A lot of plants I have experimented with grow just fine in sand (mostly stem plants) especially after you let it age and let it get dirty with broken down organics and what not.

And would soaking my substrate for at least a week before putting it in the aquarium lower the ammonia that the substrate would release?

Yes, but understand that most nutrients are very soluble in water, while aqua soil is designed to hold on to most of it and release it overtime, you don't want to just straight up rinse it since a lot of those nutrients are still loose and washing it away would negate its use. You can prevent the large release of ammonia during the initial setup by simply capping it with something inert like sand. Most people I believe wouldn't advise adding active aqua soils to an established aquarium though.

In the past I have frozen old fluval stratum, pond muck, peatmosses, and even some dirt mixtures with liquid ferts in thin ice cube trays and used them as root tabs for my deep substrates as a way to try and boost their nutrient content, worked pretty well if you want to add some soil to your aquarium without making a mess. (I don't do it much anymore)

 

[curlingmom]

Hi Grace, For my tank with fish preferring softer water I mix 2/3rainwater from an anually cleansed roof + 1/3 (very hard) tap water. I keep it in watering cans overnight to let it reach room temperature and/or add some boiling water to match the temperatureof the water in the tank. Depending on what I feed with I change 20- 30% weekly.

The rain water is collected from a anually cleansed overhang roof in a clean, shaded and light protected semi-closed container = No algae and in summer a bonus of moskito larvae as free and disease free live food. Tap water in Dk. is drinking water quality and not treated with chlorine.

In my newly inherited 30 l. tank coming with seven huge amanos, large Cryptocorynes Red in old soil + Anubias Nana on wood I keep the ratio is 50/50 and a 50% water change. As the bioload here may be too modest to meet all the needs of the plants without fish (?) I ad a squirt of Fluvals (expensive) brown Premium Nutrition.( i have enriched the old soil with fertilizer capsules and a capsule I have filled with water lily clay.) All works very well.

(I have to learn a bit more about shrimp and their needs tough. They came as a surprise bonus. Luckily with a lunch box filled with several kinds of specialised food + montmorillite clay powder for the tank. The latter made me aware that too soft water will not provide what they need for a strong and helathy production of shell. )

I am also new here and this is my first post. I will look for a forum with info on shrimp keeping in and eventually ask there about the amanos.
Best of luck and lots of enjoyment with the process.
Curlingmom

 

[curlingmom]

NB: Thought adding these informations to my above comment might make sense to add for you eventually to compare with:
Latest measured values:
Rain water: KH 0 / GH under 3 / pH 6.4
Tap water: KH 20 / GH 16 / pH 8
Mix 2 to 1: KH 6 / GH 6 / pH 7,2

Tank after water change lies in between these ranges: KH 3 - 6 / GH 6 - 10 /pH 6,8 - 7.2

a general tank question, does anyone have experience using rainwater in their fish tank? Before planting my tank I’m trying to lower my gh which is quite high, and my Kh and ph, which are slightly too high. I’m lowering my kh and ph using tetra easy balance, but reverse osmosis seems too expensive. When collecting the rainwater I wouldn’t collect it off the roof to avoid bugs and other contaminants, and collect the bucket from outside as soon as it stops raining so that the water isn’t sitting still for long and treat it just to be safe. What is people’s experience with it? I should also say that where I live it rains frequently so I would probably more frequent smaller water changes to make sure to get as much rain water in the tank as possible.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

For my tank with fish preferring softer water I mix 2/3rainwater from an anually cleansed roof + 1/3 (very hard) tap water. I keep it in watering cans overnight to let it reach room temperature and/or add some boiling water to match the temperatureof the water in the tank. Depending on what I feed with I change 20- 30% weekly.

We have a <"lot of rainwater users">, I've used it since the 1970s without any disasters. A lot of people also use their hard tap water to remineralise their rain water -<"The Original">. I use the <"same water change routine as you">.

The rain water is collected from a anually cleansed overhang roof in a clean, shaded and light protected semi-closed container = No algae and in summer a bonus of moskito larvae as free and disease free live food.

Mosquito larvae are <"an added bonus">, you may be interested in the <"Daphnia bioassay"> as well

..... This is <"actually a bioassay">, and because Daphnia magna and D. pulex are widely <"used as bioassay organisms"> we know quite a lot about their response to environmental pollutants (and <"caffeine">), including elevated levels of TAN ammonia (NH3 / NH4+) and nitrite (NO2-).....

cheers Darrel

 

[curlingmom]

Thank you, Darrel.
In my 100 l. cycled but still maturing and fish-less tank with capped soil a small community of daphnias are now bobbing merrily around.
It makes me wonder: Is it an either / or - or can mosquito larvae and daphnias be co-existing in the present quality of water in the container?
A test strip yesterday showed zero on ammonia and nitrates and my eager sweeps with the net once a week only rewards me with a meagre dusin of mosquito larvaes.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Is it an either / or - or can mosquito larvae and daphnias be co-existing in the present quality of water in the container?

They can persist together, they both feed on particles in the water column by size. Generally Daphnia need much higher water quality than Mosquito larvae, mainly because Mosquito larvae are breathing air at the water's surface.

and my eager sweeps with the net once a week only rewards me with a meagre dusin of mosquito larvaes.

If you try a bucket with <"some rainwater, a cork and some grass cuttings, placed in the shade"> you should get a lot more Mosquito larvae.

cheers Darrel