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How many plants

B

brashhighlander

New Member
Joined
8 Dec 2021
Messages
9
Location
Scotland
Hi folks

Sorry for the newbie question.

I am about to order a lot of plants for my 180l tank. However, I am unsure how many plants I need. For example, if I order a bucephelandra how many plants do you get in a pot or 1-2 grow pot.

I have a good idea for my carpet but no clue how many to order for everything else. I have created a plant list and it is nearly £200! I have no idea if I am ordering to many or to little.

any advice welcome.
thanks.Jim
 
brashhighlander said:
Hi folks

Sorry for the newbie question.

I am about to order a lot of plants for my 180l tank. However, I am unsure how many plants I need. For example, if I order a bucephelandra how many plants do you get in a pot or 1-2 grow pot.

I have a good idea for my carpet but no clue how many to order for everything else. I have created a plant list and it is nearly £200! I have no idea if I am ordering to many or to little.

any advice welcome.
thanks.Jim
Click to expand...

Hi @brashhighlander, I cant really say as it depends on how your tank is set up CO2 vs. no-CO2 - how much hardscape you have etc. But in general, when setting up a new tank there is really no such thing as too many plants... You can always yank out plants that don't quite fit your vision... Realistically though, there are always monetary considerations (budgets) that needs to be taken into account. 200 GBP (260 USD) does sound a little pricy to me for a 180 L tank, but of course it depends on the plants you are picking and where you get them from - some sources for quality plants here in the US for instance are quite affordable while other are super expensive - I suppose its the same in the UK.

Cheers,
Michael
 
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If you are setting up a new tank, it may not be a good idea to spend a lot of money on expensive Bucephelandra, because of the risk of Buce melting in a new tank.

a new tank should have a fair amount of cheap plants that grow like weeds - Rotala Rotundifolia + variants (H'ra, Blood Red etc) fit in this category and you can always remove them later.
 
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Hi @Hanuman and @erwin123 Just out of curiosity since you're both in the Southeast Asia and tropical climate, how much do you pay for plants out there? I feel our fellow UK/EU hobbyists are paying a lot... of course growing aquatic plants in Northern Europe (Tropica) is not ideal or necessarily cheap.

Cheers,
Michael
 
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MichaelJ said:
Hi @Hanuman and @erwin123 Just out of curiosity since you're both in the Southeast Asia and tropical climate, how much do you pay for plants out there? I feel our fellow UK/EU hobbyists are paying a lot... of course growing aquatic plants in Northern Europe (Tropica) is not ideal or necessarily cheap.

Cheers,
Michael
Click to expand...

The nice thing about Singapore is that you can buy small quantities. For common plants its basically S$2 (US$1.47) for 1-2 stems of a stem plant (large stem plants you get 1 stem (eg: A. Gracilis, P Erectus), small stem plant you get 2 stems (eg: Rotala H'ra, Bangladesh, Green, Blood Red).

Basically the source of these cheap plants is a guy in a van who goes around making plant deliveries to all our LFS (probably from one of our big plant farms - could be Oriental?)



However, there are other sources that supply our LFS as well including this supplier:





It'll probably take a detailed article to write about the aquatic plant scene in my country but this is just a sample
 
MichaelJ said:
Hi @Hanuman and @erwin123 Just out of curiosity since you're both in the Southeast Asia and tropical climate, how much do you pay for plants out there? I feel our fellow UK/EU hobbyists are paying a lot... of course growing aquatic plants in Northern Europe (Tropica) is not ideal or necessarily cheap.

Cheers,
Michael
Click to expand...
Depends of the plants and where you buy but in general it is averagely cheap here in Thailand. In fact many of the plants used in aquascaping originate from Southeast Asia. The rarez can sell for more but my experience is that they never reach the prices applied in USA/EU. In Singapore though my experience is they apply hefty prices similar to those in Europe and USA. Recently I needed to buy Rotundifolia “sp Red” (aka blood red SG), Ludwigia Inclinata Verticillata "meta", - Xyris and E. Cuspidatum and some others. I asked some shops in SG and looked around in Carrousel. They were all applying prices far beyond what you see in USA/EU. I guess SG is a small market so things are different there.
 
plants1.jpg
plants2.jpg


plants3.jpg

plants4.jpg

I paid a visit to my LFS. Some photos from different stores (all in the same block)
SGD$2 = US$1.47
(sorry about spelling mistake should be S. Porto Velho, not Vello)
 
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Hanuman said:
Prices I got from some LFS in SG:
Blood red - SG$1/stem
Meta SG$10/stem
Cuspidatum - SG$200 per head
Rotala tulunadensis - SG$5/stem
B. Novo SG$120
Click to expand...

Not surprised at the prices - the highest prices are for plants that are 'rare' but not 'popular'.

If the plant was 'rare' but 'popular', there will be more suppliers which will cause the price to crash. One example is Crypt Flamingo. Originally it was very expensive, but it is a popular plant, so many people started growing and selling, causing the price to drop. Bacopa Salzmannii purple is another example I guess - quite popular, and easy to propagate .
 
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