# good plant for begginer?



## serpa_man

all right y'all, im new at the aquatic plants part and was wondering what would be good as a start out plant. I have a 10g, with a flourecent light cuz my stock hood broke on me so i got a new hood and my lfs told me that flourecent was better. I am using the stock bulb that came with the hood and its the daylight bulb. I also have just standard gravel as substrate. does it matter how warm it is in the tank for these plants to thrive? my tank is at about 78 or 79 degrees. I also have 4 prinstilla and serpea tetras. What would you all suggest? and if you could, could you post a pic of the plant to help me identify it. thanks y'all for the help. *edit: i also have 1.5wpg in the tank.*


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## chronoboy

Go on my profile and look at my 55g all those plants seem to do good for me and these are the first plants I've done, and they are growing like weeds, i got wisteria, sword plant,cryptocoryne wendtiipot 'RED', ancharis, Minima, Nana, Nana narrow leaf, coffeefolia, and Lanceolata. and so far so good for never keeping plants and i dont use ferts, and my tank has under a watt per gallon, but alot of ambiant light, and i got about 3-4 inches of gravel with alot of fish poo for natural fert.


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## serpa_man

thanks crono. cuz i really wana plant my 10 gal. cuz with my skull in there it just looks weird and i only have one other thing in there and thats a fake plant. but since there aint much i can do about it right now the skull will do for now till i get some plants. oh would a plant from my surrounding creeks work? they have a few plants that are live plants underwater lol?


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## snyderguy

Amazon swords are pretty good ones to start


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## chronoboy

i wouldnt take anything from there, who knows what parasites and stuff you would introduce to your tank by putting them in there.


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## chronoboy

you could give it a shot but you are putting your fish at risk by doing it.


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## serpa_man

i didnt know i could put my fish at risk by puttin a plant from a creek in there. i wont do that one cuz i dont want to put my fish at risk. and thanks snyder, i will give the amazon sword a try. with the amazon sword would i have to change my substrate with that plant?


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## chronoboy

im not a 100% it would be bad to put it in your tank, but you dont know what is in the water in your creek i know i added some pond water once into my fish tank without filtering it, cause my pump decided to go out on my well when i was cleaning out my 55g and i needed water bad, so a week or so later i noticed wierd algaes growing in my tank i never had before, but not sure if that was the case or not i just put 2 and 2 together.


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## Trout

Plants from your creek are not tropical, and probably won't do well in a tropical tank. Most freshwater fish you find in any petstore are tropical, which is why they thrive in such warm water. I'm just speculating though. Besides the risk of adding unwanted parasites, there's the chance that you'll just be killing the plants. :/


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## serpa_man

true didnt think about that one. i can be an idiot sometimes. thanks guys. i will see if i can find some amazon swords at my lfs here soon.


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## lohachata

if you take plants from the wild you can get rid of parasites by soaking them in some potassium permanganate for awhile...but they still wouldn't last long in a tropical tank..
try some of the cryptocoryne species..wendtii is great for a 10 gallon..forget about amazon swords as they need a little more light and can grow to 3 feet or more tall....
also great plants are anubias..very hardy..low light..


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## serpa_man

are the anubias good for 10g loha, seeing as i only have 1.5w per gal. and thanks for the info loha.


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## lohachata

yes...anubias will almost grow in the dark....almost....lol
look for the "Nana" variety..and tie it to a piece of driftwood..there are several kinds of crypts that you can work with...they will help keep your tank in scale..kind of like taking a big tank with big sword plants and just shrinking it all down to the ten..
a small tank with huge plants looks as bad as a huge tank with tiny plants..


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## serpa_man

lol, i was at my lfs today and saw that they had a rand something sword. i almost got it lol. but i will try to find some anubias at wal-mart when i go there saturday. and i gotta find some driftwood. could i just get the driftwood out of a local lake? im tryin to go cheap cuz i dont want my mom gettin all of this stuff for me lol. and i was thinking about just putting the anubias in the substrate with the rhyzome on top of the substrate for right now till i get a job and can get all of this stuff lol. also what do you mean by in scale? and i will do some research on the crypts later lol. my dad is gettin pissy cuz we are almost at the point of we cant use the internet lol. so i will look it up when the internet resets. but for right now i will get the anubias. thanks loha. thanks a lot! this really helps me out. im so glad i found this forum. im learning so much from here.


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## lohachata

by scale i mean "in proportion".....
how ridiculous would a 2 foot tall plant look in a small tank...or a tiny plant in a huge tank..a 10 gallon tank is only 12 inches tall...so a plant that resembles a sword but is much smaller would appear to be in proportion (or in scale) to the tank size.anubias nana petite is a smaller plant that will stay in proportion to the tank...as will the crypts..this way your tank will appear more realistic..

i believe that the plant you saw was an Echinodorus Radicans..


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## serpa_man

must have been, lol it didnt look good anyway lol. i wil try to get one of them or both here soon hopefully. cuz i really want my tank to look good lol. thanks for the help loha. it really helps. also do they need anything, like fertilizer? or anything that needs to be done special?


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## lohachata

no special anything...although fine gravel is best for them...helps to keep the roots down..


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## serpa_man

ok thanks loha. oh i have a few plants that i just got yesterday from wal-mart that where not tagged and i have no clue what they are. could anyone help me id them please thanks.


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## serpa_man

i have the first picture identified. i just need the other picture identified. does anyone know what plant that is? guesses help as well. thanks.


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## lohachata

it's a cryptocoryne ; but i forget which species..


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## Plecostomus

If you need any other plant ideas, Java Ferns and Java Moss are really easy.


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## Earthsiege

Another one that's incredibly easy is watersprite.


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## serpa_man

thanks yea'll for the ideas. it really helps out and gives me ideas for my next tank lol. its been two weeks since i got those plants and they all now have new leave groth on them and they are in the substrate and they love it there. thanks for the ideas for the next tank.


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## hXcChic22

Banana plants!! I love them in planted tanks, because they have the root system for the bottom, the runners in the middle of the tank, and the leaves ("lilypads") at the surface, so they're like a jack of all trades kinda plant.


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## serpa_man

might have to get me one of those, they sound pretty cool!! but for right now i will probably stick with what i have since i only have a 10g lol.


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## Danio king

the first pic = crypt green second = almost positive its micro sword.


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## serpa_man

thanks mate really helps me out. but now the plants in the first pic have a few brown leaves, should i cut them off or no?


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## Danio king

is it brownish red around the edge of the leaves, because sometimes they just look like that (thats how mine are) especially if its new growth and they will be fine. if it looks like they are rotting away just pinch them off as close to the main stem as possible it should grow new leaves really fast so no worries. and are you injecting CO2?


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## grogan

So I pull rocks from a local river/any exposed earth weekly and all I do to treat them is a scrub down in the sink and strait into the dishwasher with no soap and it presto, natural look no problems. As far as plants I would agree with lohachata on anubius. Very hearty plant and stays maintainable for a longer period of time than most.


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## serpa_man

ok so the brownish leaves are ok? and its all brown the hole leaf and its a new groth. im all confused now lol


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## Danio king

yeah theyre fine but just keep an eye on them


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## serpa_man

ok as long as they are fine im ok lol. and i have been keepin an eye on them lol. ima do a complete tank clean today or tomorow. i dono yet and i will trim them up as well. should i trim the brown leaves off?


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## serpa_man

hey y'all im back and i now have a 55 gal tank with a lot of fish in it lol. along with the two plants i started off with i now have a red wendtii. lfs finally got some low light plants in a while ago and bought some lol. i also have a job now so i will be able to get more things for my tank lol. and in my 10 gal i also have another red wendtii plant seperated into four seperate plants lol. but now the red wendtii leaves are turning a brown and i have some kent marine pro plant. but they have many many new leaves on them and it is also happening in my 55 tank. and now with my two original plants one of them is full yellow and the other has a few green and a few yellow leaves but the micro sword is still green with black stuff around the edges. what is goin on with my plants lol. any help will be greatly appriciated. thanks


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