# Best soil and plants?



## madmonahan (Aug 26, 2012)

I'm thinking of starting a NPT in my divided 10G. What is the best type of soil you can get from PetSmart? 

What is the best type of plants for this size tank?


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## Desensitizer (Jan 1, 2013)

madmonahan said:


> I'm thinking of starting a NPT in my divided 10G. What is the best type of soil you can get from PetSmart?
> 
> What is the best type of plants for this size tank?


Petsmarts best planted substrate is hands down eco complete. Should be a good price too given the cost of shipping. In terms of plants Anacharis grows the fastest of any plants at petsmart, and is probably the best choice if you are going to get a single plant. It grows like crazy under most conditions, is easily replicated, and is readily available at petsmart.


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## itsuki (Jan 10, 2013)

miracle gro potters choice organic mix, wal mart or home depot. many vids floating on youtube using this soil. extra work involved but people swear by it and the lady diana walstad who wrote the book ecology of the planted aquarium uses it too. make sure to cap it with gravel or sand.


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## madmonahan (Aug 26, 2012)

Thank you.


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## ao (Feb 29, 2012)

for a 10g I highly tecommend water wisteria. just having the one species planted right in the middle of your tank and allowing it to spread out can create a fairtale like scape 

to be honest any substrate usually works with hardy plants. floramax is basically dry ecocomplete, I dont really buy into the whole bacteria in substrate stuff... Personally i would get floramax so that I'm not paying for water.


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## madmonahan (Aug 26, 2012)

Only water wisteria?

If I where to order some from someone on this website. How can a pick out the snail eggs/snails, and dead plants?


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## Sprinkles55 (Jul 3, 2012)

There's loads of plants you can get but it all depends on the soil and the lighting. I personally love crypts, they all grow wonderfully in anything. Water sprites are pretty, any type of moss works great too. Pygmy chain swords are beautiful, and anubias are great too but you just tie it to some driftwood or some sort of ornament. Water lettuce is a great floating plant. Umm what else.. Java fern, cabomba, dwarf hair grass, hygrophilia corymbosa. Just choose which ones you want


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## Sprinkles55 (Jul 3, 2012)

Also there's a guy I found on here and ordered through his facebook sales page. He's in the classified section, but I forgot his username on here plus the forum he made... His facebook page is yourplantedtank.com. Hope I helped!


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## madmonahan (Aug 26, 2012)

Thanks! I still have plenty of questions before I start anything so one more question for now. 

I have heard some plants grow very fast and that I will need to do something with extra plant? What do I do with the overgrown plants?


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## madmonahan (Aug 26, 2012)

What kind of cypts do you recommend Sprinkles??


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## Otterfun (Dec 31, 2012)

madmonahan said:


> Only water wisteria?
> 
> If I where to order some from someone on this website. How can a pick out the snail eggs/snails, and dead plants?


PlantedAquariumCentral.com
I got most of my plants from there, except the wisteria and the Marimo Moss Ball in the photo. I got those from PetSmart. I think if you mentioned this website, which I did not know at the time of ordering, you get a discount.

Note: Crypts melt and take a while to regrow and I understand it is the nature of the plant when being transplanted. Mine (between the snail and the heater) has some melting but several stronger leaves remained and not dying as we speak.


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## madmonahan (Aug 26, 2012)

I'm thinking of ordering a few plants from Pandabetta. But I don't know how much I should ask for. I'm thinking of these things for the NPT

Java fern
Water sprite
A few moss balls
And 4 trumpet snails.

Would this be enough? And how do you clip the plants when they grow to much?? Sorry for so many questions, lol I just want to be prepared!


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## madmonahan (Aug 26, 2012)

Also, the hood I have for the tank, has a 15watt T8 Full Spectrum Lamp. Is this okay for those kind of plants??


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## Otterfun (Dec 31, 2012)

madmonahan said:


> I'm thinking of ordering a few plants from Pandabetta. But I don't know how much I should ask for. I'm thinking of these things for the NPT
> 
> Java fern
> Water sprite
> ...


In my case, I think I over-ordered because I did not think about the plants growing and expanding.

Marimo Moss balls(MMB) are nice, and my snail and shrimp graze on my MMB. But mine tend to pick up specks of my FloraMax as it moves around a tad every now and then.

You might want to consider some plants like hygrophilia which I read are nitrite busters, and some plants do not do that.

Try this site for research on plants or fish, I learned a lot from it: 
http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/profiles/


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## Sprinkles55 (Jul 3, 2012)

For crypts I recommend wendtiis and parvas. Those are the only ones I've gotten in the past, but they have been great for me. Do get some hyrophilias, they're wonderful. 

When planting stem plants, you can go a few routes. You can clip the plants down to whatever height you want them at, and they will normally sprout new growth from there. If you started off with very few plants, you can replant the clippings to fill out what you already have. At least, this is for stem plants. 
Great link Otterfun gave by the way 
Also, your light sounds good!


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## madmonahan (Aug 26, 2012)

How do I clip the leaves? I think I have a lot of stuff down but a few things: how to clip the leaves, how to know if the plant is dead and/or has dead leaves, and what to do with dead leaves/plant?


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