# Need help with changing tank to Planted



## kholder (Dec 2, 2010)

Working with:

10 gallon cycled, filtered, heated and lighted.
1 betta, 2 shrimp, 1 snail.
Gravel substrate
Wanting to:

Replace plastic/silk plants with live plants within the next month or two.
Need to know:

Should I change the substrate out completely?
Should I put in a new substrate and layer over with current gravel?
Will current gravel with no new substrate sustain live plants?
I don't want to mess with CO2, is this going to be okay not to have?
When doing the change over, how should this be done?
I thought maybe I'd just buy a plant or two and get started with the current set up, but now I'm second guessing myself. 

Thanks for your help.


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## Oldfishlady (Mar 1, 2010)

If you have regular gravel that is fairly small in diameter...it will be fine for plants....what is more important for success with live plants is your lights......for 10g tank you need 20w 6500k bulb-daylight and best to start with new bulbs especially if yours are over 6 months old

You don't have to have CO2 unless you go over 3wpg or have plants that require it

Lots of low-mod light plants that work well in low tech setups
Java moss, java fern, anubias, crypts, vals, sags, wisteria, naja grass, swords, hygrophila, lugwigia, bacopa, rotala, water lettuce, frogbit and the list goes on......


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## kholder (Dec 2, 2010)

Thank you. Gravel is the typical stuff you find at walmart. What about fertilizer, etc? I have printed off your post so that I can make sure to get the right bulbs and will research the plants you listed to see what I might like best in my tank.


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## kholder (Dec 2, 2010)

Oh..one other thing, I'll probably be ordering plants online, any recommendations?


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## Tomsk (Mar 4, 2010)

It is possible to do it with a 15W light in a 10G (have a look at my tanks in the tab,my 10G "main tank" has a 15W light.The main thing is,as Oldfishlady says,choosing the right plants for your setup.
The best lquid fertilzer I found is Seachem Flourish.

Tomsk


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## kholder (Dec 2, 2010)

Thanks again, taking everything in to account. My main problem is not knowing what I do not know. 

Freshwater Aquarium website offers this for $83.94:

FREE SHIPPING WHEN ORDERING ONLY THE PACKAGE. IF YOU ADD ADDITIONAL ITEMS TO YOUR ORDER, YOU WILL BE REQUIRED TO PAY SHIPPING This plant package will work with your existing regular strip lighting! Here is the page with the layout and details: Lowlight Package It includes the following aquarium plants:

2 Java Fern 
2 Anubias Nana 
1 Red Melon Sword Plant 
8 Lilaeopsis Mauritius 
4 Dwarf Saggitaria 
1 bunch stem plants, red and/or green 
6 Vallisneria or other suitable background plant 
2 Cryptocoryne wendtii "Red" 
2 Cryptocoryne wendtii "Green" 
2 Cryptocoryne Lutea


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## kholder (Dec 2, 2010)

Tomsk said:


> It is possible to do it with a 15W light in a 10G (have a look at my tanks in the tab,my 10G "main tank" has a 15W light.The main thing is,as Oldfishlady says,choosing the right plants for your setup.
> The best lquid fertilzer I found is Seachem Flourish.
> 
> Tomsk


Your tanks are very nice.


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## Tomsk (Mar 4, 2010)

Thank you 
Tomsk


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## Oldfishlady (Mar 1, 2010)

All very nice plants...sure seems like a lot of money though.....someplace on this site someone posted a link for plants...wish I could remember who and the thread title......dang.....and several people ordered and was happy with what they got and for a lot less money and fairly cheap shipping too...I think....I have only ordered once on-line and I was very happy with the plants and service.....
http://www.sweetaquatics.com/


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## Slayers (Jan 10, 2011)

Oldfishlady said:


> someplace on this site someone posted a link for plants...wish I could remember who and the thread title......dang.....and several people ordered and was happy with what they got and for a lot less money and fairly cheap shipping too...I think....


http://www.plantedaquariumscentral.com/

I think that is the site you are looking for OFL I ordered from them too and everything they sent me is really nice I am about to order some driftwood covered in moss from them in a few days


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## Oldfishlady (Mar 1, 2010)

Yes...I think that is it...thanks...I still haven't been able to find the shipping cost...what did the shipping cost you if you don't mind me asking...
This is one of the selling points for me...lol....shipping cost....

That why I bought from sweetaquatic when I did...at the time they had Free shipping on orders over $35.00....but I don't think they do that now...great plants and service none the less....


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## Slayers (Jan 10, 2011)

It cost $10 for the shipping from AZ to NY it was kinda on the high side till I got the stuff they were packaged perfect so I didn't mind spending that shipping cost


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## rogue619 (May 28, 2010)

Hmm, that package seems a little pricey, even with free shipping. And it bothers me that they don't tell you what the bunch plants are, or what the "other suitable background plants" are to replace the vals. How do they know what is suitable if they don't know your tank and water parameters? I would definitely try looking around at sweetaquatics, plantedaquariumcentral, or aquariumplants.com first. At least one of those sites offers similar packages.


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## 1fish2fish (Sep 10, 2009)

I got my plants from www.bobstropicalplants.com great to work with and if you send her an email she'll work with you to figure out what plants would work best for you. I just went with the low light package and I'm really happy with the results. I also threw in a couple extra crypts.

I recently changed my regular fluorescent bulb to a coralife plant bulb and I'm amazed with the change it's made to my plants now that they're in the 6500k range. Another option if your hood is set up for incandescent bubls is to put two 10 watt CFLs on it but I find that those are too yellow for my taste, maybe you can find whiter ones than those.

I use eco complete in my tanks but gravel works well too. I would advise you to get Flourish excel and dose daily and flourish comprehensive to dose weekly to give your plants an extra boost. I also give mine root tabs because so many of mine are rooted I think it helps.


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## jschristian44 (Jan 6, 2011)

I, like you, wanted a planted tank. I got a 10 gallon betta spawning tank right now that is going to be my main display tank after I spawn them in there. Anyways, I have searched at least 2 weeks time for the cheapest and best plants online. By far the cheapest and simplest site is Aquabid.com. They have excellent plants there. I got my frogbit (20+ bits) and my amazon swords (5 plants) for like 30 dollars total. I wouldn't bother wasting your time with those packages, they are way overpriced. The frogbit and amazon swords look excellent in my tank and for the price I got a good bit of planting. Best part is that they will both grow and I can make profit selling off the ones that grow. If you want good plants get frogbit. My betta likes blowing his bubbles in them all the time. He really likes hiding in the amazon swords as well. If I had to do it again, I would have gotten something that grows shorter than amazon swords. They are really nice looking plants, but I didn't know they can reach levels of 2 feet when full grown. Frogbit I highly recommend though. Don't get duckweed, that just looks like seaweed, it's ugly. Frogbit is basically lilly pads that look like and are just a bit bigger than a four leaf clover.


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## kholder (Dec 2, 2010)

I didn't even think of aquabid, I'll check it out. Bob's seemed reasonable. I emailed plantedaquariumscentral regarding shipping and got this response:
 
Hello,
You can find the shipping by adding items to your cart. It will tell you how much it will be before you pay. IT normaly is $6.99 for the first plant and then $.69 for each additional plant. This depends on whether the plant is potted or not.
Thanks,




Heather
http://shop.plantedaquariumscentral.com


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## jschristian44 (Jan 6, 2011)

yeah i checked out bob's and they have some pretty good prices. near aquabids actually which is nice. their red cherry shrimp are really cheap on his site. i wouldnt mind getting my stuff from bobs site instead of aquabid because he looks very legit. id suggest his site, then aquabid.com. as for plantedaquariumscentral, yes i heard good thing about her site. she seems to work with people very well and has really good prices. all of these sites are probably the cheapest and best on the web. i suggest all 3.


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## kfish (Oct 5, 2010)

I love my www.plantedaquariumscentral.com plants... if you type in the coupon code "BETTAFISH" you get 10% off (doesn't include shipping).

I thought the shipping was flat rate... guess not. Don't remember what it cost and I JUST threw away the box for my most recent shipment.


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## wallywestisthebest333 (Nov 30, 2009)

I agree with OFL That site, list, and price you posted sound like highway robbery! >:[

www.sweetaquatics.com doesn't normally sell a plant for over $3.00 unless it's rare or something like that and their shipping is reasonable. I'm ordering from them this week. =]

The only problem I have with them is that their snails are REALLY expensive. That's it though. =] They have a great site running and they're upgrading their facilities so they'll also have more to offer soon! =]

Good luck with you plants! =] I also recommend Anacharis. I've had some in freezing water for a month and then in almost no light and no care for the past 2 weeks and a lot of it is still thriving. It's an amazing plant. It is subject to algae problems though so be careful with your lighting or get some snails such as Ramshorn or Nerite that will eat it for you. =]


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## dmmeyer4 (Nov 9, 2010)

If you don't want to change out your gravel for substrate you can you seachems fourish tabs they sell them at petsmart, I have substrate in my ten gallon but when i started my five gallon i didnt want to mess with substrate and found these browsing through the store and they actually work better than i expected... just an idea


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## jschristian44 (Jan 6, 2011)

i have eco-complete substrate and i really like it. it can get messy, but i use a funnel to put it in the tank and it works fine.


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## kholder (Dec 2, 2010)

Thanks for all the info. I've been looking around at all the plants, etc. at all the different sites. One site will have "A", but not "B", so I may not be able to get what I want from just one place. I feel like I am about ready to order, however I have a new problem. What is going to look good where in my tank? What's a good low-med. light centerpiece type plant? What's going to look good in foreground, background? I am thinking that I'll just order, plant, and move plants around later when I see what kind of height and expansion they're going to take on. Suggestions welcomed.


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## kholder (Dec 2, 2010)

Here is a picture of my 10 gallon as it presently sits. I recently lowered the water level for a couple of reasons. 1) Just to see if I might like it better being able to view activity at the top of the water level, including being able to see floating plants, 2) So Si, the mystery snail can have better access to air if he wishes, 3) to see if the sound of the water coming out of the filter is annoying or soothing. 

Now I need to find out which low light plants (non-co2) would fill in nicely for the current fake plants. I do believe I'm completely sold on the frogbit - what a lovely plant that is (another reason I lowered the water level).


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## Oldfishlady (Mar 1, 2010)

I like water wisteria...its a nice low-mod light plant and easy to grow and propagate easy and fast so you can fill in spaces with just a few starts of it, crypts are easy low-mod lights too and you can get bronze colored ones to give some color to the tank and vals and sags both low-mod light to give height in the back....


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## wallywestisthebest333 (Nov 30, 2009)

as for a centerpiece: dwarf lilies and red tiger lotuses make great centerpieces! =] Unfortunately the sight I bought my plants from was sold out so I think I'm going to buy one of those dried bulbs and see if I can sprout it this time! =]

If you buy a dried bulb I highly suggest putting it in a shallow dish of water or a small cup in the sunlight to let it sprout. Don't keep it in your tank just incase it molds. =]


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## kholder (Dec 2, 2010)

I can't believe how much looking around a plants I have done these past few days. I'll put a package together, then back out, unsure of myself. I do know the one thing I really wanted after seeing it is the frogbit, so I ordered some of that tonight - should have it in a week or so. Meanwhile, I need to replace one light bulb in the hood and decide what other plants to buy. I ended up ordering the frogbit from an eBay seller, I'll let you all know how that worked out. It was the best price (w/shipping costs) I could find for just ONE item. Basically worked out to a buck something for each piece.


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## kholder (Dec 2, 2010)

Received frogbit (eBay purchase). Was supposed to get 6 plants. I received one fully intact plant, two two leafed o plants that appear to have roots. What was left in the bag was just single leafs with no roots. Sad to say, I was very let down by this purchase. I have notified the seller of my disatisfaction in hopes he will make the transaction right...if not, live and learn.


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## Hadouken441 (Jan 27, 2010)

Should have asked me for frogbit! I would have givin you a sandwhichbad full for like $6 bucks!


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## kholder (Dec 2, 2010)

Hadouken441 said:


> Should have asked me for frogbit! I would have givin you a sandwhichbad full for like $6 bucks!


I'm sorry, I didn't know.


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