Plants

[MacAtk]

I am setting up a 36 gallon bowfront tank as a low light planted tank for the first time. I was wondering where are the best places to buy plants on the north side of town.

Is there any specific internet sites that have the best deals on plants?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am excited about starting this tank and have a whole lot to learn.

Thanks,
Mark

[madehtsobi]

Sometimes there's people on this site that has plants for sale.

Or you can try

Theplantedtank.net
Aquaticplantcentral.com

[aquabee]

I agree, those websites are pretty good. You can always look around this website too and see if people are taking down their tanks, or contact people who have big planted tanks who may be able to spare you some plants to start with. I just gave away a bunch, or I'd help you out! Good luck and do post updates of your tank as it comes along!

[digitallinh]

I get most of my plants online - theplantedtank has a solid community of buyers/sellers.

Fish gallery and fish ranch have the best variety I've seen in town.

Bobstropicalplants (online) has high quality plants and hard to find livestock for planted tanks. Cheapest dry ferts on the net. He also sells on TPT

[MacAtk]

Thanks for all the information, it has been very helpful.

[screename]

I second planted tank. Anubias, ferns, mosses are all great low lightplants and there are many species just to choose just from that. I have some ferns id be willing to sell. Could you give us some more details as to your lighting and substrate?

[MacAtk]

I went with Eco-Complete due to ADG being out of Aqua-soil unitl March, just did not want to wait that long to get started. My lighting probably is not the greatest Zoo-Med T5 with 2-24 watt 6000k and 5000k bulbs. I currently have an Ehiem 2217 canister. I hope this will work out while I continue to learn more.

[Totenkampf]

i am not aware of any good plant places on the north side but have purchased from azgardens.com before and was happy with the plants. the other forums mentioned along with members of the local clubs and of HFB are good bets too. i use a mix of flourite and eco-complete and it works well. since most low light plants arent root feeders you should be okay with just EC and ADA soil probably would have been a waste of cash for now. you may want to consider ditching the 5000k bulb or replacing it in 6 months with a bulb from the ~6500k temperature since that has a better balance of spectrum spikes in the wavelengths that plants need.

[digitallinh]

I use the zoo-med on one of my tanks (29 gallon) and its a perfect, cheap light for an excel/non-c02 based setup. I hang my fixture about 4 inches above a 18 tall aquarium, which puts me smack at "medium light" (30-35PAR) at the substrate. (light is 18 inches from the substrate). I can grow pretty much anything (currently have staurogyne repens/purple, Dwrf HGrass, cabomba, ludwigia cuba, etc). My stuff grows a bit slower than your high-tech setup, but I have no algae and lower maintenance/pruning. I think the trade-off is worth it. It all eventually fills in anyway.

I do dose NPK and micros though not as much, but you really shouldn't have to if you have fish.

If I were you and aiming for lowlight, I would hang it up even higher -- maybe 20-22 inches above the substrate. You can easily adjust the suspension wires anyway. There is plenty of PAR data out there regarding this light and the conclusion is that it probably gives about 66% of the PAR of your high quality fixture (because the reflector only reflects 2 images of light, rather than 3 on your parabolic reflectors).

as far as spectrum, I don't think it really matters (outside of aesthetics) what combination you use. I use the 5k (reddish) and 6.5k (whitish).

and crypts are heavy root feeders, which I would venture to say will end up being what you will be planting the most of. www.rootmedic.net (cheap, very effective root tabs), eco-complete is perfectly OK, definitely better than gravel. As I've stated above, bobstropicalplants has some good cheap crypts, should definitely check it out (his root tabs aren't so bad either).

[AquaticAddict]

Ive bought from aquaticmajic on aquabid a few times. Nice plants and a good price

[digitallinh]

I'll pm you next time I do a major trim, I throw away so many plants/adventitious crypts...

I actually see a mi oya wendtii that will give you some nice low light reds coming out from my substrate. I'll wait for it to get bigger!