# Live Plant Question



## Oscar5001 (Sep 22, 2005)

OK, I'm setting up my 240 gallon next week and I really would like to add live plants. I have no expierence with them. Couple questions. What kind would you guys recomend from personal expierence, and what type of lighting will I need for them to thrive? The tank will house 15 reds if that matters at all. Any advice would be appreciated.

Crap wrong place to post. Someone please move?


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## Ex0dus (Jun 29, 2005)

Low level lights will be @ 2wpg. So in a 240, your looking at neat 500watts to properly grow low level light plants. You can get by with 1-1.5wpg with low level plants but they wont do as well as they would with better lighting. This is one of the reasons you dont see many larger planted tanks, damn lights cost so much $. Good luck man.


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## alan (Mar 11, 2004)

i dont know anyonw who has ever had any success with plants !!


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## sneepizzle (Oct 21, 2005)

a live plant setup in a 240 gallon tank would cost you $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ the co2 systems, full spectrum lighting, plant subtrate, the plants themselves, ect. ect. unless you have money popping up your ass (which you might with a 240 gallon tank) i wouldnt reccomend live plants, if you really want live plants id suggest starting on a smaller tank (say like a 30 galloner) or something and see how you like it


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## Oscar5001 (Sep 22, 2005)

sneepizzle said:


> a live plant setup in a 240 gallon tank would cost you $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ the co2 systems, full spectrum lighting, plant subtrate, the plants themselves, ect. ect. unless you have money popping up your ass (which you might with a 240 gallon tank) i wouldnt reccomend live plants, if you really want live plants id suggest starting on a smaller tank (say like a 30 galloner) or something and see how you like it


Yeah, I'm beginning to see that live plants will be a problem. I could always run the electricity off of our street light but that would be illegal


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## Ex0dus (Jun 29, 2005)

The electric bill wont be so bad, its all the equiptment your gonna need. The lights alone are gonna run you several hundred dollars.


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## Oscar5001 (Sep 22, 2005)

Then fake-ass plants it is


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## septicpeg (Oct 21, 2003)

I've had live plants in my tank since i set it up 2 years ago. The only variety that seems to thrive is the Amazon Sword plants, every other plant i buy seems to die. At first they die off a bit, but grow back. I have 2 varieties of them and the smaller "version" is reproducing so i have lots of cute 1" amazons floating around!!

I have sand substrate but put small pebbles around where plants are to help the roots. During water changes, i use some stuff (kent something or other) that adds in nutrients for plants and fish that are lost during filtration. My plants aren't monstrously huge, but they do their job and are a nice snack if the P's feel like it. I have ordinary fluo tube and a moonlight with tin foil to ease the glare. Just as long as you remove the dead leaves as often as possible you should have no probs


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## sneepizzle (Oct 21, 2005)

> I've had live plants in my tank since i set it up 2 years ago. The only variety that seems to thrive is the Amazon Sword plants, every other plant i buy seems to die. At first they die off a bit, but grow back. I have 2 varieties of them and the smaller "version" is reproducing so i have lots of cute 1" amazons floating around!!
> 
> I have sand substrate but put small pebbles around where plants are to help the roots. During water changes, i use some stuff (kent something or other) that adds in nutrients for plants and fish that are lost during filtration. My plants aren't monstrously huge, but they do their job and are a nice snack if the P's feel like it. I have ordinary fluo tube and a moonlight with tin foil to ease the glare. Just as long as you remove the dead leaves as often as possible you should have no probs


your plants may not be doing so well for the following reason: what type of c02 are you using (if any), is there a lot of surface agitation of the water, is there full spectrum lightning of the the ideal WPG (watts per gallon) for your species of plants, how often do you use fertilizers, do you have any type of plant subtrate like flourite and eco complete, are you using carbon in your filtration?


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## septicpeg (Oct 21, 2003)

Have plenty of surface agitation with 2-3 pumps running. Maybe the light ain't the best, but the lighting is dim for the fishies benefit. I'm quite happy just having the sword plants growing, they do their job of providing a territory and shelter. I add in Kent Freshwater essential trace mineral supplement once a week with mater changes. It benefits the fish and plants.

Just sand substrate, no carbon, no fancy stuff. After all, it's all about the piranha's for me


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## sneepizzle (Oct 21, 2005)

> Have plenty of surface agitation with 2-3 pumps running. Maybe the light ain't the best, but the lighting is dim for the fishies benefit. I'm quite happy just having the sword plants growing, they do their job of providing a territory and shelter. I add in Kent Freshwater essential trace mineral supplement once a week with mater changes. It benefits the fish and plants.
> 
> Just sand substrate, no carbon, no fancy stuff. After all, it's all about the piranha's for me


surface agitation is bad for your plants because all of the co2 is being diffused, actually no surface agitation is best in a planted tank. you can have dim lighting for the p's but dim full spectrum lighting would be good for low light plants, no carbon is good too because it eats up all your trace elements and supplements...........but if your happy with your setup who am i to comment, good luck with it though


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## Dr. Giggles (Oct 18, 2003)

Moving to Plant forum


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## BigChuckP (Feb 9, 2004)

alan said:


> > Have plenty of surface agitation with 2-3 pumps running. Maybe the light ain't the best, but the lighting is dim for the fishies benefit. I'm quite happy just having the sword plants growing, they do their job of providing a territory and shelter. I add in Kent Freshwater essential trace mineral supplement once a week with mater changes. It benefits the fish and plants.
> >
> > Just sand substrate, no carbon, no fancy stuff. After all, it's all about the piranha's for me
> 
> ...


Surface agitation is not bad for plants it just deems your co2 system almost worthless because it allows the co2 to dissipate from your tank. If you are not injecting co2 then this is no cause for concern. Your bulbs should be in the 6500/6700K range and since you are not injecting co2 then you should not have over 2 watts per gallon.

@Oscar go for live plants! It is awesome to have live plants because they help with your water quality and your ps can eat them unlike plastic plants. A small percentage of a piranhas diet is made up of plants. You are going to be buying gravel for your tank anyways right? Regular gravel is fine for plants, not the best but will do. You don't have to have eco-complete, flourite, etc. As for lighting you can go to ace, home depot, Walmart, etc. and pick up some CHEAP lights. You can get a 48 inch strip for about 8 dollars, the lights you can buy there as well and they are way cheap too. Get about 1.5 - 2 wpg of lighting in the 6500/6700K range. Since you have such a large tank I would recommend getting bulk ferts from gregwatson.com 
There is a cheap way to keep plants you just have to look around and see what is available to you. I'll be happy to answer any other ?s you might have, a planted 240 would be SWEET!


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

BigChuckP said:


> > Have plenty of surface agitation with 2-3 pumps running. Maybe the light ain't the best, but the lighting is dim for the fishies benefit. I'm quite happy just having the sword plants growing, they do their job of providing a territory and shelter. I add in Kent Freshwater essential trace mineral supplement once a week with mater changes. It benefits the fish and plants.
> >
> > Just sand substrate, no carbon, no fancy stuff. After all, it's all about the piranha's for me
> 
> ...


Surface agitation is not bad for plants it just deems your co2 system almost worthless because it allows the co2 to dissipate from your tank. If you are not injecting co2 then this is no cause for concern. Your bulbs should be in the 6500/6700K range and since you are not injecting co2 then you should not have over 2 watts per gallon.

@Oscar go for live plants! It is awesome to have live plants because they help with your water quality and your ps can eat them unlike plastic plants. A small percentage of a piranhas diet is made up of plants. You are going to be buying gravel for your tank anyways right? Regular gravel is fine for plants, not the best but will do. You don't have to have eco-complete, flourite, etc. As for lighting you can go to ace, home depot, Walmart, etc. and pick up some CHEAP lights. You can get a 48 inch strip for about 8 dollars, the lights you can buy there as well and they are way cheap too. Get about 1.5 - 2 wpg of lighting in the 6500/6700K range. Since you have such a large tank I would recommend getting bulk ferts from gregwatson.com 
There is a cheap way to keep plants you just have to look around and see what is available to you. I'll be happy to answer any other ?s you might have, a planted 240 would be SWEET!








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## dc2rtek (Oct 27, 2005)

damn 240gallon is huge...but thats nothing i seen a 500 gallon plant tank at someones house.


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## sneepizzle (Oct 21, 2005)

but if you dont inject co2 the plants will take away the carbonate hardness and lower your pH and it will fluctuate greatly........which is horrible for the fish


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## boontje (Mar 27, 2005)

sneepizzle said:


> but if you dont inject co2 the plants will take away the carbonate hardness and lower your pH and it will fluctuate greatly........which is horrible for the fish


When plants have consumed all the CO2, some plants (e.g. vallisneria) will get CO2 from the calcium in the water.
This will increase the pH. 
But it's only some plants that do this (e.g. vallisneria). And you need a heavily planted tank and a lot of lighting for this to happen.


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