my new 20g planted tank

[yungreefer2410]

do plants need overnight shipping?

[Luukosian]

I never used overnight when I got mine shipped in, but there used to be a guy on ebay that sold tons of plants 3-5 dollars a bunch including shipping so if you lost some it didn't really matter...unfortunately he has since stopped selling I think. It ussually took 3-4 days for the plants to show up and every package had some die off but some always made it.

Depends on the plant I suppose, some can be pretty delicate.

[yungreefer2410]

okay thanks i'll look around

[yungreefer2410]

okay found some java moss in a pet store i discovered. i'll post up some pics tomorrow. i did a about 3g wc to get some of the "dusty" water out. it looks so much clearer now. man is that flourite dirty. even after i washed it. right now for plants i have 6 corkscrew valeria, 6 red luwigia, mass of java moss, 2 java ferns. yea i don't know how to spell those names. i will prob add some moneywort because it has a nice look.

[Luukosian]

Sounds good, once you get everything growing good and stable you'll have so much you wont know what to do with it all lol.

[yungreefer2410]

thanks for stopping by. do you have a "dusty" problem with flouite? when you cut plants does a root grow where you cut it or does it just die?

[Luukosian]

As far as cutting, I'm assuming you mean stem plants so I ussualy remove the stem then cut and throw away the bottom portion. If you leave enough of the stem you can just cut and replant the top and the bottom will regrow but it will look goofy after a while.

All my flourite has been in the tanks I have for at least a couple years so I get no dust when I lift plants out, just detritus and plant mulm. You'll probably be moving the plants and what not a lot at first and when you do just do a water change and get the dust out, eventually it will go away.

edit: re read your question and yeah...if you cut a plant and stick the cut end in the substrate it will grow new roots in no time.(if your talking about stem plants like the ludwigia)

[yungreefer2410]

thank you for your response. yea i am going to do wc till it all clears up. i am thinking on adding some fish in 2-3 weeks.instead of having some bottum dwelling fish can i just have more small fish? i was thinking some zebra or pencilfish

[Luukosian]

short answer, yeah sure you can...long answer lol....

I would try to get something small that is an algae eater in addition to the tetras. You are always going to get some level of algae and its good to get something that will keep it in check. The best ive seen at it are otto's, siamese algae eaters(the best but get kind of big pretty fast), and amano shrimp(to some extent), and when they are young chinese algae eaters(most common). Bottom feeders are good because they will eat all the junk on the substrate but I never really use them too much no reason other than I just havent found any I really like besides the weather loaches.

[yungreefer2410]

yea i didnt't really like any of them either. i will just vaccum the top of the substrate during wc. heres a fts...much clearer now.

[Luukosian]

Lookin good! Hopefully everything does ok in the low light. The vals in one of my low light tanks kind of stay the same size and don't grow much but I put a bunch in another tank with comparable light and they thrive(that tank gets a lot more sunlight though because its right by a window). I think you said you have 2 bulbs over this one though right?

[yungreefer2410]

yes that is right. one brand new 17w fixture and one like 1.5 yr old 15w fixture. i am soon to replace the 15w fixture with a $10 17w grow light from wal-mart

[yungreefer2410]

total money spent is $90 so far. i just want to add one more plant then i'll let everything grow

[yungreefer2410]

hes a couple of pics of the new plants. can i put any other plants besides java on the driftwood?

[michaelh218]

I saw some pics of a type of moss you can tie to the driftwood that looked really nice. Sorry but I don't know the name of it.