Plants and Gravel Soil

[Dzovi]

I went over to my local fish store and was asking about live plants in fish tanks. The attendant stated that with gravel fish tanks it's hard for the plants to take root. Is this true? If so, what kind of plants could anyone suggest that don't need a lot of maintance and are a good asset to a fish tank? Also how would you help the plants take root if needed? Thank for the help. Dominic

[Howie_W]

Hi Dominic,

If you search through the Show Tanks section of the forum you will find quite a few suggestions for substrates and plant species.

Many of us (including myself) use flourite/laterite mixes in our planted tanks.


HTH


Howie

[lesley]

Hello Dzovi,

Just to add to Howie's advice; while I don't know that it is the best way, I set up my planted tank using gravel. I have Vals., Corombya (?) and a couple of anubias planted into it. So far no probls (tank about 13 months old) although I understand that I will need to make sure that the gravel does not create anaeraboic conditions. Most of my plants are actually anubias on driftwood, which means that you can pick them up to clean underneath if need be. So you don't need to have all your plants into the substrate.

hth, Lesley