If you plan on putting any livestock in your planted tank be sure to research what they prefer. CPO Dwarf Crayfish love lots of little hiding places among plants, Same with livebearers and their fry especially floating plants for fry if you plan on breeding. Opposite to that Oscars love to tear up plants and dig them up. You've not lived until you've watched your giant Oscar poop out a leaf from one of the fake silk plants he pulled up and started to consume.
I wish I had a fish club near me. I live in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere. Closest I’ve got is the fish stores that are all 2 hours away and the few employees that have any idea about what I’m talking about. 🥺 I spend most of my time on RUclips, internet searches, and Facebook fish groups to learn anything about the hobby. Y’all have both been a huge inspiration in my current tanks and of course I too have MTS so future tanks to come. ♥️
I've had no luck with ferns. The only one that is still hanging in there is the windelov. I think I may have made the mistake you mentioned with the vallisneria. The dwarf saggitaria, however, has done very well, and it has propagated substantially. I do love the anubias and buce! I even have a buce that flowers rather often. As always, thanks for all the info!
Java fern is always listed as an easy beginner plant. I kept it for years - only had teeny tiny plants that threw out plantlets everywhere and never got very big. When I bought a plant specific light, I saw improvement. When I started adding higher quality fertilizer (and more often), they really started going. Then I amended my water change schedule to keep it at or around 20ppm nitrate, I'm seeing some decent growth now. Its in a 10g, and I was changing too much water too often, and it was starving. I managed to keep it alive for years, but it never thrived. Now that I've pinpointed what the problem is, I was able to fix it.
Great tips I wish I had known a long time ago! Before I started with aquarium plants I also didn't know that many of them are usually grown out of water and need to transition to growing underwater. While they do this, they often "melt" (their leaves die), but don't worry, as long as they have roots, they can grow new leaves. The plant you'll have in your tank eventually will look different from the one you bought. Stem plants without roots often just melt, don't waste your money, especially as a beginner . Joanna, I am also not very successful with Java Ferns, but all size of Anubias and Crypts grow well. Hornwort...yikes, I learned the hard way what a mess that can make.
Great advice. Too often, it's the basic information beginners miss out on because people assume everyone already knows about it. Great sweater, by the way!
Great tips!! One tip I would share is to get bulb plants like tiger lily. They are great and grow super fast. I love my plants and have spent more on them than most of my fish!! I had plants way before fish. Have one heavily planted tank, one with plastic plants (😮😮), and one with just substrate and rocks I gathered from a lake. So 3 totally different scapes which makes for good variety in my house. But I will say the tank with real plants is so green and beautiful.
Hi! Great video ⭐️ Thx for the tip about not floating anubias; and removing a leaf if necessary. Love your #9, “Don’t lose hope!” My Val was growing great, curling over the water surface, nice thick leaves and then one day I noticed it was thinning and dying back. Not sure why, but I stuck with it and it seems to be coming back! 😅 🌱
i bought a tiny container of red root floaters, in the beginning i struggled to keep them but once i figured out a way to keep them, they grew like crazy and covered 5 of my tanks and even flowered and was awesome. i got a little lazy and they started dying off and one tank i have them in, the shrimp ate them all. im down to 3 tiny individual plants im bringing back, they are in a cup you get bettas in from petsmart and its been about 2 weeks and theyve already grown more leaves and doing good! ill wait til they cover the top then move them to an empty tank for now
I had a good laugh about your Java fern experience. It doesn't like me, either. Loves my friend who keeps giving me bunches, which promptly melt and die in my tanks.
Im glad I knew nothing. Its been a fantastic experience....Ive learned a great deal and most of how I went about it I will repeat. Theres a great benefit of using all 3 types...substrate/floating/and middle of water column....Ive never had an ammonia or nitrite reading....my nitrate reading has been holding firm at 5 PPM. Ive realized that plants are a necessity to having a truly balanced aquarium, and I will never look back.
At the beginning of my plant journey my Java did fantastic. Now that I know more, they die back or look bad. No idea what I'm doing differently. Talked to the plant guy I buy from (shout out to Marcus Fish Tanks) and he said the same has been happening to him as he increases in his knowledge. One tip about floating plants. Remember to thin them out periodically because they can quickly multiply and shade the tank to the extent that it harms or even kills some plants. Frogbit, which I really like and use in 1/2 of my tanks and is great for shading Bettas a bit, can do the above so easily plus can root in the soil and thus suck nutrients out of it too. Still a great plant though you have to keep it in control. Love Anubias. Looks great, grows under most conditions I've put it in and is the forget-me plant that will keep trucking along even when I neglect things. They are cheap and easy to feed with liquid fertilizer (bought a big container of Easy Grean awhile back and still have alot left) and are slow to show problems. Plus they come in so many shapes and sizes.
I can't get Java fern to live on wood in my tank with the exception of two that are attached to wood hanging from suction cups on the back wall. The water flow is much more at this hight and they love it. The others just die off slowly until I try them again. Also had success with just tieing Buce to a suction cup and sticking it on the wall. Seems to grow a lot faster.
Great video! Myself I've had some weird experiences with hornwort. Throughout the years from different places it always starts to look a little different in all my tanks lol
My Java Ferns are thriving....Ive got dozens of rhizomes, and Im tending to believe it is because they filtered out a bulk of the ammonia and nitrites....instead of readings, I got it in the form of wild Co2 infused like growth....will keep an eye on them. If the 5 PPM nitrate reading holds firm, may have to add 2 to 3 more fish to get that closer to 10-15 PPM. It would be nice knowing that I can manipulate the nitrate reading....but time will tell. Ive gone slow since day 1...not changing that approach.
Big one for me is finding plants that that do well in specific pH. My aquarium with a pH of 8.2 has jungle Val, crypts and amazon swords thriving, everything else that has died does well in my aquarium with pH 7.6
Thank you. Starting a new betta tank and researching a couple of plants. Only want two for now any quick suggestions? Love the small scape videos. In fact the small scape and ben ochart inspired my interest again.
I love Val but I have had a difficult time getting it to stay alive. Thank you for the tip as I might be planting them too deep. I use a good brand of root tabs but I'll focus on the depth of planting. I rely heavily on all my Anubius for my tanks...with all their different sizes, shapes, they are the best and help to give my tanks the look I really like.
Easy green, fluval 3.0 lights, sand/gravel mix, and most importantly, I watch your videos. Anubias - I have the most gorgeous plants in every tank. Java Fern - slowly loses leaves, turns brown, grows leaflets, dies Java Moss - grows like a weed everywhere Anything bulb - grows well Duck weed - dies very quickly for me - I wish I knew why, I’d sell that info for $$$$. Hornwort - never had it
I tried java moss it die fast so now I try Christmas moss doing ok not die but not 100% and I try java fern the new one did not make it and I try anubias and its growing like crazy it's my favorite one so fare
Great tips about the anubias and subwasertang! Have you done a step by step on how to safely change out substrate on an existing aquarium? Or is that a big no no?
Thank you. I have 7 years with the same aquarium and always avoid to buy plant at all, especislly the "easy" ones keep dying on me and In my country those are normally the cheap ones so they dying make me not buy any other more expensive plant at all, until two months ago I decide to buy Anubias petite (kinda expensive) yet they are doing amazing idk whats going on 😅
I definitely do not like java fern.....I got rid of it. I love bacopa and anubias. Crypt and val varieties are my number two. Aquarium lilies are my next best fav!
Omg. The first anubias I bought the package said to bury the roots. Me, being dumb, followed the package directions and couldn't figure out why my beautiful anubias died. Watching an aquascape vid (MD) I learned that I was not supposed to bury the rhizome. 🤦♀️
@@thesmallscape do you have any luck with it? The red cabomba seems popular, it’s super pretty.. at least when it’s not disintegrating all over the tank. 😂
Ofcourse you CAN plant them in a sand but like most of them will die beacouse of their roots rotting and dissipating. Seriously, you just dont want to put your plants directly into sand, its one of the worst ideas ever.
I’m sorry to hear that’s your experience! We have had at least 60 tanks for the last few years with all plants in either sand or gravel. So far so good 😊
Very awesome video amazing information. Well I'm not a plant person because of my eczema but I bought two plants to try I got them from petco the imagitarium live aquatic 🪴 plant Bolbitis/Microsorium sp.& Anubias sp.
If you plan on putting any livestock in your planted tank be sure to research what they prefer. CPO Dwarf Crayfish love lots of little hiding places among plants, Same with livebearers and their fry especially floating plants for fry if you plan on breeding. Opposite to that Oscars love to tear up plants and dig them up. You've not lived until you've watched your giant Oscar poop out a leaf from one of the fake silk plants he pulled up and started to consume.
Definitely 😁
😅😂
😂😂❤😂😂😂
😆🤣😆
You are literally the Sandra Bullock of plants 😂 yay first time here and a bit basic for me (horticulturist) but I super rate you! Awesome vid thanks!
lol! Thank you! Horticulturist is THE coolest gig! 🙌
I wish I had a fish club near me. I live in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere. Closest I’ve got is the fish stores that are all 2 hours away and the few employees that have any idea about what I’m talking about. 🥺 I spend most of my time on RUclips, internet searches, and Facebook fish groups to learn anything about the hobby. Y’all have both been a huge inspiration in my current tanks and of course I too have MTS so future tanks to come. ♥️
I've had no luck with ferns. The only one that is still hanging in there is the windelov. I think I may have made the mistake you mentioned with the vallisneria. The dwarf saggitaria, however, has done very well, and it has propagated substantially. I do love the anubias and buce! I even have a buce that flowers rather often. As always, thanks for all the info!
I'm not good with plants but my windelov seems indestructible. I can keep anubias alive, but the windelov is thriving.
My java fern just died on me! I appreciate the humility on that one! I think I'm going to try anubias for my next rhizome plant. Love your content! :)
Aww…I’m sorry to hear that. Yours and mine can meet each other in Java fern heaven. I hope you love ANUBIAS!!! Best of luck to you💚🌱💚
Java fern doesn’t like me either! 😊
Java fern is always listed as an easy beginner plant. I kept it for years - only had teeny tiny plants that threw out plantlets everywhere and never got very big. When I bought a plant specific light, I saw improvement. When I started adding higher quality fertilizer (and more often), they really started going. Then I amended my water change schedule to keep it at or around 20ppm nitrate, I'm seeing some decent growth now. Its in a 10g, and I was changing too much water too often, and it was starving. I managed to keep it alive for years, but it never thrived. Now that I've pinpointed what the problem is, I was able to fix it.
Very helpful, and what about Brazilian pennywort ? Thank you 😊
Great tips I wish I had known a long time ago!
Before I started with aquarium plants I also didn't know that many of them are usually grown out of water and need to transition to growing underwater. While they do this, they often "melt" (their leaves die), but don't worry, as long as they have roots, they can grow new leaves. The plant you'll have in your tank eventually will look different from the one you bought. Stem plants without roots often just melt, don't waste your money, especially as a beginner .
Joanna, I am also not very successful with Java Ferns, but all size of Anubias and Crypts grow well. Hornwort...yikes, I learned the hard way what a mess that can make.
I love the "don't float" anubias tip!!
I agree with you on Java Fern, mine always end up too tall for my tank, and ratty looking.
Great advice. Too often, it's the basic information beginners miss out on because people assume everyone already knows about it.
Great sweater, by the way!
You got it, dude! Yay for the basics! And thank you - glad ya liked it! 🤓
Thanks! Great tips and information today!
Great tips!! One tip I would share is to get bulb plants like tiger lily. They are great and grow super fast. I love my plants and have spent more on them than most of my fish!! I had plants way before fish. Have one heavily planted tank, one with plastic plants (😮😮), and one with just substrate and rocks I gathered from a lake. So 3 totally different scapes which makes for good variety in my house. But I will say the tank with real plants is so green and beautiful.
Hi! Great video ⭐️ Thx for the tip about not floating anubias; and removing a leaf if necessary. Love your #9, “Don’t lose hope!” My Val was growing great, curling over the water surface, nice thick leaves and then one day I noticed it was thinning and dying back. Not sure why, but I stuck with it and it seems to be coming back! 😅 🌱
Mine too despite root tabs. The other plants are doing wonderfully. Every day aonther few pieces are floating on the top. :/
@@vickidavis7347 Isn’t it weird? I hope yours come back for you as mine are slowly starting to.
Great videos. Just found you from the flip aquatic video from today. Have a lovely rest of your year gal!
Hi there! How nice ☺️ Flip Aquatics are great people! Thanks for poppin over - Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
i bought a tiny container of red root floaters, in the beginning i struggled to keep them but once i figured out a way to keep them, they grew like crazy and covered 5 of my tanks and even flowered and was awesome. i got a little lazy and they started dying off and one tank i have them in, the shrimp ate them all. im down to 3 tiny individual plants im bringing back, they are in a cup you get bettas in from petsmart and its been about 2 weeks and theyve already grown more leaves and doing good! ill wait til they cover the top then move them to an empty tank for now
What a great comeback story! 🌿
Great tips, Joanna.
You are awesome, Joanna! Great planting tips. Gina Hetlage
Hi Gina! ☺️
I had a good laugh about your Java fern experience. It doesn't like me, either. Loves my friend who keeps giving me bunches, which promptly melt and die in my tanks.
Im glad I knew nothing. Its been a fantastic experience....Ive learned a great deal and most of how I went about it I will repeat. Theres a great benefit of using all 3 types...substrate/floating/and middle of water column....Ive never had an ammonia or nitrite reading....my nitrate reading has been holding firm at 5 PPM. Ive realized that plants are a necessity to having a truly balanced aquarium, and I will never look back.
At the beginning of my plant journey my Java did fantastic. Now that I know more, they die back or look bad. No idea what I'm doing differently. Talked to the plant guy I buy from (shout out to Marcus Fish Tanks) and he said the same has been happening to him as he increases in his knowledge.
One tip about floating plants. Remember to thin them out periodically because they can quickly multiply and shade the tank to the extent that it harms or even kills some plants. Frogbit, which I really like and use in 1/2 of my tanks and is great for shading Bettas a bit, can do the above so easily plus can root in the soil and thus suck nutrients out of it too. Still a great plant though you have to keep it in control.
Love Anubias. Looks great, grows under most conditions I've put it in and is the forget-me plant that will keep trucking along even when I neglect things. They are cheap and easy to feed with liquid fertilizer (bought a big container of Easy Grean awhile back and still have alot left) and are slow to show problems. Plus they come in so many shapes and sizes.
I can't get Java fern to live on wood in my tank with the exception of two that are attached to wood hanging from suction cups on the back wall. The water flow is much more at this hight and they love it. The others just die off slowly until I try them again. Also had success with just tieing Buce to a suction cup and sticking it on the wall. Seems to grow a lot faster.
Awesome video and I use some normal soil for my aquarium plants!
👍☺️
Java fern and swords I have never had luck with. No idea why. Totally get what you mean at the end.
Great video! Myself I've had some weird experiences with hornwort. Throughout the years from different places it always starts to look a little different in all my tanks lol
Love your channel
Does Crypt Wenti Red do well in a tank with tanins?
Mine does. Medium light, minimal ferts and root tabs. My son calls them the kelp forest.
My Java Ferns are thriving....Ive got dozens of rhizomes, and Im tending to believe it is because they filtered out a bulk of the ammonia and nitrites....instead of readings, I got it in the form of wild Co2 infused like growth....will keep an eye on them. If the 5 PPM nitrate reading holds firm, may have to add 2 to 3 more fish to get that closer to 10-15 PPM. It would be nice knowing that I can manipulate the nitrate reading....but time will tell. Ive gone slow since day 1...not changing that approach.
Big one for me is finding plants that that do well in specific pH. My aquarium with a pH of 8.2 has jungle Val, crypts and amazon swords thriving, everything else that has died does well in my aquarium with pH 7.6
Thank you. Starting a new betta tank and researching a couple of plants. Only want two for now any quick suggestions? Love the small scape videos. In fact the small scape and ben ochart inspired my interest again.
I love Val but I have had a difficult time getting it to stay alive. Thank you for the tip as I might be planting them too deep. I use a good brand of root tabs but I'll focus on the depth of planting. I rely heavily on all my Anubius for my tanks...with all their different sizes, shapes, they are the best and help to give my tanks the look I really like.
I’m the same with Java fern, they just never do well for me, always look sparse and have brown spots. Doesn’t seem to matter what I try.
Easy green, fluval 3.0 lights, sand/gravel mix, and most importantly, I watch your videos.
Anubias - I have the most gorgeous plants in every tank.
Java Fern - slowly loses leaves, turns brown, grows leaflets, dies
Java Moss - grows like a weed everywhere
Anything bulb - grows well
Duck weed - dies very quickly for me - I wish I knew why, I’d sell that info for $$$$.
Hornwort - never had it
I tried java moss it die fast so now I try Christmas moss doing ok not die but not 100% and I try java fern the new one did not make it and I try anubias and its growing like crazy it's my favorite one so fare
Great tips about the anubias and subwasertang! Have you done a step by step on how to safely change out substrate on an existing aquarium? Or is that a big no no?
Thank you. I have 7 years with the same aquarium and always avoid to buy plant at all, especislly the "easy" ones keep dying on me and In my country those are normally the cheap ones so they dying make me not buy any other more expensive plant at all, until two months ago I decide to buy Anubias petite (kinda expensive) yet they are doing amazing idk whats going on 😅
I definitely do not like java fern.....I got rid of it. I love bacopa and anubias. Crypt and val varieties are my number two. Aquarium lilies are my next best fav!
Great tips as always! I get a lot of my plants from my local fish swap! Cheaper, bigger and healthier 😊
Woohoo for swaps! 🌱🌱🌱🌱👈🤭
Great tips as always!!
I'm the same way with Java Fern...strangely Windelov works for me, but "plain" Java Fern, it just dies 😐 Thanks for another great video!
Ooh - well that’s the prettiest one in my opinion! ☺️
Omg. The first anubias I bought the package said to bury the roots. Me, being dumb, followed the package directions and couldn't figure out why my beautiful anubias died. Watching an aquascape vid (MD) I learned that I was not supposed to bury the rhizome. 🤦♀️
🎄🎁💯🔥 this was helpful
Random is good
☺️
👍👍👍
Another one to be careful with: cabomba. When it’s unhappy, mess everywhere.
Oh yaaa!! You are right. ☺️
@@thesmallscape do you have any luck with it? The red cabomba seems popular, it’s super pretty.. at least when it’s not disintegrating all over the tank. 😂
My problem is that I want to collect all the plants 😂
💚💚💙💙
The video covers 10 things, and is 10 mins 10 seconds long,10:10... Wow 😄
Hurry on down to Hobby Lobby. 70% off on all Christmas items. Great items to decorate your video.
I also cannot grow Java fern to save my life!
Yup. We’re in the same club.
Ahh yes java Fern ... The easiest plant to have they said, will NOT grow at all in my tanks. Anubis does fine but not java Fern.
Ok, we will be in the club together then. ☺️
Not random at all. What does that say about the state of my mind 👀👀
🤭🙌👍
Ofcourse you CAN plant them in a sand but like most of them will die beacouse of their roots rotting and dissipating.
Seriously, you just dont want to put your plants directly into sand, its one of the worst ideas ever.
I’m sorry to hear that’s your experience! We have had at least 60 tanks for the last few years with all plants in either sand or gravel. So far so good 😊
@@thesmallscape Miracle not know to science ;-)
Very awesome video amazing information. Well I'm not a plant person because of my eczema but I bought two plants to try I got them from petco the imagitarium live aquatic 🪴 plant Bolbitis/Microsorium sp.& Anubias sp.