Importance of live plants to DPs?

[moh]

Im setting up a 20 gallon DP tank. Ive bought a smaller mounted driftwood and a medium sized lava rock with 3 holes through it. Im going to buy some small caves for the DPs to hide in. My question now is... plants. I love the look of live plants, but Ive never had them and to add a light to my tank that can support live plants is another $100. (The cover I have has led stringed lights only). Is it very imprtant for the tank to have live plants? If I go this route, Id be buying 3 or 4 small plants and hoping they grow to sustain the need of a lot of plants for my DPs.

[Pufferpunk]

Get low light plants like anubias, java moss ( DPs like to spawn in this) & crypts.

[moh]

Pufferpunk, what size aquaclear filter should I get for my 20 gallon? Ill have probably 4 DPs and a couple otos.

[moh]

And what type of substrate shpuld I have for the plants? I have basic gravel to put in.. is this ok?

[Hillehaus]

most basic gravels (quartz) are inert, and as such are of little to no nutritional value to rooting plants. In all of my planted tanks I've used Eco-Complete capped with sand, or something similar.

I'd also get at least an aquaclear 30 for that size tank.

[Welch4]

+1 to hillehaus comments about the substrate. Doesn't need to be eco complete, any planted soil should do. I use ecocomplete in one flora-max in another, the one I'm setting up right now will be using topsoil. For filters I'd aim for the biggest you can fit on the tank. I was running an aquaclear 50 on my dwarfpuffers's 20gallon before I switched to an ehiem canister. Not sure what the light requirement is but my dwarpuffers love aponogeton ulvaceous.

[TheStig]

Gravel killed my Ludiwgia. I was dosing w/ Seachem Flourish, Iron and Potassium. The leaves actually looked great, but it was rotting from the bottom up.

My best friend switched to flourite for her FW, and now her plants - whose leaves were melting, etc - turned green and healthy w/in a week. I hear it's a PITA tho... her water bill jumped by $50 that month, and she attributed it to the repeated rinsing. Hehe!

I just have anacharis, and some other plant that is growing like crazy. Still trying to find java moss. I found out water sprite is illegal in CA. Bummer.

[moh]

Now I feel really dumb.... I dont know what most of that is. Soil though? Like potting soil?? That would make a huge mess of mud wouldnt it?

[Welch4]

The initial fill will get kind of silty but the mirco-organisms in the soil will quickly develop a film within the soil and prevent murkiness within the water column. If using a soil intended for terrestrial purposes just make sure it doesn't have added fertilizers or chemicals. One thing to note using a terrestrial soil is you will have a ph spike the first week or two after filling the tank with water. If your looking for a good intro to plants and soil. Diana Waltsad's Ecology of the Planted Aquarium is really good. I revised my prior post taking out the abbreviations.

[Hillehaus]

Welch, Do you cap your soil with sand?

[Welch4]

I haven't done sand but that is an acceptable method. The one I just setup today was an inch of miracle grow organic choice potting soil and and inch of ecocomplete ontop. Doing a dry start with HC.

[Hillehaus]

Interesting. I always thought you had to cap the soil to keep it out of the water column. I had a hard time believing this was necessary. I'm glad I got a second opinion. If I ever break down the "jungle" I'm going to try it your way for a more natural look.

[Pufferpunk]

DPs like to spawn in Java moss.

[Welch4]

Interesting. I always thought you had to cap the soil to keep it out of the water column. I had a hard time believing this was necessary. I'm glad I got a second opinion. If I ever break down the "jungle" I'm going to try it your way for a more natural look.

From what I've picked up it is recommended to cap the soil. I didn't think that was to keep the soil out of the water column rather for aesthetics and allowing more space for root development while keeping the bottom layer of soil aerobic.