.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!PlAnTs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.?
Saturday, February 6th, 2010 at
2:25 pm
Hi,
I have a (unplanted) new fish tank- no fish yet,,,,,
I want live plants for the fish tank, as I believe they help. So….
Do Java Moss and Java Ferns need lighting- my tank is going about a meter- at most- behind a window……
Are they the best first time plants to keep????
Anything else???
Thanks
Bob
Filed under: Plants
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All plants need light. Java Moss and Java Ferns are no exception. They can tolerate lower levels of light, but they still need light. One watt per gallon of 6500-7500k lighting is what I would consider the minimum.
Yes, they are excellent first time plants. Hardy and can handle conditions that would kill a lot of other common aquarium plants.
Anything else? Yes… a whole lot. 12 page articles detail just the simple basics to keeping plants. If you’re sticking with java moss and java fern, you don’t need CO2, and only a little bit of fertilizer. They are slow growing and don’t require strict monitoring. If you’re going to get into other, faster growing plants, you’ll need to do a lot more research.
Don’t put your tank near a window. You will have massive algae problems. The light through a window has virtually nothing useful for plants by the time it gets through the glass, but will still support algae.