Easy plants don't mean an ugly tank
Just because you start out with easy to care for plants doesn't mean your aquascape can't be beautiful. The aquascape below is a GREAT example of what your tank can look like with simple, easy to care for plants.
Believe it or not, there are only 4 species of plants in this aquascape.
Plants Used:
Narrow Leaf Java Fern (Microsorium Pteropus) - Large plant in the center
Background plant
Water column or root feeding
Anubias (Anubias barteri sp.) - Tucked in the rocks aka "hardscape"
Foreground or middle ground plant
Water column or root feeding
Bucephalandra (Bucephalandra 'Kedagang') - Tucked in the rocks aka "hardscape"
Foreground or middle ground plant
Water column or root feeding
Cryptocoryne (Cryptocoryne wentii 'green') - Planted in the sand with root tabs
Foreground ground plant
Root feeding
Optional - Christmas Moss (Vesicularia montagnei 'Christmas') - Glued to the wood or rock for softness
Add to taste
Water column feeding
Honorable Mentions For Easy Plants:
Anacharis (Egeria Densa)
Background plant
Root feeding
Water Wisteria (Hydrophilia Difformis)
Background plant
Can feed from the water column, but its a root feeding plant
Jungle Val (Vallisneria Americana)
Background plant
Root feeding
Dwarf Sag (Sagittaria Subulata)
Foreground plant for tanks larger than 40 gallons
Root feeding
Background plant
Root feeding
Note: All root feeding need nutrients at the root to thrive. The best way to provide them nutrients is an aquasoil paired with a holistic fertilizer. The aquasoil will soak up the nutrients and provide it to the plants. Another option is using gravel or sand with root tabs. This is not ideal as nutrients is not consistent. When one adds a root tab, the nutrients spikes, then slowly depletes over time. These peaks and valleys are not ideal.
More examples of an aquascape with "easy" plants. It's more about how you use the plants than which ones you chose.
What makes these plants easy?
In general, the plants mentioned above are very hardy and have minimal needs:
Lighting Demand - Low, 30-60PAR which means you can get away with a cheaper light. Generally speaking, high PAR lights cost more. We really think the Finnex ALC is a great bang for your buck.
Water Parameters - GH 4-15, KH 4-18 which means you could most likely get away with using your tap water
CO2 Needs - Low. These plant do not need CO2 injection, but they will always benefit from it.
Nutrients - To keep things cheap and easy, no aquasoil is needed. We recommend using a liquid fertilizer like Thrive by NilocG to feed the plants in the water column, and root tabs to feed the crypts in the sand substrate. Watch this video to learn about the science behind why we like Thrive so much.
How many plants do I need to buy?
I will start off by saying that we should always plant a tank heavy from the get go. This will help the tank fend off algae as its maturing. For reference, if you were stocking a 30 gallon tank, you'll want get:
4-5 pots of anubias
4-5 pots of buce
2-3 java ferns plants
4-5 pots of crypts
2-3 tissue culture cups of moss
If you have a larger tank, you'll need even more! If you have a smaller tank, get tissue culture cups for the anubias and buce as the plants themselves tend to be smaller in size than the plants in pots. But again, starting out planting heavy. It will help your tank look more mature from the get go, and will help prevent algae. Epiphytes (Anubias, buce, java ferns) are all REALLY slow growing, so if you plant light, it will take forever for your tank to fill in.
How do I set this design up?
If you need help setting up your design, we've got you covered. Below are step by step instructions on how to set up the design below.
Add sand - Pour some aquarium sand at the bottom of your tank. If you are going to plant crypts in the sand, you'll want 2-3 inches to ensure they stay down. 1-2 inches is fine if you don't plan on adding plants into the sand substrate. Also, use sand designed for an aquarium, and not play sand. Play sand tends to develop unsightly brown algae which takes a LONG to go away. We suggest to only use products designed for aquariums. Yes they are more expensive, but they will save you headaches in the long run.
Stack hardscape (rocks) - Stack a rock in a circular shape. Leave space in the middle for your java fern. Stack the rocks height enough to where they are around 1/2 to 2/3 of the aquariums height. Building visual height is important so this design does not look flat. Between all the rocks crevasse will be areas in which we can tuck our buce, anubias, and even mosses if you chose to go that route. If you do add moss, you'll want to use a super glue to glue them down. Just make sure that it is made from cyanoacrylate. We like this product. After stacking all your rocks, you can also add some wood branches (wood hardscape) if you'd like. They are not needed, but really some visual interest. Something like plane ol drift wood, black spider wood, or manzanita would work well.
Add your java fern - Add your java fern (Yellow) into the center of the rock circle. Depending on the size of the tank you may need more than one java fern plant to fill this area in. For a 30 gallon you'd probably need 2-3 juvenile plants.
Add your anubias and buce - Start tucking in your anubias (Green) and buce (Purple) into the rock work. Most of the time you can shove their roots in between rock work to get them to stay. Push comes to shove, if you can't get them to stick, you can super glue them down, or tie them down with some fishing line.
Add your crypts - Lastly, plant your crypts (Red). Simply push the roots down into the sand. Just make sure to add some root tabs for these puppies as they prefer to feed from their roots.
Now if you want to get a little more advanced with this design. You could set the rocks up to be a half circle and add aquasoil in the center of the circle. This can house taller background plants like the Jungle Val, Wisteria, and Anacharis. It will also allow the java fern to feed from its roots which it loves. The nice thing is that you won't need to worry about using root tabs in the aquasoil. The aquasoil (due to its high CEC) will soak up the liquid fertilizer we are dosing keeping those root feeders happy! We talk about CEC in this video. But check out the reference design below.
We really like the idea of this more advanced design as it will break up the center of the aquascape with more texture, movement and leaf shapes. That way its not just all java fern. But, aquasoil can be expensive, so its totally not needed. But a great rule of thumb is that any time you can introduce more color, texture, size and leaf shape, it will add more visual interest to your scape.
I want to learn more!
We hope this article helps you:
Select plants for your first planted tank
Give you a road map to follow to have an awesome aquascape right out of the gate!
If you are new to aquascaping, we highly suggest you check out the ASG method. In our Part 1 series on YouTube, we teach you everything you need to know to keep you plants happy and healthy. You can view the videos here. Later scapers!
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