trigon 350 no substrate

[dean]

hi ive finaly managed to clean out the tank completely apart from one very large piece of wood and the fish, im looking for ideas to get some plants in here but without putting in any substrate.
so thinking moss etc on rocks or wood, lighting is low with just the standard t8's supplied with it, no Co2, whats your thoughts on,
plant species?
Ferts?

 

[IanD]

Hi Dean, I asked a similar question here, but you should also factor in your lighting and co2 as not all these plants would be suitable:
Plants that don't need a substrate? | UK Aquatic Plant Society

 

[Jason Greenslade]

Wow, you dont want nothing on the bottom ? Can I ask what your reason for this is ? I know some of the salty bunch believe in it, and some breeders, but it seems an odd idea for a planted tank. That aint to say it wouldnt work with the right plants and layout though. Just sounds interesting

 

[krazypara3165]

Its usually a dicus/cichlid keeper tactic as its easier to clean waste...

 

[dean]

May be moving soon so that's the reason, going to have tetras, rainbows and loricarids( who like flat surfaces to suck on)

 

[dean]

Hi Dean, I asked a similar question here, but you should also factor in your lighting and co2 as not all these plants would be suitable:
Plants that don't need a substrate? | UK Aquatic Plant Society

Interesting stuff I had no idea there were so many

How many have you collected

I had some bacopa in a small holding tank and I threw in a filter sponge to just keep it alive a bit, the bacopa rooted through the sponge
Now I'm playing around with sponge and the green plastic scouring pads
How many species did you end up collecting

 

[dean]

Perhaps there should be a separate forum topic where this could be discussed and pics put up

 

[IanD]

I only picked up some java fern for the stump-thing in my tank after realising my ambitious plan was beyond my limited experience.

I started compiling the list as I had the notion to use the moss wall technique but with a variety of plants like the plant walls you see nowadays:

PLANTWALL - GREEN FORTUNE

It might look great though not to everyone's taste im sure. Being a newbie to keeping aquatic plants I don't reckon I have the experience yet to make a success of it so i'm going to hold off for a while before attempting this.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

May be moving soon so that's the reason, going to have tetras, rainbows and loricarids( who like flat surfaces to suck on)

Its usually a dicus/cichlid keeper tactic as its easier to clean waste...

Yes a lot of Panaque, Discus keepers etc use "bare bottom", and it does work for some of them, but you need to be really OCD about tank cleaning. Personally I always have a substrate for all sorts of positive reasons. I think of it like having plants, you can keep good water quality without plants, but plants make it so much easier.

Have a look here: <Substrate | The Skeptical Aquarist>

cheers Darrel