I am planning to try to move into the planted aquarium world. (slowly). I
have a couple beginning questions. I have a nice thick layer of fine
gravel, so I don't want to dig it out and throw it away and replace with
flourite, which might be ideal. Is realistically possible to add laterite
to my gravel? I know it is suppose to be on the bottom layer. Can I do
that without emptying my entire tank?

My other question is can you have a planted tank with a large (not giant)
common pleco? They tend to plow things over. It is a 55 gallon tank.

Thanks for you experiences.
Rob

In article , "Rob M."
writes:

My other question is can you have a planted tank with a large (not giant)
common pleco? They tend to plow things over. It is a 55 gallon tank.


I don't know how large a pleco you have in mind, but mine is a little longer
than 6" (possibly still growing, too) and does fine in my 55 gal heavily
planted tank. Not disruptive at all.


Erica
http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/mitoem/mitoem/index.htm

I am planning to try to move into the planted aquarium world. (slowly).

That's possible. Just add a few low-light plants, like Anubias, java fern,
java moss. They don't need special substrates or lighting.

If you want to grow plants that need higher light, it's kind of hard to start
slow. You have to start out planted heavily, to keep the extra light from
generating an algae plague.

I have a nice thick layer of fine
gravel, so I don't want to dig it out and throw it away and replace with
flourite, which might be ideal. Is realistically possible to add laterite
to my gravel? I know it is suppose to be on the bottom layer. Can I do
that without emptying my entire tank?

Yes. You can add laterite balls to your substrate, near the roots of the
plants. There are also some commercial products on the market, meant to
refresh old laterite substrates. Cones, tablets, etc., of laterite, that you
just stick in the gravel.

However, most low-light plants don't need special substrates. And if your tank
has been set up for a long time, it may be fine as it is. A lot of plants will
grow fine in old gravel, which tends to be rich in nutrients.

My other question is can you have a planted tank with a large (not giant)
common pleco? They tend to plow things over. It is a 55 gallon tank.

It might be hard to grow low, delicate lawns with large fish like plecos in the
tank. And they sometimes scrape broad leaves like Amazon swords too close.
But a lot of people keep plecos in planted tanks successfully.


Leigh

http://www.fortunecity.com/lavender/halloween/881/

I have two six inch pl*cos in my 75 gallon. They eat half of every single
new leaf on my anubias as it comes out. Other than that, they do such an
excellent job on the algae and debris, that I have to tolerate their
occasional naughtiness.

kush

Rob M. wrote in message
...
I am planning to try to move into the planted aquarium world. (slowly). I
have a couple beginning questions. I have a nice thick layer of fine
gravel, so I don't want to dig it out and throw it away and replace with
flourite, which might be ideal. Is realistically possible to add laterite
to my gravel? I know it is suppose to be on the bottom layer. Can I do
that without emptying my entire tank?

My other question is can you have a planted tank with a large (not giant)
common pleco? They tend to plow things over. It is a 55 gallon tank.

Thanks for you experiences.
Rob

They definately do a good job of keeping things clean. I have a couple Java
ferns tied to rocks and they move them all around the tank, so I wasn't sure
I could keep anything in the gravel to grow.
Thanks, Rob

"kush" wrote in message
...
I have two six inch pl*cos in my 75 gallon. They eat half of every single
new leaf on my anubias as it comes out. Other than that, they do such an
excellent job on the algae and debris, that I have to tolerate their
occasional naughtiness.

kush

I feed my pleco Nutrafin complete food tablets and shrimp pellets, he's
never eaten any plants and hasn't plowed up plants since I started placing
small rocks around them. My problem is that he has gone from 3.5 inches to
8 inches in six months. Fortunately, I just got a 55 gallon tank. Maybe
you need to find something the pleco would rather eat or switch to ottos.

My ottos and brand new rubber nose plecos love the pellets too.

Bob

"kush" wrote in message
...
I have two six inch pl*cos in my 75 gallon. They eat half of every single
new leaf on my anubias as it comes out. Other than that, they do such an
excellent job on the algae and debris, that I have to tolerate their
occasional naughtiness.

kush

Rob M. wrote in message
...
I am planning to try to move into the planted aquarium world. (slowly).
I
have a couple beginning questions. I have a nice thick layer of fine
gravel, so I don't want to dig it out and throw it away and replace with
flourite, which might be ideal. Is realistically possible to add
laterite
to my gravel? I know it is suppose to be on the bottom layer. Can I do
that without emptying my entire tank?

My other question is can you have a planted tank with a large (not
giant)
common pleco? They tend to plow things over. It is a 55 gallon tank.

Thanks for you experiences.
Rob

Well, the more you feed your pl*co, the bigger it will get. If you let it
forage for itself it may grow as little as an inch a year (as well as
keeping your tank clean). And ottos will damage plants, too - mine leave
holes in the swords and hygrophila corymbosa leaves.

kush

Robert Flory wrote in message
gy.com...
I feed my pleco Nutrafin complete food tablets and shrimp pellets, he's
never eaten any plants and hasn't plowed up plants since I started placing
small rocks around them. My problem is that he has gone from 3.5 inches
to
8 inches in six months. Fortunately, I just got a 55 gallon tank. Maybe
you need to find something the pleco would rather eat or switch to ottos.

My ottos and brand new rubber nose plecos love the pellets too.

Bob

"kush" wrote in message
...
I have two six inch pl*cos in my 75 gallon. They eat half of every
single
new leaf on my anubias as it comes out. Other than that, they do such
an
excellent job on the algae and debris, that I have to tolerate their
occasional naughtiness.

kush

Rob M. wrote in message
...
I am planning to try to move into the planted aquarium world.
(slowly).
I
have a couple beginning questions. I have a nice thick layer of fine
gravel, so I don't want to dig it out and throw it away and replace
with
flourite, which might be ideal. Is realistically possible to add
laterite
to my gravel? I know it is suppose to be on the bottom layer. Can I
do
that without emptying my entire tank?

My other question is can you have a planted tank with a large (not
giant)
common pleco? They tend to plow things over. It is a 55 gallon tank.

Thanks for you experiences.
Rob