Plants For A Beginner

I am not the most green fingered of our members but I can grow both java fern and anubias successfully. There are several anubias species from small to large. One thing anubias and java fern have in common is that they grow from a rhizome which should not be buried in the substrate. The easiest way to grow them is attached to decor. They will cling by themselves eventually but to start them off you have to tie them on with sewing cotton or fishing line thread, or similar. They are slow growing plants which do not need much light or much in the way of fertiliser. The nitrate from the fish and potash and phosphate in fish food seem to be all mine meed. Though I suppose if I remembered to dose with fertiliser containing trace elements it would help 

Other members will be able to suggest other plants for you to try.

The plants Sue recommended would be top of my list.

Here are a few more plants that should be easy to grow.

• Dwarf Hairgrass
• Amazon Sword
• Cryptocoryne Wendtii*
• Hygrophilia Polysperma

*The Cryptocoryne's can sometimes melt when you first introduce them but leave the root planted and they will grow back! Incidentally none of mine in my tank or my kids' tank have melted.


Whilst aquatic plants will make do with the fish-poo and phosphate from the tap water I think it's difficult to dispute that all plants will do better with proper fertiliser.


The cheap and easy way that I'd be happy to recommend is to buy EasyLife Profito (less than £10 for 500ml)
The recommended dosage is 10ml per 100L once a week.
Going on the recommended dosing a 500ml bottle should last 50 weeks if used with a 100L aquarium, so it isn't expensive.

 That dose can and should be increased if you have a lot of plants!

I believe you're far better off dosing daily instead of weekly, make it part of your routine, perhaps when you feed your fish the 1st time or maybe when you're doing the evening feed.

I dose 4ml of ProFito every morning and it's just part of the daily routine.

I do have to trim my plants once a week as they do grow quickly, but I don't have high light or injected CO2 so it's still a relatively low-tech setup.