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Hello everyone. It's been a while since I have posted. I have been crazy busy trying to keep up with all the babies 2 pair of common bristlenose can make. I swear I am going to start calling them convict cichlids... LOL! Anyway it has been a very long time since I have kept plants but I was digging through the storage shed the other day and found my old T5's and red sea CO2 system and thought I would start keeping some plants again. Really the only reason I stopped is because I became so enamored with plecs and I was always under the assumption that you pretty much can't keep live plants and plecs in the same tank. Well, since then I have learned that it is possible but, I am still not sure what kind of plants are "plec proof" for lack of a better word. I really don't mind what height the plants are just as long as they can grow under a T5 and the BN's will still be more interested in the zucchini and squash than the plants. So, what plants would you recommend?

Also, yes I am already aware of the effect that CO2 has on Ph levels and I always keep a close eye on that with plant safe buffers on hand ready to adjust for the health of my fish.

Hi all,
If you feed them some vegetables they should leave your plants alone, although they may still have a go at any Amazon Swords.

I only keep planted tanks because of the advantages in water quality management, but you don't need CO2 to grow plants. Floating or emergent plants have access to aerial CO2 (400ppm) and plants like Amazon Swords, Cryptocoryne spp., Anubias, Java Fern, Indian Fern, Cabomba caroliniana, Hygrophila corymbosa etc. all grow well without CO2, just more slowly.

Also, yes I am already aware of the effect that CO2 has on Ph levels and I always keep a close eye on that with plant safe buffers on hand ready to adjust for the health of my fish.

As long as you have some carbonate buffering, you can ignore pH. The pH reduction caused by the addition of CO2 is due to the carbonate ~ carbonic acid equilibrium being driven towards the acid by the continual addition of CO2, it doesn't effect the alkalinity of the water.

This is why CO2 users buffer their water to 4dKH and then use a drop checker with a narrow range pH indicator (bromothymol blue) to give them an estimate of the CO2 concentration of the water.

I won't use CO2, my problem comes with the effects of the CO2 itself, particularly on rheophilic fish. As CO2 levels rise the Bohr-Root effect means that the level of blood oxygen falls, potentially leading to lethal or long-term sub-lethal effects. You also have the risk of a CO2 dump (with a single stage regulator) as the cylinder empties.

cheers Darrel

I don't understand the question. I keep Ancistyrus in heavily planted tanks without any problems - that is, damage to the plants.

@ CO2 That is something not to be used in a tank with fishes. Better put it into your beer

Agreed, never had any problems with BNs and plants. I have amazon swords, anubias, red tiger lotus, and more, and the plecos have never bothered them. Good luck.

The only problem I had with them & plants was with my java moss. I had a nice moss covered piece of driftwood and my abn eventually made a mess of it while working over the wood. Ended up with more moss on my filter intakes then on the wood it was growing on. But at least it left my Crypts alone.

My ancistrus never troubles my plants; he actually fixed a bit of a problem I had with some really persistent algae. He's very gentle with the actual plants.

I've got one that I think is responsible for some damage to echinodorus. Probably from too enthusiastic cleaning of algae. Can't say it bothers me.

My 3 ancistrus are in this:

DSC_8481 by j_wijnands, on Flickr

No co2, light fertilizer regimen. 2ml of easycarbo daily, 5ml of profito twice a week and enough phosphorous to keep the front window reasonably clean.