don't have the pond plants but i have tropicals that live in the ponds, I have louisiana iris, giant elephant ear,ruiella, queen of the nile and ginger that is living in my pond now. I need some of your plants.I can get the pond plant that blooms a purple tall flower but i don't know the proper name it is a type of lilly. I need the small pond plants

Hi There is a large variety of submerged water plants and some will grow in any situation. There are floating as well as plants that attach to rocks or wood . Substrate is not necessary. Java moss and fern as well as Anubias must be planted this way. For rootted plants probably the easiest substrate is 2/3 mm gravel . Many types will grow in this quite well. Light is the limiting factor the more light the more choice. 5 watts per gallon is probably ideal but again many will do quite well on a lot less.. Size will be the biggest problemm in a small tank. But even that isn't too much of a problem Just root some cuttings when they get too large. The gourami and Cories are good choices for a planted tank. The main method is to decide what type of plants interest you and set it up with those guidelines. A planted tank can be as much or as little work as you want to do. gary

Hi, I'm just popping in here after noticing your post in the 'most recent posts' area. I hope I'm not stepping on any toes here, but I have a few thoughts and suggestions. Please ignore what you know and I hope that some of this is of help to you. Absolutely, you are right on to begin with plants only in your fresh water tank. When you (slowly) do introduce fish to the planted tank, the plants can help absorb some of the ammonia and aid with cycling the new aquarium. Also, the fish are less likely to pull and pick at the established plants because they were in the tank already. If you put all new plants in an aquarium that fish are in first, the fish see the plants as new objects and will pick at them just like they do future introduced fish. I agree, ideally your tank should be at least 18" tall and 4' long for angels. That would be a 55gal and up. Too small of a tank, for certain fish, can be a recipe for disaster. Also, with smaller tanks, when things go bad (ammonia spike, temperature swing) they go bad very quickly. With a larger volume of water in larger tanks, there is a slower movement with spikes and swings and time to catch problems before any real damage is done. Search the web for a local fresh water aquarium fish club. They will have auctions and swaps at various times of year, usually spring and fall. The auctions and swap meets almost always have live aquarium plants, tanks, fresh water fish of all kinds and hardware such as heaters etc. You can meet a lot of nice folks there. The 'local' aquarium fish clubs in my area are over 70 miles away. There is one north of me 70 miles, west 100 miles and east 140 miles. It is fun to attend fish club auctions and worth the time and travel for me to get home grown disease free fish. You are doing the right thing by reading and researching different forums for info before beginning. Aquariums are a pretty big investment both time wise and monetarily. I hope are you willing to do the weekly or every other week partial water changes and monthly filter maintenance. In the summer that 'used' water is wonderful on the garden. Have you read about and understand the ammonia/nitrite/nitrate cycle in aquariums, how to test for those things, the importance of water changes (even in planted tanks) and stocking fish at each level of your tank? Two other aquarium fish and plant specific sites are ciclid-forum and aquaticplantscentral to read posts for more info and ideas. Just like any forum, some posters can get a little radical, but by reading you can sort through the info and make your own judgements and choices. The pic is my 90gal with a marble angel as the centerpiece fish. I got it at a fish club auction as a nearly full grown single. I assume it was in a third wheel in a tank with paired angels. Four pelvachromis pulcher are the bottom dwelling fish and the OB cichlid (another fish club auction stray) is tank mate to the angel. Both Lace leaf and regular Java fern are the plants. The substrate is builder grade sand, nothing special since java fern doesn't need to take root in it.

I also have seeds for trade if you check my topic on the seed exchange