Hello everyone. I just set up my first planted tank. It is complete with everything I need. The last thing I need are my plants. Now i have a few pet stores around but honestly they don't take care of their plants. I notice in all stores that either A. The plants all look brown and dead, or B. Petco sells plants that aren't actually aquatic plants. So I have 2 options. I can buy the brown plants and hope they come back and turn green in my tank. Or I can buy some online. I have noticed that the online option can be quite expensive since shipping is WELL more than all the plants together. Does anyone know of a site that is cheapest? I live in southern wisconsin btw.

If you become an active member of aquaticplantcentral.com, they have a for sale/trade area that always has plants to buy. I've gotten plants from there as well as liveaquaria.com, but shipping charges can be pricey compared to buying straight from a hobbyist. A hobbyist might be willing to give more and have very healthy plants too

Always worth a try! That forum is great for info on planted tanks too. I would ask on this site too, someone may have what you need.

Yep try the forums.

There is a person in/around oshkosh wisconsin that is selling mosses. she wanted to trade guppies for plants but the temps around us right now are too cold

I am a FIB, I reside 45 minutes se of lake geneva.

I'm not very familiar with online stores, but maybe give Petco one more look. I was given a Petco plant for my birthday (some sort of fern, the exact name of which escapes me) and received it with some trepidation because it was incredibly curled-in and unhappy, but it's been in about two weeks now and looks absolutely beautiful and healthy. I have a pretty thick layer of worm castings under my substrate though, and an already unhappy plant might not become happy otherwise. Good luck...I'll be monitoring this thread for good online recommendations ;)

A couple of other places is aquabid and ebay, both sell plants. On aquabid most are just hobbiest and you can get some pretty good deals.

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I just recieved a mega plant bundle from liveaquaria.com and could not be any happier and overnight shipping was $13.99 Aquatic Plants for Freshwater Aquariums: Aquarium Plant Pack - Mega

I like the AquariumPlants.com Largest online sales / service site for the live aquarium plants & aquarium products community. site.

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden

I'm not familiar with southern Wisconsin, (other than the fact that people always say how beautiful it is there) but if you live anywhere near a big city, your best bet is to ask in the local groups section of this forum where people get their plants.

I've bought plants from both aquariumplants.com and liveaquaria.com. They both provide decent specimens and you can call either for advice. One cool thing about liveaquaria is that it is a division of Dr's Foster & Smith. If anything goes wrong with your order and you need a credit, your credit is good for anything they sell - fish, plants, supplies - even other pet supplies. One not-so-cool thing about liveaquaria is that shipping charges for live fish will stop your heart as they will only ship FedEx overnight. Shipping charges for plants isn't as bad, though.

Aquabid and eBay will definitely be the lowest price, just be sure to check out the sellers first as quality is all over the map.

Is there any danger of getting snails from these mail order outfits? I quit trying to buy plants eons ago because I ALWAYS ended up with snails.

I always have snails in my planted tanks. and a very large number after a couple of months. then a year later only a few. So I just don't worry. besides they help maintain the tank.

my .02

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden

there is a big danger , as I have been sworn to there is no snails and ended up with a tank full of pond snails. got a banjo cat and 6 assassin snails and there are very very few left. the banjo has only been in there not even a solid week and he has eaten more then his fair share, I think he got one of the assassin's too.

I use the less harsh cleaning method of alum for 2-3 days then rinse the plants then put them in the tank, the alum is a pickling agent used for cooking its in the spice section but the 3 day soak drops snails like flies.

I have had them in the past where they actually hung out by the hundreds if not thousands in the filter cannister outside the tank and not the tank itself. Weirdest thing I ever saw. Played havoc with the impeller. Then they were gone. But I have also had times where no amount of cleaning could keep up with them. I just don't want to deal with them at all. So, do these aquarium plant outfits you guys frequent online send you snail-free plants?

I solve that problem by not using filters.

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden

I used a reverse flow UGF setup for 25+ years until a month or so ago when I switched over to a HOB that actually does a really good job polishing the water without me having to fish around in the tank and fool with the powerhead. I used to run it through a cannister before sending it back under the gravel, then switched to a powerhead about 5 years ago. The cannister didn't add any value to anyone except the manufacturers. Anyway, I just pulled out the filter plates in preparation for setting up a better substrate for live plants. Amazing how little gunk got riled up. Just asked one of the big online plant shops about snails. Let's see if I can get clean plants.