2 Plant Questions Help If You Can

[donalk]

Hi I’m fairly new to this forum even though I think I was on this site a few years ago anyway

This time round I want to go for a proper planted aquarium. As it stands I have a gravel only tank that is cycling iv read a bit more since I started I have read lots of info on using peat for soil followed by a layer of gravel I realy don’t want to do this because of the tanning it produces I base that on my past experience with bog oak is it really necessary to do this i would also have to start all over again.

b. I have read a few books on aquariums one thing I don’t understand is how the co2 goes up and down well I get that part and presume that it mostly increases o2 levels. how worried should I be about co2 spikes at night or does this apply only to heavily planted aquariums

I think I might start again empty my tank and put in the soil/peat unless there are other suggestions such as adding fertilised sand?

 

[Aqua Tom]

It is not necassery to use peat soil as a substrate. Most aquatic plants take most of their nutrients from the water directly into thier leaves.

All plants weather they be land based or aquatic gow by photosynthasis, the use sunlight (or aquarium lighting in our case) to "eat" Co2 & produce oxygen as a by product (very handy for the planet).

At night plants cannot use light o photosynthasise so dont absorb Co2 so dont remove it from the Aquarium, they dont actualy produce Co2 so do not in fact contribute to the level in the tank.

Planted tanks can be very simple or very complicated. You could go with a load of fast growing stem plants that dont require much light or food but grow like mad, or you could go the route o hard to grow plants. i suggest the first option as a start to see how you like it, then the sky is the limit (as well as your wallet) on how far you want to go.

I started out with a simple set up but quikly realised I loved aqua gardening so moved up to my current set up. I use a pressurised sytem to inject Co2 into the tank when the lights are on & also dose a liquid fertiliser directly into the water.


Tom