Aquascaping?

[TiffanyJayne]

Ok so for christmas i'd like to buy the things needed to 'plant' my partners tank, It will be a small tank, and will hold something simple like a toad fish/gobies/ 1 x freshwater puffer (he has odd tastes in fish)
I would like to know the essentials for making such a tank happen, i've never been overly bothered in my tanks looking too pretty because i change them around so often so i'm my simple terms i think i need
soil, moss, fertz. is there a particular brand that is better than the rest, is it moss i see that looks like grass and what types of fertz do i need to get for him to keep it looking like an indoor garden.

Failing that is there a link that may help answer these questions or a step by step i can print off to help him when he begins planting it.

Thanks muchly.

 

[Curiosity101]

You may not need ferts, really depends on the lighting and the plants chosen.

Also the plants chosen really depends on the lighting and fish lol

Soo I guess my next question is...
How big is the tank (or 'will be' the tank)
And what exactly (numbers and species) is/will be in the tank

To answer your moss question, yes it can look like grass. But alot of things do, including riccia and dwarf hair grass, pygmy chain sword and brazilian chain sword.

 

[TiffanyJayne]

Ok the tank will either be a 18 inch of a 2 foot, depending on which one he prefers.
The fish i have no clue as i'm not sure puffers or toad fish appriciate gardens so a little help may be needed here, the wierder the better he likes odd fish.
The plants i have no clue on, the images i've seen look like soil, grass and one or two slightly bigger plants like a mini garden.

 

[Curiosity101]

Well I have no clue on toadfish, and I'm not a big person for puffers but I do know that there are dwarf puffers Carinotetraodon travancoricus, and they really appreciate a heavily planted tank. You need around 5gal per fish though (even though they only grow to 3cm) cause they're very territorial.

So in a 2ft (15gal) heavily planted you'd only feasibly be able to have 3 (1m 2f).

I guess the straight forwards 'clean' basis for most fish will be...
Dark background - Bright blue, dark blue, black etc.
Aquasoil of some description (ADA aqua soil might be what you've seen), I'm a big fan of dark substrates but then it really depends what shows off the fish to their best.

Although having said all this... I'm no plant expert... which is probably what you want. And you'll find them in the planted tanks section

 

[Biulu]

I suggest you read this link: http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/296418-planted-aquariums-resource-center/page__view__findpost__p__2448827. Here you will find a lot of info on planted tanks.