Can I still have some exciting plants.....

[haddock]

Hi everyone,

I am getting a 40G tank this week and I am trying to get a plan together for it.

I would really love a planted tank (not heavily planted but with some plants on bog wood and some tall stemmed background plants. Possibly some carpeting plants in a small area too?

As my tank will be in our living room I don't want it to be blazing out too much light in the evenings so I was going to use around 80 watts. Is this too low?

Also, do you recomend a specialist substrate like eco-complete or fluorite or will plain gravel or sand do?

All the best.

 

[asaint]

Hi,

I've had good results with low level lighing in a 75 gallon tank. The "trick" is to buy low level light plants. Believe it or not there is a variety of plants which grow under low level light conditions. I found the advice from dedicated aquarium plant online stores invaluable in my plant selection. Give one of them a call and ask for the low level light picks.

If you do decide to get more light, compact fluorscent lighting is reasonable. Expect to pay around $100 for a 40 gallon tank.

best of luck in your plant pursuit,
Asaint

 

[Sime]

providing you have reflectors then this is enough for a whole range of plants. Vallis, hygros, ludwigias etc would do well here.

if your tank is 40 gallons and your lighs are putting out 80 watts I'd have a go at getting some cheap high light plants and put them directly under the bulbs - this is giving you 2 wpg which is ok for higher light level plants too

 

[swampcat]

Go to www.plantgeek.net Here you can find low light plants. This site seperates them into lighting catergories. low, med low , medium, medium high, ect.

I have a low light 55 with 70 watts lighting and do quite well with low light plants

 

[haddock]

Thanks for your replies! That is really encouraging. The tank is arriving this week sometime - I can't wait to get started.

So, what substrate would you recomend? I want something black and quite fine grain. Will it be necessary to use something like eco-complete or is a normal gravel OK?

 

[Angry_Platy]

I use normal gravel and my plants are doing great. i had to uproot my blue stricta plant last week and the roots were so well buried it was quite a task!