Help! Need A Little Bit Of Opinion...

[fishlover82]

Hello there!

This is how my tank looks like at the moment..... and I am thinking of changing the plants with real ones. I want to know what stuff I need to be considering in setting a planted aquarium, how hard it is, is it practical and so on....thanks guys!
Any input will be much appreciated.

 

[flyhawk]

well first you have to think if you want to start
out low tech, or if you want to dive straight into hight tech

High tech- Co2, high lighting, ferts, nutrient rich graavel
low tech- no c02, low lighting, low amount of ferts, easy plants

 

[Carter]

hang on a sec... before we get into the co2 systems... we need to know the lighting that you got.

For a Co2 system to work properly, you need to have a descent amount of light for the plants to use in the absorption process between the co2 in the water, and the growth of you plants. Putting Co2 into the water and having poor lighting is a waste of time, money and will most likely kill off you fish

 

[fishlover82]

I have a Juwel Record 60 litre tank with Day-Lite 15watt/438 mm lighting, about 2 inches of gravel, temp 79 degree F, my fishes are 12 fancy guppies, 4 lyretail guppies, 1 neon tetra, 1 platy, 5 harlequins, 6 white tip tetra, and 3 barbs and the aquarium has been set up since Feb '09. Can I ask for some opinion to what sort of plants I can easily plant and take care of. Thanks

 

[oliesminis]

you would need to have some low light plants i think as your lighting isnt very bright

 

[AdAndrews]

you could improve your lighting by adding another tube or upgrading your current t8 tube to a brighter t6- 40% more energy output goes into the tank

low light plants include:

ferns
anubias
crypts
mosses

 

[fishlover82]

you would need to have some low light plants i think as your lighting isnt very bright

you could improve your lighting by adding another tube or upgrading your current t8 tube to a brighter t6- 40% more energy output goes into the tank

low light plants include:

ferns
anubias
crypts
mosses

I am not sure if this help but my tank is pretty near a wide window and a lot of light does come from that. And my hubby just bought me a floating plant called Limnobium Laevigatum, how should I take care of this kind of plant? Or ccan I just leave it floating around?
Thanks

 

[nosoup4you]

hang on a sec... before we get into the co2 systems... we need to know the lighting that you got.

For a Co2 system to work properly, you need to have a descent amount of light for the plants to use in the absorption process between the co2 in the water, and the growth of you plants. Putting Co2 into the water and having poor lighting is a waste of time, money and will most likely kill off you fish

Even very low-light tanks will benefit from the addition of CO2.

 

[Thommo]

hang on a sec... before we get into the co2 systems... we need to know the lighting that you got.

For a Co2 system to work properly, you need to have a descent amount of light for the plants to use in the absorption process between the co2 in the water, and the growth of you plants. Putting Co2 into the water and having poor lighting is a waste of time, money and will most likely kill off you fish

Even very low-light tanks will benefit from the addition of CO2.

Agree. Any tank will benifit from CO2. Lower light just means the less CO2 is required but any tank that maintains around 30ppm of CO2 will benifit. It just means that if you used DIY CO2 it might be hard to regulate how much CO2 that goes in.

You can put any plant in a tank but its success depends on its actual charateristics. Some plants like lots of light, ferts etc and some require minimal. Hence easy, mediaum and hard plants to grow. Part of the fun/Challenge is working out what you can grow. In your case stick with the easy stuff like ferns, mosses and anubas and you can still have a nice looking planted tank. You can always experement once you have it a bit to you liking.

You can go down any path you want. Hight tech(money to be spent) or low tech(what you have now) or a mix of both. Have a read of the pinned topics in the planted section and I should help you with some answers and maybe even give you more questions

Your plant, if it is a floating plant is generally a fairly hardy plant and you will get away with just having it floating as is for the time being.

Enjoy

 

[fishlover82]

Even very low-light tanks will benefit from the addition of CO2.

Does high level of NITRATE helps? Or do I still have to add CO2, at the mo only these floating plants is what I will have for a few weeks 'coz I am trying to do the change on a slow rate. It's like one species of plant every few weeks 'coz I don't really want to do a complete change in a week or two just in case I can't cope with it

 

[fish.com1]

you could improve your lighting by adding another tube or upgrading your current t8 tube to a brighter t6- 40% more energy output goes into the tank

low light plants include:

ferns
anubias
crypts
mosses

T6 Tubes don't put in 40% more output as advertised, for them to do that you have to change the ballast.