Hi I'm New, Glad I Found You! :)

[joeybear]

Hi,
We have just brought a bow front amazon 300 litre tank and stand. Going to get some more bits and set it up on Thursday.
I have had a tropical community tank before, but it was a long while ago. I have also read lots of books, but I always find you learn more from personal opinions and experience.

I have a few questions....
We like the look of sand, is it harder to look after than gravel? If so then we will get a fine gravel.

Also plants - we want a few real and few fake to start with. Are there any plants that will grow well or at the least stay alive with no Co2 equipment? And do we need to spread a soil/fertiliser under the gravel, or will a liquid one be enough for some plants?

Thanks if anyone can help, i'm sure I will have more questions, but that's all I can think of for now.

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum JoeyBear. A 300 litre tank is a nice size for a first tank.
Sand does look better, in my opinion, than gravel. It is not quite as easy to vacuum the surface because you need to hold the gravel vac a bit above the sand rather than just plunge it in as you would with gravel. A uniform color of sand or gravel will show dirt quickly so a natural gravel or sand means you don't need to be as meticulous in the gravel cleaning.
Plants are great additions to a tank and I have some in most of my tanks. If you have low light, which you do unless you got a custom hood, you will be limited to low light plants only. Those plants, such as anubias, java fern and java moss, do not require any CO2 or supplemental fertilizers to prosper. Fancy substrates are not needed for these plants but I would think ahead. If there is the possibility that you will want to upgrade your lighting and start doing high tech plantings, it is easier to start with a fertile substrate. With that said, I only have soil in one of my tanks and most of the rest have a natural coarse sand.

 

[Schmill]

Welcome to the forums

Although I have a different tank, mine to is a 300L and I'm just embarking on the planting mission
As such there has been quite a bit of info provided for me that might be relevant to you also.
My thread is in the planted tanks section: http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=270261

 

[joeybear]

Welcome to the forum JoeyBear. A 300 litre tank is a nice size for a first tank.
Sand does look better, in my opinion, than gravel. It is not quite as easy to vacuum the surface because you need to hold the gravel vac a bit above the sand rather than just plunge it in as you would with gravel. A uniform color of sand or gravel will show dirt quickly so a natural gravel or sand means you don't need to be as meticulous in the gravel cleaning.
Plants are great additions to a tank and I have some in most of my tanks. If you have low light, which you do unless you got a custom hood, you will be limited to low light plants only. Those plants, such as anubias, java fern and java moss, do not require any CO2 or supplemental fertilizers to prosper. Fancy substrates are not needed for these plants but I would think ahead. If there is the possibility that you will want to upgrade your lighting and start doing high tech plantings, it is easier to start with a fertile substrate. With that said, I only have soil in one of my tanks and most of the rest have a natural coarse sand.

Thank you for the advise. We are going to World of Water so will check all our options out, as I would eventually like to be able to successfully grow plants and have a very natural looking tank.

Welcome to the forums

Although I have a different tank, mine to is a 300L and I'm just embarking on the planting mission
As such there has been quite a bit of info provided for me that might be relevant to you also.
My thread is in the planted tanks section: [URL="http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=270261"]http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=270261[/URL]

Thanks! I have just read though all of that and I must say some of it goes a bit over my head, so I can see myself sat at this forum for a few weeks, as like yourself I don't just want to plonk them in a hope, I want to learn and get it right.

 

[Schmill]

Thanks! I have just read though all of that and I must say some of it goes a bit over my head, so I can see myself sat at this forum for a few weeks, as like yourself I don't just want to plonk them in a hope, I want to learn and get it right.

Dont't worry, alot of it went over my head too and I'm on about my third time of reading, but it's soaking in slowly
You at least have the advantage of being able to prepare before hand, I had decided to have lots of fish and a few plants, got the tank all ready, placed my order for delivery in a week, and whilst on the phone went a bit OTT with the plant ordering, and when I got off the phone, suddenly though, "Hmmm, now I'm not going ot be able to just dump this lot in, what do I do?" - lol

Good luck with it!

 

[waterdrop]

I too have had tropical community tanks in the past and read lots of books trying to get it right. Over the last year I've made myself into a "re-beginner" and been trying to re-learn things here on the forum, which has a wealth of archived wisdom contained in past threads of discussion.

I'm hoping to follow along as schmill tries to raise his plants and learn some things as I seem to be very adept at killing plants, lol! It feels like a significantly harder topic to learn than tropical fish water chemistry, which was not that easy itself, initially. Anyway, don't despair if you can't absorb and process all the planted tank wisdom soon enough to be perfect on the first go round.

One great advantage you'll have by coming here to the beginners forum prior to preparing the equipment for fish will be that you can check the assumptions you've built up from books and fish store discussion or friends against the shared experience of lots of experienced fishkeepers who have tested their ideas and skills through the actions of lots and lots of newcomers who have come through this beginners section on the way to using the other sections of the TFF site.

There's really no bypassing of the core skills of water chemistry and maintenance and that is a strength of this forum I believe. Be sure to test your understanding of the details of cycling filters, testing water parameters and performing water changes while here. There may be some surprising and even fascinating things to learn. I know that was the case for me.

Hope its lots of fun too!

~~waterdrop~~