How To Have A Succesful Planted Tank

[jacko9901]

hi

as the question says above how do you have a succesful planted tank. i know it needs light but is it really nessesary to have CO2 and other stuff to get the plants to grow properly. if there is other stuff i need can you please tell me what i need.

look forward to replies

 

[Esfa]

all you need for a successful planted tank, is a tank, water, and some plants. and a lot of planning.

you can either just use what the tank comes with (low light, no co2) and have plants like crypts, anubias, vallis, java fern, mosses etc. this is cheap, but growth is slow and you are somewhat limited with plant choices.

or you can go high-light, co2, ferts etc. This is more expensive, but faster growth.

 

[aaronnorth]

There is a rule for working out your light levels, you divide your total wattage by your tanks volume (gallons) then this gives you your watts per gallon (WPG)

E.g. 100w/ 50g = 2WPG

Tanks smaller than 10g need more light while tanks over 50g need less light (the WPG rule is more leanient)

tanks with 2WPG+ need CO2, so if you don't want to inject it then keep under this number, you can still inject CO2 with less light than this as it will help but it isn't necassary.


Fertliser, you need to dose a fertiliser to keep your plants healthy, IME nutrafin plant gro is rubbush so stay away, some good brands incllude

seachem flourish

tropica plant nutrition (TPN) - for heavily stocked tanks

TPN+ - for lightly stocked tanks as it contains N&P


You can go with what Esfa said, most (if not all) tanks will come with sufficient lighting to grow easy plants, i would say there is a large selction you can go with.

 

[SuperColey1]

As above but you will need to replace any 'stock' reflector with a proper polished metal one or more light will be directed away from the plants than towards them. A good reflector will redirect a lot of the light back down.

Also for any tank I would suggest a 'nutrient rich' pre-substrate. Something to go under your sand/gravel so that if you dose too little or forget then they can fall back on this reserve.

Andy