I'm New To This...help?

[McCool]

Okay, so live plants are something I would love to do, but I really know nothing about it. I have a few live plants in my snail tank, but it's by a window. I also have a wad of Java moss in my betta tank that I got today, and it gets some light. Today I bought some API Leaf Zone fertilizer liquidey stuff, hoping to get then to green up. Or something. So... Even though it would be a ways off, I was wondering about what it would take to convert my fifty five into a plant growing machine. This tank is dark. No natural light. I have no clue what lights are in their now... just some lights from home depot that are anchored onto the canopy.

High tech, I know. So, how much do yall think a decent lighting system would cost? What else would I need? it's a standard 55, 12" wide, four feet long ect. My substrate is sand.. Would I have to change that? This wouldn't be happening anytime soon, but I love planted tanks.
I know no technical plant or light terms, so you'll really have to dumb it down for me!

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Depends on whether you want to go high tech (high light, fast growth, CO2 injection and lots of fertilisers) or low tech (low light, slow growth and a bit of fertiliser from time to time)?

 

[McCool]

Depends on whether you want to go high tech (high light, fast growth, CO2 injection and lots of fertilisers) or low tech (low light, slow growth and a bit of fertiliser from time to time)?

Hmmm. I don't know the first thing about CO2, and the lights really just depend on the cost, since I also have to buy something to put the lights in, not just bulbs. I don't think fertilizer would be a problem... Depending on how much I would have to use. I don't mind low tech to an extent, but
Don't want my plants taking three years to grow.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

In low tech they wouldn't take that long to grow, you'd just be limited to which plants you can grow, I'd aim for around 60-70 watts of T8 lighting and just buy some ferts containing trace elements, most ferts will tell you what they contain, dont buy any containing N&P as you wont need that in low tech, the plants should be fine without it. Make sure you have good flow around the whole tank too as that's the main problem with planted tanks.

 

[McCool]

In low tech they wouldn't take that long to grow, you'd just be limited to which plants you can grow, I'd aim for around 60-70 watts of T8 lighting and just buy some ferts containing trace elements, most ferts will tell you what they contain, dont buy any containing N&P as you wont need that in low tech, the plants should be fine without it. Make sure you have good flow around the whole tank too as that's the main problem with planted tanks.

Well, I'm buying a power head for the tank soon, and bought some API Leaf Zone yesterday. Will that work? Any good websites that sell aquarium lighting?

 

[DrRob]

What country are you in?

 

[McCool]

What country are you in?

U.S

 

[McCool]

Bump

 

[DrRob]

I'm in the UK, don't really know the american sites.

 

[tomtomtom1230]

Depends on whether you want to go high tech (high light, fast growth, CO2 injection and lots of fertilisers) or low tech (low light, slow growth and a bit of fertiliser from time to time)?

Hmmm. I don't know the first thing about CO2, and the lights really just depend on the cost, since I also have to buy something to put the lights in, not just bulbs. I don't think fertilizer would be a problem... Depending on how much I would have to use. I don't mind low tech to an extent, but
Don't want my plants taking three years to grow.

I have a low tech tank with Eco Complete substrate and dose Seachem Flourish Comprehensive once a week. My plants grow pretty quick and I've only got about 0.25 watts per litre which is a very low light. They grow slower in this environment than a hi-tech one, granted, but remember patience is a virtue and The slowest growing plant I've got is Anubias var. Nana Petite and is only supposed to grow at a given rate of around 1 new leaf per 7-10 days but I have 2 or 3 new shoots every week. Needless to say, some of the stem plants and my Amazon Swords have just shot up.

API Leafzone is OK. Not good, but not bad in my experience. I used to use it but I have moved over to the aforementioned Flourish product and I've had better results with that.

 

[McCool]

Depends on whether you want to go high tech (high light, fast growth, CO2 injection and lots of fertilisers) or low tech (low light, slow growth and a bit of fertiliser from time to time)?

Hmmm. I don't know the first thing about CO2, and the lights really just depend on the cost, since I also have to buy something to put the lights in, not just bulbs. I don't think fertilizer would be a problem... Depending on how much I would have to use. I don't mind low tech to an extent, but
Don't want my plants taking three years to grow.

I have a low tech tank with Eco Complete substrate and dose Seachem Flourish Comprehensive once a week. My plants grow pretty quick and I've only got about 0.25 watts per litre which is a very low light. They grow slower in this environment than a hi-tech one, granted, but remember patience is a virtue and The slowest growing plant I've got is Anubias var. Nana Petite and is only supposed to grow at a given rate of around 1 new leaf per 7-10 days but I have 2 or 3 new shoots every week. Needless to say, some of the stem plants and my Amazon Swords have just shot up.

API Leafzone is OK. Not good, but not bad in my experience. I used to use it but I have moved over to the aforementioned Flourish product and I've had better results with that.

Thank you! May look into a different substrate and will switch my fertilizer over once this bottle is gone! My big stumbling block is the lights. I have been looking around online and can't find the type of lights that were recommended above. T8 70 watts I believe. At my LFS, the highest wattage is like.. 30.

 

[McCool]

Was just looking into that substrate. Is it sandy, or more gravely? Is it fine enough that it wouldn't hurt my loaches?

 

[DrRob]

Thank you! May look into a different substrate and will switch my fertilizer over once this bottle is gone! My big stumbling block is the lights. I have been looking around online and can't find the type of lights that were recommended above. T8 70 watts I believe. At my LFS, the highest wattage is like.. 30.

You'd need 2 to get 70 watts of T8 over a 48 inch tank. They go up to 36W for a 1m tube.