Just About To....

[aibo210]

Plant my aquarium its had plastic plants in for a while and fish with 3inch gravel bottem is there any tips you could recomend me so I dont kill them off? lol

I was thinking of takein all my fish out and planting it good idea?

Ive just got a Nutrafin CO2 kit aswell and going to do DIY CO2 solution

I have read all the stuff at the top of this forum but really want to know what you do about plants if your tanks already set up? want as little stress for fish and for me

 

[frozenbarb]

you could plant it without moving the fishes dependin on what plant you got is how you willl plant it

 

[SNAIL]

There are a lot of things to consider when deciding to plant a tank.
You should decide a layout and the type of plants you want prior to planting inorder to reduce stress on the fish.

1. Tank size?
2. type of fish?
3. lights..WPG?
4. Substrate...are you using gravel, sand,etc? or are you planning to replace it?
5. Filter...is it an HOB or canister?

You have a CO2 Kit already so it sounds like your serious about this.

When planting a loaded tank, lower your water depth to keep the fish from jumping out (1/2 or lower if possible).
Don't throw out the water as you will put this water back in to avoid changing the water chemistry suddenly. This will help reduce stress on the fish too.
Do make sure your heater stays in the water if you do have one. Safer to unplug it. Disable the filter.
The fish will stay in a corner so leave them alone as much as possible.
Plant half of the tank first then give the fish a break for lets say 15 to 30 min.(go with how the fish looks and their reactions).
Then continue with the other half.
The above is for using the same substrate. Do not remove the substrate to clean it. You need the bacteria colony thats already established in there.
As per your initial post, I would assume that you have activated carbon. You will need to remove this after a week unless it is really dirty and needs cleaning. Use sponge or floss pad only. Activated carbon will absorb everything including the nutrients the plants need. Plants need food so you need to get some ferts as well.