New Planted Tank....

[PJW]

Hello people. I'm rather new to the planted aquarium world but have been in the SW world for 15+ years. I'm in the process of setting up my first freshwater planted tank in my office. My current hardware is as follow:

20 USG Long tank (30"x12"x12")
Eclipse3 Light/Filtration System w/ 2-20w 6700K Life-Glo 2 bulbs
Visi-Therm 100W Stealth Heater
Maxi-Jet 400 Powerhead

Substrate will be 20lbs Eco-Complete and 15lbs of 5cm River Gravel

I'll add maybe a large rock or two with a piece of driftwood.

The water quality I'll be using will be tap water with the following readings:

PH - 7.5
dKH - 12
dGH - 15

My question is what plants/fish can be used with these parameters in this tank?

 

[zig]

Hiya PJW welcome to the forum especially the planted section B)

Your water is hard there is no doubt about that, i come from the opposite end where my water is very soft, i dont think you will have any difficulty growing plants with the water you have, you may find one or two plant species may not work for you, but 90% should do just fine.

Have you any ideas on the plants you might like to grow or the level of maintainence you would like with the tank? some of us, me included, run highlight tanks which require quite a bit of maintainence, at the other end of the scale are low light tanks which require very little in the way of maintainence, whichever setup you would like will determine the plants you will be able to grow, some plants require more light than others.

Speaking of lighting your setup will give you 2 watts per gallon which in my experience will require you to use CO2 on this tank, i run a slightly smaller tank with 2WPG and i know for sure it requires CO2 or i get algae.

If you have a look and read the pinned topics at the top of this section of the forum these will help you a lot and answer many of your questions.

 

[PJW]

Thanks Zig. I do have a gallon jug just waiting to be made into a DIY CO2 system. I'll be using some hardy Java Fern/Moss, Dwarf Grass, and maybe a few Swords or Dwarf Ambulia for the back depending on size of plant.