New Tank Going For A First Time Live Planted

[mattyd1701]

Hi all

im thinking about buying a new tank today the Interpet River-Reef 48L and im going to attempt a Live Planted Tank for the first time, going to use my filter media from my Fluval Edge to give my cycle a kick start . As this is the first time going for a planted tank got a few questions.

1.) Any body got any suggestions for a soil substrate, been doing some reading and what i can work out is that i need some sort of aquatic soil under my gravel/sand anybody got any suggestions on a good quality substrate for the plants?

2.) The tank is a 48L (12 US Gallons) do i need a CO2 thing?
(sorry cant remember there proper names off the top of my head)

3.) Any suggestions on plants?

and any advice on top of that would be very much appricated

Thanks

Matty

 

[MegaZerino]

Hi all

im thinking about buying a new tank today the Interpet River-Reef 48L and im going to attempt a Live Planted Tank for the first time, going to use my filter media from my Fluval Edge to give my cycle a kick start . As this is the first time going for a planted tank got a few questions.

1.) Any body got any suggestions for a soil substrate, been doing some reading and what i can work out is that i need some sort of aquatic soil under my gravel/sand anybody got any suggestions on a good quality substrate for the plants?

2.) The tank is a 48L (12 US Gallons) do i need a CO2 thing?
(sorry cant remember there proper names off the top of my head)

3.) Any suggestions on plants?

and any advice on top of that would be very much appricated

Thanks

Matty

ive heard that ADA soil is very good, but ive never used it so i dont know if it needs supplements. I use a 1 and a half inch bed of JBL aqua basis plus with 2 inches of sand on top, and that works fine.

It all depends on what types of plants you want on if you need CO2. All plants will benefit from it, they will look greener and grow faster, but i dont think its always necessary. i have 3 amazon swords, some dwarf grass hair, 2 cryptocoryne wendtiis, a lot of java fern (which is really easy to grow and you can attatch to wood which looks nice), a lot of vallis (which is good for a background plant). i cant remember the names of the others, but they are doing fine without CO2.

hope that helps (my tank is 65L)

 

[mattyd1701]

ive heard that ADA soil is very good, but ive never used it so i dont know if it needs supplements. I use a 1 and a half inch bed of JBL aqua basis plus with 2 inches of sand on top, and that works fine.

It all depends on what types of plants you want on if you need CO2. All plants will benefit from it, they will look greener and grow faster, but i dont think its always necessary. i have 3 amazon swords, some dwarf grass hair, 2 cryptocoryne wendtiis, a lot of java fern (which is really easy to grow and you can attatch to wood which looks nice), a lot of vallis (which is good for a background plant). i cant remember the names of the others, but they are doing fine without CO2.

hope that helps (my tank is 65L)

Thanks i will take a look at that ADA soil i have just ordered the tank so hopefully it will be here in the new few days get it filled with water for a day or two too see if it leaks and i will be on me way get some plants, wood and some rock ordered and begin my cycle when the plants get here or is it better to start my cycle then add plants?

 

[MegaZerino]

ive heard that ADA soil is very good, but ive never used it so i dont know if it needs supplements. I use a 1 and a half inch bed of JBL aqua basis plus with 2 inches of sand on top, and that works fine.

It all depends on what types of plants you want on if you need CO2. All plants will benefit from it, they will look greener and grow faster, but i dont think its always necessary. i have 3 amazon swords, some dwarf grass hair, 2 cryptocoryne wendtiis, a lot of java fern (which is really easy to grow and you can attatch to wood which looks nice), a lot of vallis (which is good for a background plant). i cant remember the names of the others, but they are doing fine without CO2.

hope that helps (my tank is 65L)

Thanks i will take a look at that ADA soil i have just ordered the tank so hopefully it will be here in the new few days get it filled with water for a day or two too see if it leaks and i will be on me way get some plants, wood and some rock ordered and begin my cycle when the plants get here or is it better to start my cycle then add plants?

to be honest, im not sure. i know that its easier to set up the tank and position the plants if theres no water, but people say different things. I know!!! what you could do is cycle the tank and then once its finished, remove the water and keep it in a bucket. then plant and position everything, then just put the water back in

 

[pablothebetta]

Some hardy plants you might want to look into are java fern, java moss, anubias and various crypts. If you wanted a carpet plants, dwarf hairgrass, glossostigma and pygmy chain sword are three that come to mind, though I don't know how easy they are to keep/grow as I don't keep them myself.
Amazon swords can be pretty nice looking, though will grow very large if given the room in the tank.
A moss wall on the back might provide something a little different