Planning On My First Freshwater Planted Tank

[penguinpimp1990]

The only live plant experience i have is my my 10 gallon brackish tank, with glassfish and for plants java moss, java fern, and vallis. I use no co2, but have 2 watts of full spectrum lighting and sand subtrate and laterite on the bottom. I am planning on getting a 25 gallon tank with 1 wimple piranha moved from my 55 gallon tank (no it wont outgrow it as wimples only get 4.5 inches). Can you reccomend my entire setup? The only thing is that i plan on not running a co2 system, but if i must it cant be pressurized. Other than that help me with subtrate, lighting, fertilizers, filters, and everything else. Thanks

 

[macgyver]

The only live plant experience i have is my my 10 gallon brackish tank, with glassfish and for plants java moss, java fern, and vallis. I use no co2, but have 2 watts of full spectrum lighting and sand subtrate and laterite on the bottom. I am planning on getting a 25 gallon tank with 1 wimple piranha (no it wont outgrow it as wimples only get 4.5 inches). Can you reccomend my entire setup? The only thing is that i plan on not running a co2 system, but if i must it cant be pressurized. Other than that help me with subtrate, lighting, fertilizers, filters, and everything else. Thanks

Well I am no expert on the matter but I started with the following for my 35gal/180litre tank - anyone with advice for me feel free to throw it my way!

Substrate
Installed under gravel heater cable to cover bottom of tank
1 layer of laterite and fine gravel to cover bottom of tank
Mix of fine and coarse gravel to cover at least 2 inches on top of laterite.

Filtration -
Currently an eheim ball filter and a eheim 2215 cannister filter (cycling over and removing blal filter once everything settles)

Lighting -
Currently using 2 x 30w grow tubes (dont know exact brand/model sorry!) but plan on putting in another shortly.

Heating -
Single heater keeping things to around 27 degrees C

C02
Just using plaing old diy co2 at the moment from a 2l coke bottle, probly need to add another 2l coke bottle to get it going a bit better, and maybe if money allows add a pressurized system later.

and the last thing on my purchase list is a good water testing kit to make sure everything is going ok - judging by no dead fish I would assume so (although maybe thats a bit naive!

Thats about it at the moment - good luck!

 

[penguinpimp1990]

hmmmmmmmmm i really want to pimp this tank out, i want everything top of the line except the co2, cause i cant afford it, but ill add a simple cheap $22 c02 system and a jungle lab c02 fizz factory c02. For the subtrate Ill have a bottom layer mix of 55 oz of laterite, and 12 pounds of flora base. For the top layer ill have 40 pounds of eco complete. Do you think this is too much subtrate? (roughly 67 pounds in a 25 gallon tank) For filtration ill use just an aquaclear, and for lighting im am still unsure of what brand of lighting ill use. Can you reccomend a full spectrum lighting that is white? (i hate those lights that are red and stuff) Other than the lighting does my setup sound ok?