Planted Noob

[Timmy_Bee]

Hi,

I have never done a planted tank before. In fact, my current tank only has one real plant in it (the Sev's ate the rest...) but i recently aquired a little 3 x 1 foot tank, and thought it would be fun to set it up as something different.

I really havent put a great deal of thought into this yet, but yesterday i got a filter and whacked it in my current tank to mature, so i have got a bit of thinking time.

I am going to go with sand and rocks for the substrate (mainly becuase this is the opposit of what i currently have) and then i want to get as much plant life as i can realistically support without the need for CO2, ferts etc.
Fish will either consist of by 3 Convicts who are starting to annoy me in my main tank (spawning every two or three weeks) or maybe i'll get a little shoal of neons and a BN plec or something like that

I havent bought a light yet so im a bit open to ideas on that. I dont really know what im looking for. Can LED strips ever produce enough light for plant life to thrive? i'd image not, so i am looking for a T5/8 strip light

I am now going to go and read your resource centre pinned thread, but if anyone has some advice for a planted noob, then please let me know!

 

[KittyKat]

I am going to go with sand and rocks for the substrate (mainly becuase this is the opposit of what i currently have) and then i want to get as much plant life as i can realistically support without the need for CO2, ferts etc.

That's a LOT of plant life you just need to go for undemanding plants and steer away from those that are needy.

Fish will either consist of by 3 Convicts who are starting to annoy me in my main tank (spawning every two or three weeks) or maybe i'll get a little shoal of neons and a BN plec or something like that

Just out of curiosity, wouldn't two abuse the other one in a tank that size? My vote goes towards a biotope, they are quite satisfying.

I havent bought a light yet so im a bit open to ideas on that. I dont really know what im looking for. Can LED strips ever produce enough light for plant life to thrive? i'd image not, so i am looking for a T5/8 strip light

As far as I am aware, the value for money lighting currently available are standard output T5s with an electronic ballast. As far as I am aware (again ), LEDs can produce enough light, but you would be paying quite a lot for the LEDs themselves, which would push up the cost of the light fitting quite a bit. Last time I had a look, to get similar sort of light output, I would have had to pay about 120 EUR for LEDs compared to around 60 EUR for T5s.

 

[Timmy_Bee]

Thanks for the info. When it comes to the convicts, i will keep a close eye on them. Currently, all 3 get on fine and the male seems to swap females every now and then. Its every other fish in the tank that they have got a beef with!

What should i be doing about substrate? do i want some peat or compost or something under the sand? or can i just go with sand and rocks on their own? I have got half a bag of Argos play sand. i am assuming i will need more, but i'll work that our later...

Still not sure what to do about lighting. I really want to keep this cheap, so yes - i guess LEDs are out

 

[KittyKat]

What should i be doing about substrate? do i want some peat or compost or something under the sand? or can i just go with sand and rocks on their own? I have got half a bag of Argos play sand. i am assuming i will need more, but i'll work that our later...

This is completely up to you, depending on what sort of tank you want to run Up until now, I have always used only sand, gravel or a mix, but for my latest tank, I decided to give cat litter (baked clay) a go, with a layer of sharp sand and another of plastering sand on top (I don't like the even look of Argos play sand, although I have used Tesco Value play sand before, which was white).

One thing you should keep in mind is that no matter what substrates you layer, they will mix up unless you have some sort of divider between the layers.