Planted Tank

[shankygrl]

for an only-plants tank, do i need a filter? would a co2 diffuser be fine? if i do need a filter do i need to cycle the tank like i would for fish?

thanks

 

[nicklfire]

Someone will have to back me up on this one but for purely planted tank no fish you would need adaquete lighting (so depending what your tank size is), proper planted substrate would work best, substrate heaters would be great , would give the plants roots water circulation, a filter would be beneficial cause you cant have stagnant water, wont hurt to have a filter.... actually i would recommend it lol. and yes a co2 diffuser would be fine.. are you diy injection with pop bottles or pressurized? but you'll need some kind of co2 because normally fish would release alot of co2 on there own. And no i dont think you need to cycle your tank. But your going to have to fert your plants really good... that's there food right. I'd do the EI method if you got time to read up on that.

Basically food, lighting, co2, water circulation

 

[Castellop123]

Cheers...

 

[mlawson]

substrate heaters would be great , would give the plants roots water circulation

Not necessary... In my experience, they are not very effective whatsoever...

Cheers...

I have had no experience with Substrate heaters but have heard from people who have found great results from them and they can also be ideal in situations where sand is present, however they certainly aren't necessary and will not make a huge impact on your plants.

 

[nicklfire]

i'm sure they help more than hinder
makes sence how they work.
but again not necessary no. but if he's going for a purely planted tank, everything would help i suppose.

 

[Castellop123]

... )

 

[Themuleous]

Forget the substrate heater, they DONT work, I've yet to meet a person who's actually found them to help, any increase in plant growth has always been due to other factors. Spend the money on more important things, like decent lighting, a better substrate or pressurised CO2. Tom Barr has done experiments and found no benefit to having them.

FORGET THE SUBSTRATE CABLE.

Sorry to be so forceful, but I would hate you to waste your money on one, if only for my sake, please dont.

As for the filter, its probably not necessary, however it will be necessary to have some sort of water movement in the tank, perhaps a small power head. A filter just removes debris at the same time as providing water movement, which is helpful even in a plant only tank.

Sam

 

[shankygrl]

thanks for all the comments everyone.. very helpful

 

[SuperColey1]

From what I've read and people know that boring me is always reading. lol

The substrate heaters can help in getting rid of the anaerobic pockets, but I'm not so sure they help the plants in any way because the substrate will surely be as warm as the tank water that is soaked into it which should be the same temp as your water and therefore a substrate heater can only really be acting like a second heater.

I am prepared to be corrected on this one, but I don't think in such a small volume (as even 100G tanks are compared to a stream) that the substrate would cool the water by much


I will wait and see (although I'm still not buying one. lol)

Andy

 

[Themuleous]

In a heathly planted tank the plant roots should stop anearobic conditions.