Some Beginner Planty Questions

[Egmel]

Ok, I'm setting up my first Tropical tank (I was going to do cold water then my boyfriend started pointing out lots of tropical fish he liked!)


Basic Info

70litre Juwel tank
Eheim 2213 external filter
15W light
Sand substrate (with some pond soil underneath for the plants).

No fish or plants yet as we're still deciding!

So my questions are:

Will plants be ok in the substrate mix I've chosen? If so how exactly do you plant them, they appear to come with lead weights, do you remove these before you plant them, do you dig a little hole in the substrate and poke them in or what?!

Having read a bit on here I think we'll need to upgrade the lighting, would 2*15W be enough, would it be better to have a singular 30W bulb? Either way it's going to require a bit of electrical fiddling on my part!

Finally can you put plants in during a fishless cycle? If so what order does everything go into the tank? Substrate -> plants -> water, or do you need to put the water in first?

Thanks in Advance

 

[netcode]

substrate is great. should work well.

remove lead weight, remove rock wool or anything else they have wrapped around the roots. Dig hole and insert and cover back up with gravel so they are weighted down.

2x15w = 1x30w either way its the same wattage.. i would do two just because i believe that you should turn one bulb on then the next to somewhat copy a sunrise.

as for putting plants in a fishless cycle i am not sure.. anyone else?


anyways goodluck hope these few things helped

 

[mikster]

fill it up to like two thirds, add your plants,fill it up the rest then do your fishless cycle, didnt affect my plants, not sure if any one else has had problems?

 

[Egmel]

Cheers guys, that's just the info I needed. Now to order some plants Java looks like a good bet, they seem to have a wide range

 

[scubadoo]

I've had plants in during my fishless cycle.

They can actually be beneficial - if you read some of the posts on fishless cycling, adding live plants is considered the second best method of introducing the beneficial bacteria to your system (after mature filter media). The post actually recommends some plants for this purpose - I added 3 amazon swords (ech. bleheri). I think its best to choose fairly hardy plants to begin with. The other thing mentioned is that during the cycle, it may be best to leave the plants in the rockwool in a pot until the cycle is complete before planting ( I assume that the rockwool helps house the bacteria).

The only issue I'm having is that the leaves are now coated with brown algae, but no real problem, it just cleans off, and I'm sure that the otto I'll get once the cycle is fully complete will enjoy the feast.