Ok, so I want to start a planted tank, and the sheer amount of info I'm attempting to take in is overwhelming me lol. First question, is a longer lower tank better for plants for light penetration, or would I be ok getting the standard 55 gallon long/tall. If i want it fairly heavily planted, do I have to use co2?? I've also been reading that I don't have to wait to add fish, but it worries me lol. Too many questions! Lol love this forum though, so glad I stumbled across it!
Stressing Me Out
- Thread starter jag51186
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your right ... there's too much conflicting advice on the internet and yes, it stresses me out too!
When you say you want to start a planted tank - are you new to the hobby completely or have you already got fish keeping experience? It helps to know this as if your new your first step would be to head to the beginners section and read about cycling tanks first. This is the first step and then once the tank is up and running and settled then you can think about getting planted.
I'm not an aquarium plant expert ... I'll put that out there right now ... my knowledge of plants is basic but I've found that it is possible to have beautiful lush plants without much effort.
A lot of what you read will tell you to add a planting base under your substrate - it's not really needed in my experience. The plants will need some fertilizer though and Co2 is optional but I find it does help. There's two types of Co2 system. There's the complicated way which involves adding a canister and some bits of expensive kit that will inject it for you or there's the easy/cheap option that comes in a bottle that you add with a pipette or syringe or even a measuring cup - it depends on tank size.
Some plants will grow under any circumstance and these are the easiest - they'll even say 'easy' on the plant card. Other types take a bit more effort and those will say 'medium' or 'hard/difficult' on the plant cards.
Start by having a look on plant companies sites - Tropica is a good one as it gives you descriptions of each plants - what size it grows to, what it requires etc
Hope that is some help
When you say you want to start a planted tank - are you new to the hobby completely or have you already got fish keeping experience? It helps to know this as if your new your first step would be to head to the beginners section and read about cycling tanks first. This is the first step and then once the tank is up and running and settled then you can think about getting planted.
I'm not an aquarium plant expert ... I'll put that out there right now ... my knowledge of plants is basic but I've found that it is possible to have beautiful lush plants without much effort.
A lot of what you read will tell you to add a planting base under your substrate - it's not really needed in my experience. The plants will need some fertilizer though and Co2 is optional but I find it does help. There's two types of Co2 system. There's the complicated way which involves adding a canister and some bits of expensive kit that will inject it for you or there's the easy/cheap option that comes in a bottle that you add with a pipette or syringe or even a measuring cup - it depends on tank size.
Some plants will grow under any circumstance and these are the easiest - they'll even say 'easy' on the plant card. Other types take a bit more effort and those will say 'medium' or 'hard/difficult' on the plant cards.
Start by having a look on plant companies sites - Tropica is a good one as it gives you descriptions of each plants - what size it grows to, what it requires etc
Hope that is some help
The first thing to decide is, what type of planted tank do you want when its finished? If you want a water garden with all sorts of colourful plants, but few or even no fish (as many of these are), you need a high-tech approach. If you want at the other end a tank of fish that happens to have some healthy and beautiful green plants, you can achieve this with a low-tech approach. And there are countless options between these two. Cost is another factor, not only set-up cost but operation (electricity). And how much effort you want to spend, not just setting it all up but long-term operation.
I have always gone with the low-tech method. Moderate lighting, no CO2, once or at most twice weekly fertilization with a basic liquid fertilizer and in some tanks substrate tabs (depends upon the plant species). I have tanks of fish that happen to have live plants in them. So you do not need diffused CO2 here.
The height of the tank does impact light penetration. I have seen this between my 70g and 90g tanks, which have the same lighting and plant species. In this case, I had to reduce the duration on the shallower 70g to prevent nuisance algae.
I always "silent cycle" and in 20 years I've not had problems. Plant the tank, including some fast-growing plants (floating plants are ideal for this), add a few fish, way you go.
Byron.
I have always gone with the low-tech method. Moderate lighting, no CO2, once or at most twice weekly fertilization with a basic liquid fertilizer and in some tanks substrate tabs (depends upon the plant species). I have tanks of fish that happen to have live plants in them. So you do not need diffused CO2 here.
The height of the tank does impact light penetration. I have seen this between my 70g and 90g tanks, which have the same lighting and plant species. In this case, I had to reduce the duration on the shallower 70g to prevent nuisance algae.
I always "silent cycle" and in 20 years I've not had problems. Plant the tank, including some fast-growing plants (floating plants are ideal for this), add a few fish, way you go.
Byron.
I think I want to be somewhere in the middle. I really like the fish, but the serenity of live plants swaying gently in the current is very nice. I'm pretty new to it, but I've read most everything on this site. Super informative! Just overwhelming lol. I'm mainly concerned with doing everything right this time. I've made some mistakes in the past, and want to be a better caretaker this go around!
If it helps, here are some photos of three of my tanks. All use the natural or low-tech method, which in a nutshell means regular play sand or fine gravel substrate, no CO2, once weekly fertilizing, and moderate light. The plant species selected have shown over more than 20 years that they do well under these conditions. There are other plant species that would as well, and some that I have tried and they quickly failed due to inadequate light or whatever. It is usually the light that is the governing factor, but everything else (the nutrients) have to be in balance or algae wins the day.
Photo 1 is the 5-foot 115g Amazonian riverscape.
Photo 2 is the 70g Flooded Amazon Forest
Photo 3 is the 90g River Habitat
Byron.
Photo 1 is the 5-foot 115g Amazonian riverscape.
Photo 2 is the 70g Flooded Amazon Forest
Photo 3 is the 90g River Habitat
Byron.
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jag51186 said:
Thank you for the kind words. My point was to illustrate how nice something so basically simple can be, without all the fuss and bother, and it seems I may have got that across.
The background on those tanks, which happen to be my largest, is actually a "scene." The 115g and 70g both have what was termed an Amazonian scene, consisting of a tree stump with rocks scattered around it. It is not a shiny finish but a dull one, which is important because you really don't notice it until you actually think about it. The 90g has a similar photo backdrop but it is of a piled rock wall.
On my smaller tanks, I use black construction paper which disappears and makes the tanks look much larger in area.
Byron, you always put it much better than I do!
I too do very little. I have aquarium sand - nothing special underneath. I add some fertilizer daily aswell as liquid Co2 and this is what I have
It's currently a little more over grown as it needs a small prune but you can see from both Byron's tanks and mine that you can have healthy lush plants with very little effort - zero stress involved
I too do very little. I have aquarium sand - nothing special underneath. I add some fertilizer daily aswell as liquid Co2 and this is what I have
It's currently a little more over grown as it needs a small prune but you can see from both Byron's tanks and mine that you can have healthy lush plants with very little effort - zero stress involved
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