Trying It Again

[gregswimm]

A while back I made a 20 USGal long planted tank with 2 36" fluorescent lights on top, I ended up tearing it down because I was getting horrible algae on everything. I had 2 tetra whisper ex20s on it, and flourite as substrate. As far as plants and fish go I had 5 swords a ton of tiny little plants that looked like dwarf swords all over the foreground, i had 1 anubias nana in the shade of my wood centerpiece, as well as Brazilian pennywort and water sprite. For fish I had 2 Kribensis, 3 ottos, 4 cories, and 6 neon tetras.


I would like to try a planted tank again, i hear large tanks are easier and I have a 48"x16"x12.5(Length, height, width; I think thats about 40 US gal). How much light should I use and still keep it low tech(no CO2)? And I want to go with a sandy bottom, but is there something I should put under the sand? Also I would like to do a south american theme tank, what plants would be best and how thick should I pack `em in?

Any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Ps3Steveo]

The reason you would have had algae before is you had way to much light fir low tech, if you now have a 40gal I'd use just one of your original bulbs, that's low tech enough to not need any additives, as the plants will be fertilized by your fish etc. With the sand substrate, going low tech you'd only need it to be deep enough to keep the plants rooted. If you wanted to you could put clay based cat litter under the sand as it soaks up excess nutrients but that's up to you.

 

[gregswimm]

What brand of cat litter is safe to use?

 

[Ps3Steveo]

I'm not sure the brand but if it's clay based with no scents or chemicals added it should be fine.