Yes,Yes,Yes!!!

[Siamese Fighter05]

My mate is hopefully giving me his tank, which is the same size as mine (Only 16gallons but what the hell ) with all the bits and bobs. This is my second time at a new start , and im going to do it right this time. When i started my first tank (Not too long ago) I didnt really think much about live plants or the 'natural' look and just went for a couple of fake plants and the 'treasure pot thing' as the middle item which provided a hiding place for the fish.

My plans for the new tank are to upgrade the lighting to suit a well planted tank.
Upgrade the filter, sand as the substrate with a nice piece of bogwood as the centre piece.
I have a few questions regarding the set-up.

1. Will such a small tank require a CO2 unit
2. Just wondering what wpg i'd need for these plants and if they are suitable for this size tank.
Amazon Sword
Java Fern
Riccia
A few anubais plants.
3. Do cocunut Caves really decay and ruin your water? (ive read a few posts concerning them but there have been alot of different opinions so i was hoping someone could clear this up for me, Because they look beautiful when coated with riccia)
4. After the tank has cycled and hopefully the plants are looking good i was hoping to add these fish.
2 albino corys from my current tank plus a new one.
1 bronze cory '' '' '' plus two new ones.
8 Black Phantom tetras
8 neon tetras from my current tank
Well this be overstocked? I know that if i go by the inch of fish by gallon rule it is, But considering the tank will be well planted, over-filtered and well maintained and the tetras and cories very rarely will cross water boundaries i just feel that the middle to upper layres of the tank will be waisted with just one small shoal of tetras.
Look forward to your help, Lol sorry to bombard you with questions but id rather be safe than sorry. Thanks Dan

Ps: Mum hints that im allowed a 55g for xmas, which will be totally cool!!
But ill have to break down one of the 16g and send the inhabitants to the 55 after its cycled.

 

[jimbooo]

Hi again dan,

firstly you should PM gf225 and get this moved to the planted section, you'll get a better response there to the more specific questions.


to answer a few.

1 - yes, a nutrafin natural plant system will do fine. (for tanks up to 20G)
2 - 2 wpg would be good, no need to go above 3.
3 - no idea
4 - pic one of the tetras and get 12 of them (8 of each is a bit much), corys will be fine especially if you get the riccia going well

by the way you could get away with no co2 and lower light but i gather from your PM that your after a tank to be proud of rather than a mediocre tank. in that case you need to get the plants thriving.

remember though as i said Laterite would be a worth while adition as your setting up from scratch anyway.

good luck.

 

[black_bull]

Try a substrate designed to be used in planted tanks. They have nutrients that are essential to plants, and the particle size is more appropriate than sand for planted tanks. Some examples to look into are EcoComplete and Flourite.

2-3 WPG will grow the plants you listed just fine. If you have high light (above 3 WPG) it's best to inject CO2 via a pressurized canister, regulator, and diffusor. If you do that, you'll need to watch your water chemistry (pH especially) because CO2 can effect those parameters. Despite this one difficulty, injecting CO2 (in conjunction with a premium substrate and good lighting) will allow your plants to be absolutely lush and bright green. In my opinion that's the whole point to having a planted tank.

Another essential is dosing your planted tank with fertilizers (ferts) to provide plants that take nutrients through their leaves with the essentials. Check out Seachem's Flourish series for this (although many others exist).

So, if you give your tank 1) good lighting, 2) CO2 injection, 3) a high quality nutrient-enriched substrate, and 4) regular dosing of liquid ferts, I'd say you have everything you need to grow most any plants you want, and the plants you gave will certainly grow very well with these conditions. They could be grown without most of these things, but in my opinion its worth it to spend a little, as the investment you make as far as equipment and fertilization will pay dividends in the appearance of your setup--the plants will be healthy and will lend the tank as a whole a verdant, healthy look and that's what having a planted tank is all about!

 

[Siamese Fighter05]

Thanks both of you for the detailed replies.
Just another question.
Does the substrate with the nutrients in need to be renewed once the plants have used up all of it?

 

[jimbooo]

Thanks both of you for the detailed replies.
Just another question.
Does the substrate with the nutrients in need to be renewed once the plants have used up all of it?

[snapback]882917[/snapback]​

you've missed the point there (in the nicest possible way ) ok a quick biology lesson.

The aquatic plants we grow in our aquariums are naturally found growing on the river bed in tropical waters (well most of them anyway). This river bed has a high percentage of clay in it, mixed in with sand, gravel etc...

this clay has porous (absorbant) qualities that act like a sponge sucking in the nutrients from the water column, decaying matter etc.. the plants grow here because the roots can set them selves in this clay type soil and suck out all the nutrients they require (nitrate, phosphate, iron etc...)

With a plain sand or gravel substrate you have no way of holding the nutrients where they are needed - at the roots as neither are absorbant.

laterite/flourite/ecocomplete etc... (laterite is my personal choice although all will have simmilar effect) replicate the clay in the river bed (laterite is dried clay).

In a tank with this type of substrate you still need to fertalise as usual it's just that the added medium will suck in the fertaliser to keep it where it's most needed. Without it your plants have to absorb them through the leaves as the fertaliser will be spread across the whole water column, this is not ideal hence the plants do not flourish.

So in short laterite, flourite etc is not fertalisers in themselves (yes okay they have some good stuff in them before anyone bashes me, but not relevant to the topic) it just makes better use of the fertaliser you are using.

make sence?

 

[Siamese Fighter05]

Wow!! A biology lesson where i actually listened
And was interested, perharps they should teach this stuff at school?
Ok point taken, Thanks
Dan

 

[jimbooo]

glad to help

 

[Siamese Fighter05]

Ok now that ive got must of the basics covered,
Can anyone comment on the cocunut caves?