i was wanting to start a planted tank, been doing alot of reading on the subject, and have learned quite a bit. but i was wondering about everyones opinions on it.
what is a good size to startout with?
heated substrate or not?
and what is the best substrate to use?
co2 injection from the start or add it later?
what is the best types of filters to use?
and what fish thrive best in planted tanks?
I have just started a planted tank about 2 months ago,I haven't done anything special to the tank I already had set up. It has regular aquarium gravel,a wisper power filter, and flouresent lighting. I bought plant bulbs from wal-mart and a few plants from a local pet store and they are all doing great.I have done alot of research on co2 injection, there are some great plans online for making a co2 system, which I'm thinking of making. I don't have co2 now and a few pet stores I have talked to have said that I don't need it . I hope this helps some.
Read some of the other forums on this subject. I have said quite a bit on it. I would start out with plants that don't require much light, use regular flourescents from a hardware store if you want to spend less, and run the lights 8-10 hours a day. Any decent filter will do, though I like a combo of using powerheads for current/ airation, and a Fluval type canister filter for the bulk of the biological and particulate filtration. I have done wonderfully this way, never used CO2, and I've had so much growth I've had to thin out the tanks regularly. Some kinds of fish clean algae off plants, some kinds of snails(the wrong ones eat the plants, the right ones clean the plants), fresh water shrimp(which also clean plants) Good low light plants are anacharis, java moss, java fern, and on the borderline(I've done fine with them), amazon sword. If you want high light demanding plants like grasses and others, well that's gona cost you in lights, you'll have more problems maintaining algae, the biological cycle, etc. I believe that you need to have some fish in order to feed the biological cycle which ultamately fertilises your plants unless you want to mess with fertiliser. I've allways had problems with algae when I've used any fertiliser. Have fun! Peter
i'd like to add i have done very well with lilies, peace lilies, and the red broad leafed variety that you can get at walmart, the bulbs come in a package and are about three or four bucks a package and you can get two to three bulbs a package.. anubias nana, and bartieri are others that do well in low light. no co2 or any of that in my tanks either. proper aeration and water movement really are the only things to worry about, aeration because plants will use up oxygen at night when the lights are out and if you have too many plants it could suffocate your fish, and fresh water ghost shrimp to clean the algae off the plants is key to not having black algae growth on the plants, just make sure you don't have fish in the tank that will eat the shrimp or you will be wondering how come they don't last. lol they disappear rather quickly in my cichlid tank as i feed the shrimp to them as a snack when i have too many in my community tank.
good luck and have fun with it, planted tanks are great to have and do a great job of keeping your fish healthy and happy, just make sure to remove any dead leaves or decaying parts of plants as this could also become toxic to your fish.
Maybe the anubis nana, (nana meaning small I think) is what I'm calling anacharis. It's got a really nice look to it and I agree Brandon, water lillies are really cool too. I just put some in two of my tanks. I got a smallish bonsai pot, put some organic peat based soil in the bottom half, and some gravel to hold it down on top to keep the peat soil from washing out. I know lilly (lilly pads) grows in stagnant or pretty rotten or black muck, so I thought the peat idea would be a good way to grow them in aquaria. Peter
