Hey everyone,

I own a 55 Gallon aquariuim that WILL contain fake decor and some live plants but I am itching to get all natural decor but it looks to be there could be downsides. I want a planted driftwood tank but I really dont know what is best. Got any suggestions?

Some people say that the hard, heavy, dark wood that usually is like an old stump lowers the pH a lot, but in my experience I've had no problems. It comes in really beautiful shapes, and like I said many are in the shape of a naturally broken off stumps which I think is beautiful. Some kinds of plants can grow on it including Java moss, Java fern, and different kinds of anubias which are all easy to grow low light plants.

I've seen a kind of rock called Zebra rock or something that a lot of people with planted co2 enriched tanks use as well.

Heck, if you want natural looking, there is nothing better than getting you're stuff from nature. I have my driftwood from the lakeshore. The key is just disinfecting it really well in bleach water. 19 parts water 1 part bleach. I soaked it for 6 hours to make sure everything both IN and on the wood was dead. A really good rinse and a few more soaks later, the driftwood was clean and void of life that could harm my tank. You can do the same thing with rocks. The best part is, if your an outdoorish person, you know where all those cool rocks and pieces of wood are.

As far as plants go, Crypts, Javas and Anubis plants are great for beginners and don't require huge amounts of light. If your willing to put money out for lighting, Amazon Swords and Hygros look awesome along the back of a tank. Plants also have the added bonus of stabilizing the chemicals in your tank.
As far as plants

My water from tap PH (after a 24 hour settling period) is roughly 7.2-7.4. I have a very large piece of driftwood in my 16 gallon, which probably occupies about as much space as 1-2 gallons of water. Within a month or two of placing it in my tank PH readings ran between 6.2-6.8. I'm pretty sure PK changes his water pretty infrequently like myself but he probably has a lot more water for the wood in his tank to buffer. I think some pieces will lower your PH drastically while others won't I guess it really depends on the source of the driftwood. I might also add that mistakingly I didn't boil mine, so I had to battle tannic acid (turns the water brown-ish) with multiple water changes. Most of it seems to have leeched out now as the water is as clear as it was before I added the wood.
I'm not sure what kind of wood it is as I was seeking some explaination from the LFS I purchased it from and they gave me a vague answer: "Yeah, its safe for your aquarium." lol
I think many varieties of wood are fine for aquaria, but some will pre-maturely break down and rot in the water which is real bad (usually forms of wood that weren't immersed in the first place). So if you choose some native wood make sure it's been in a water source for some time, or at least was before it washed on a beach, etc.

The biggest thing I urge you to consider is whatever wood you decide to use, treat it. If the wood is dry to begin with I.E. - from a beach shore, let it soak for some time in a bucket until it becomes soaked all the way through with water - the best way to determine this is if it no longer floats. :) If its wet, skip that step and go straight to boiling it. It's best to boil any wood you get whether from a LFS or right from the beach for at least 2 hours to remove parasites, little nasties, tannic acid and any impurities that may have existed in it naturally. For real thick pieces I'd recommend boiling longer.
Plants you don't really have to undergo any real special prepartation with. The only REAL important thing with plants is, if you think you may even have the slightest idea of going planted when you start creating a new tank (even if it may be like a year down the road), pick the right substrate, so you don't have to make drastic changes further down the road when your tank is already cycled with fish in it, etc.

I've gone for years with a low tech low light planted tank. I chose plants that didn't require much light and it was easy.

I had a near disaster in my new high light co2 DIY set up last night. The co2 line is connected to the filter intake and the sponge fell off the intake and a huge ramshorn snail got stuck in it. What happened was that the pump then sucked yeast water into the tank from the co2 generating container. I woke up to a tank filled with bubbles smelling like yeast or beer and the co2 container was all crumpled up. Nothing but the snail died thank god.

Low light plants are easy though.