I am starting a planted tank soon, I need lot's of adivice! Like any recomended equiptment (filter,substrate, if you need a co2 injector, chemicals, lighting, other) any plants recomended, fish recomended, and any other thing that I should know about starting a planted tank! Website references would be great as well.

Thanks, Mik037

WOOOT pk thanks for the reff, first lets cover the basics, substrate, something like eco complete you need at least three inches on the bottom i recommend four to five inches just so you have enough to cover all the roots and give the plants enough deep "soil" to root into, secondly filtration, you want the biggest cannister filter you can afford that will filter roughly 3 times the gallons of the tank per hour, also go to a garden center and buy a bag of unfertilized peat moss, and then a dollar store for some nylons, fill a piece of the nylon with about three or four cups of peat moss, this will help to keep your ph at a stable and preferred level for your plants, also adds nutrients to the water that your plants will love, you can also soak peat moss in water and then add it to the substrate for extra fertilizer, make sure you rinse the peat moss very well as if you just dump it in your tank you are going to have a brown hazy tank for weeks. next select plants that grow in diff sizes, shapes and textures this will add a more natural look to your tank, lighting now here we go with the expensive part, you want the best plant lighting you can possibly afford and a good timer for the lights, i run my lights a little longer than most i run about 10 hours of steady light a day, low light flora glows for the morning and through out the day, then full spectrum spectra max bulbs for the midday hours, this simulates the natural light cycle of the outdoors, i also run moonlighting at night, but not necessary, the last thing to you want to think about is co2 buy the best co2 setup you can afford, there are several on the market that have electronic meters and stabilizers you will want one of these, they are the best i have found so far. as far as fish go you want bottom feeders, mid tank feeders and top feeders, corydoras for the bottom, ghost shrimp to control algae, gold algae eaters to control algae, neons look great against the green, discus are perfect for planted tanks, although they are expensive and ph temperamental, ph needs to stay around 6.4-6.7, water changes with reverse osmosis water with addition of r/o right from kent will stabilize and add the trace elements back to the water that are needed for plant and fish survival, however this will help keep ph in check, large pieces of drift wood are also needed as these will help buffer the water and keep ph at a lower level. sorry for the overload but this is just the tip of the iceberg. for more information send me a msg i will try to answer your questions as best as possible.
Brandon

And thanks again pk for the referral!!

wow you obviously know what your doing:P thanks for the advice, but I have a few questions. Since I am only 134 years old you can imgine that I am limited to money. I have 500$ saved right now, but I am also buying a macbook so 200$ is all I am using for the tank. I already have a crushed gravel (very fine), and I was wondering if I could just use that instead? Also I want to buy an internal filter, because the tank is in my room and I want something quiet. Would that be alright for a planted tank? Thanks a ton!!

try craigslist.org for used equipment... you will save a ton of money

you can get internal filters, however i don't recommend them, you may want to try for a smallish canister filter i think penn plax has one for a 55 gallon tank that's not too expensive, the fine crushed gravel you have will do fine if you add peat moss to it, buy a bag of untreated peat moss, the miracle grow kind will not be that good for your fish, once you have the peat move all of your substrate to the sides of you tank and then put the peat moss in the center of the tank, using a cup or bowl move the substrate back to the center of the tank by scooping it up and dropping it down on top of the peat moss, make sure that the peat has soaked very well, and that you can grab it in large clumps and ball it up in your hand before putting it in your tank. this will add a nice rooting base for your plants. pk has a good line on a diy co2 system so i will let him chime in with that. as the system i have is a bit on the expensive side. you will want to start pinching pennies because no matter how you look at it 200 doesn't stretch all that far when doing a planted tank setup, an over the side filter would work fine if you go with something that's a bit larger than what you would normally use for a tank your size. feel free to email me with more questions i usually respond within one to two days of reading the msg. i hope this helps,
Brandon