Carpeting?

[Fisherman0]

I have a 90 litre tank and was just wondering what substrate I would need to carpet my tank? At the moment I have gravel and it isn't very fine. I don't think this will be a good substrate for planted my tank. Could anybody reccomend me? Preferably low tech set up thanks in advance!

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Colombo Florabase is a fav of mine, smaller bags have a finer grain and it's quite good for using up excess nutrients and storing them till they're needed.

 

[Fisherman0]

Okay thanks, that looks good. Where could I go from there? Do you have any suggestions as to what I could put into my tank as far as plants go? I am completely new to this so though I could get some info from here? Thanks for the help!

 

[Ps3Steveo]

What lighting do you have? T5? T8? LED? And wattage roughly? That will depend on low tech, high tech, ferts, CO2 etc?

 

[Fisherman0]

The light that came with the tank as sold to me is a Arcadia Original Tropical Lamp 24" - 600mm long 1" diam 18 watt. However I think I will need to upgrade if I am going to have a planted tank right? Sorry about the stupid questions, only just started looking at doing this! Any advice/suggestions welcome...

 

[Ps3Steveo]

That's very low lighting, low tech very slow growth will be your best bet mate, just dosing a little ferts from time to time if the plants start to suffer, you may get away with no dosing at all tho.

Swords, Java Ferns, Crypts, Mosses & Anubias would be your best bet.

 

[KkAaNnEe]

If you dont get a plant substrate then consider sand with root tabs. You could try carpeting with dwarf sag, although it will be quite slow so start with a lot

 

[Fisherman0]

That's very low lighting, low tech very slow growth will be your best bet mate, just dosing a little ferts from time to time if the plants start to suffer, you may get away with no dosing at all tho.

Swords, Java Ferns, Crypts, Mosses & Anubias would be your best bet.

Do you think I should get a better, stronger light so that my plants grow quicker?

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Not if you wanna stick with low tech, the lower the lighting the less effort involved.