Erm

[GSD]

I have a new 30ish gallon
it has been cycling for afew weeksnow
shall i put in the plants or the fish first???
As in my other tanks my plants die so i end upwith fake ones

 

[Discomafia]

shall i put in the plants or the fish first???

Plants. They'll help in the cycling process.

And your plants might be dying because of a lack of light. How much light do you have under your hood?

 

[GSD]

havnt got a clue,it came with the tank n ive never looked before
Its well lit though

 

[phishluvr]

it can be well lit, but the wrong kind of light. Buy at least a cool flourescent or if you can, go for a light with full-light spectrum made for growing plants. Plants normally need 10 hours/day of light and a good substrate with nutrients (eg. flourite or soil under gravel) Lights usually should be replaced every 6 mos.

You should decide if you want to go with "high-tech" tank (high lighting, nutrient supplements, CO2 injectors, etc) or "low-tech" (minimal setup, lower watts/gallon lighting, usually soil substrate to produce nutrients) There's pros/cons to each system and you can google many articles about each method.

Hang in there! I'm still figuring this out myself! but at the end of the day, I like it with plants better than without.

 

[Lateral Line]

"Well lit" is a very subjective term. What is well lit to a casual glance can be a dim nightmare to a plant.

Some plants will grow in lower light regimes, but to give yourself a wide choice of plants, aim for 2 Watts per gallon of full spectrum, (5500K - 6700K), light turned on for 10-12 hours a day. That will give you "Medium" light. With that you will not really need to worry about CO2 injectors and so forth.

Plants can go in whist cycling. In addition to assisting the process, it will give the roots a chance to develop before the fish start pulling them about.

 

[Silly me]

sometime something is said so well it in need to be repeated

"Well lit" is a very subjective term. What is well lit to a casual glance can be a dim nightmare to a plant.

here is a foto of my light in my 14g tank.. it might give you a idea of what you'll need

 

[GSD]

mines a a little bit dimmer than that!

 

[yvez9]

i have 23 watts on my 5 gallon and 15 on my 20

i thought my 20 was well light until i saw what the 5 looked like with 23 watts.

now my 20 looks rather dim.

stock lighting will usually give out between 0.5 to 1 watt per gallon, which is low.

High light plants (the more colorful) will require over 3 watts per gallon. Maybe you have high light plants

 

[GSD]

wot do you guys think of bluey lights?

 

[Nospherith]

wot do you guys think of bluey lights?

you mean actnic lights? that's a no go because basically actnic lights don't emit the colors that plants use (told you it was basic). Full spectrum, as Lateral Line has indicated, is the way to go. Although, I have a 55w 9,800K over my 20g and my plants are doing fine.