Going To Make A Switch To Live Plants.

[ashlerbam]

First. I have a 37g tropical community tank. The substrate right now is about a 1"-1.5" of black beauty sand. I also am adding 1.6wpg lighting to the tank in the next little while to bump up what I have (standard hood that came with it).

Im looking to switch my plants from fake to real.

How many inches is needed of substrate? I have read so many different opinions on this from 1.5" is fine. To need 2"-3" minimum.

Also. Using black beauty sand as the substrate. Can I keep using this? Will it kill off the plants? I know its actually iron slag, just curious if this has any effect on plants that are added?

Also I have a couple (2) mystery snails in the tank. Will they ruin all the plants before they are healthy enough to stay alive in my tank?

 

[RadaR]

Have read of the various pinned topics.

But just to clear up your questions. I would personally say 1inch was the minimum for substrate. Everyone is different though.
The sand you have should be fine.
Dont upgrade your lighting until you know what you are doing. More light means the plants will need more CO2 and more nutrients (and more flow). Get it wrong and the only thing you will grow will be algae.
Hhhmm. Do you mean Mystery Snails as the other name for Apple snails. Ordo you generally dont know what the snails are hence ("Mystery").
Apple snails tend to eat plants. But others snails are usually fine.

 

[ashlerbam]

Have read of the various pinned topics.

But just to clear up your questions. I would personally say 1inch was the minimum for substrate. Everyone is different though.
The sand you have should be fine.
Dont upgrade your lighting until you know what you are doing. More light means the plants will need more CO2 and more nutrients (and more flow). Get it wrong and the only thing you will grow will be algae.
Hhhmm. Do you mean Mystery Snails as the other name for Apple snails. Ordo you generally dont know what the snails are hence ("Mystery").
Apple snails tend to eat plants. But others snails are usually fine.

To be honest the way they were sold to me were mystery snails. Gold, blue. From Petsmart. I think they are apple snails. So I might have to rethink the snails that I add. I was thinking of upgrading the lights because I have read even 1wpg is not very much light at the bottom of such a deep tank 24". So I was going to a t5 fixture that would make it around 1.6 wpg. Which would make it ok for most lowlight plants. The current stock hood looks like its a 18w bulb. On 37g of water that .5 wpg. But you recommend keeping it stock until I see how the plants react?

I have a pretty strong filter on the tank. A Marineland Emperor 280. And I will be adding a powerhead that is going to power my sponge filter. That will most likely put me around cycling 10x or more water then the tank holds per hour.

 

[pauld]

Have read of the various pinned topics.

But just to clear up your questions. I would personally say 1inch was the minimum for substrate. Everyone is different though.
The sand you have should be fine.
Dont upgrade your lighting until you know what you are doing. More light means the plants will need more CO2 and more nutrients (and more flow). Get it wrong and the only thing you will grow will be algae.
Hhhmm. Do you mean Mystery Snails as the other name for Apple snails. Ordo you generally dont know what the snails are hence ("Mystery").
Apple snails tend to eat plants. But others snails are usually fine.

To be honest the way they were sold to me were mystery snails. Gold, blue. From Petsmart. I think they are apple snails. So I might have to rethink the snails that I add. I was thinking of upgrading the lights because I have read even 1wpg is not very much light at the bottom of such a deep tank 24". So I was going to a t5 fixture that would make it around 1.6 wpg. Which would make it ok for most lowlight plants. The current stock hood looks like its a 18w bulb. On 37g of water that .5 wpg. But you recommend keeping it stock until I see how the plants react?

I have a pretty strong filter on the tank. A Marineland Emperor 280. And I will be adding a powerhead that is going to power my sponge filter. That will most likely put me around cycling 10x or more water then the tank holds per hour.

all sounds good but i would increase depth of sand to 2 inches .

 

[RadaR]

Yeah just keep what lighting you have for now. Learn from it and then when you get the hang of things then you can upgrade the lighting (you may find that you dont want to).
Less light is easier and gives larger margains for error.

Is the tank moderatly stocked with fish?

 

[ashlerbam]

Yeah just keep what lighting you have for now. Learn from it and then when you get the hang of things then you can upgrade the lighting (you may find that you dont want to).
Less light is easier and gives larger margains for error.

Is the tank moderatly stocked with fish?

We have a bunch of fish.

6x angel fish (growing them out as they are purchased as dime size, waiting on a pair to form)
1x GBR
4x Molly (2 are fry)
6x cherry barbs
4x Cory cats
2x mystery snails(apple i think)

 

[RadaR]

Ok. The fish should produce enough N+P for the plants then. You also dont have to worry about carbon addition.
You just need to dose some trace elements each time you water change. I'd go with Easylife Profito as this always contains potassium.
Oh and plant up! Aim for 50-75% coverage.

 

[ashlerbam]

Ok. The fish should produce enough N+P for the plants then. You also dont have to worry about carbon addition.
You just need to dose some trace elements each time you water change. I'd go with Easylife Profito as this always contains potassium.
Oh and plant up! Aim for 50-75% coverage.

Awesome, thank you for so much great advice!

 

[UNV_Rasta]

Nice caves in the tank. Please take photos of your new planted tank