New To Planted

[bymauldin]

Hi all!

I am about to get a 30 gal tank and I was wanting this to be a planted aquarium. The problem is that I don't even know where to start! I don't know what kind of substrate, lighting, decor...blah blah blah....so on and so forth...to get . I was wondering if someone could provide me with a few good links on how to get a good planted aquarium started. I read some of the pinned topics and they were great if you've already started a planted aquarium, but I'm starting from scratch...from the bottom of the barrel...from the land of ignorance...you get my point.... . It really all seems so mind boggling. Are they exceptionally hard to maintain?

 

[cuprajake]

hi matey,

my tank has been goin about 3 weeks now, and i was new to heavy planting too.

first off if your starting fresh ie no tank to take media from a filter your going to have to cycle the tank. plenty of stuff on that.

right from the start.

substrate, i used tetraplant substrate, this is where the plants will root and get some of there nueitients. lay this as per instructions, next cover with your gravel/sand.

now you can plant now with only a small ammount of water in or fill up, start to cycle and then plant.

when planting the most important thing is to get alot of fast growing plants, these can be taken out at a later date.

next thing you need will be lighting.

basically anything over 2 watts per gallon is good for growing, and if your adding co2 even better.

to see how much lighting you'll need/have you see how many gallons your tank is, then devide the wattage of your lights so if you have a 10 gallon tank and have 20wtts of light you get 2watts per gallon.

the new thing is ei dosing, what this does is gives the plants an excess of what they need to grow, so they bloom well and out compete the alge. there is a pinned ei dosing article that gives you the correct dosage, then at the end of the week you do a 45-50% water change to make sure stuff doesn't over dose.

finally if you ei then you need co2 to benefit, this can be made at home or be done in a pressurised container which is more expensive.

finally good luck its good to see how they come along, this is my tank .

week 1

week 2

week 3

jake

 

[nry]

Jeesh, these people who come along and have never done heavily planted tanks, then come up with something that looks as good as that! Pah

 

[mlawson]

All I can recommend is to read, read, read. Get a a good beginners book on plants, I first bough The nutrafin book by Peter Hiscock 'Plants for your aquarium'.

 

[nicklfire]

it's definatly trial and error buddy. But it's a fun hobby to get into. Hi tech tanks can be easy to maintain if you have everything that you need. If you got some money to invest why not go hi tech it's as much of a learning curve as a low light tank and personally i think you get more benfits. Check my journal out for a setup i just did not to far ago.

Basically you gotta figure out if you want a hi-tech or lo tank, that's your biggest deciding factor. Hi tech tank your going to have any plant choice but you'll put alot more money into it just as i have.

What you'll need to get your tank started:

Tank -of course... prob 33gal or more (bigger the tank easier to maintain, more fish you can house)
Stand- may not seem a big deal but get a wood tank that you can store stuff underneath.. makes it more clean looking
Filter - Dont go cheap on this... better the filter the better the filtration you'll have, cleaner the water, less maintenance. Eheim is top of the line if you wanna pay the price for them. ranging about 250$, worth it in my opinion.. Any canister filter is better than anything.
Substrate - Dont go for you normal grave... blue rocks that you find in every fish store.. if your going planted get some quality substrate such as flourite, red sea florabase, eco complete (search google for these) , these substrates have beneficial nutrients in them that give your plants the food they need...mirror real life environments
Lighting - if your going hi tech shoot for around 2.4 WPG (watts per gallon) , coralife makes some nice lighting fixtures you'll be happy with (again check my journal as i have one)
Heater - don't go cheap on this... high quality is the way to go, spend the extra 20 bucks and your heater wont short out and fry all your fish (submersibles is good too)
co2 - your going to need co2 to get you going, probably can start with DIY (do it yourself) setup , such as a nutrifin setup, or you can go high pressure setup as i have , cost around 400$
Ferts - do some reseach into this

What else am i missing... that's a good start anyways :0

 

[SuperColey1]

I would get the CO2 sorted out first.

Decide on your lighting next, and before you start upgrading the lighting decide on your dosing regime.

If you put the lighting in first before CO2 and dosing you gonna have an algae fest,

Andy

 

[Graeme Edwards]

Have a read on here, very strate forward reading. Simplicity is the order of the day for a begginer.

http/www.aquariaplants.com/firstplantedtank.htm

 

[sophos9]

All good stuff here...

I would add that a heavily planted tank will seldom have to cycle. Fill your tank with fast growers, get CO2 started and then sort lighting, I did not heed the advice of people on this forum to start with about 200 fast growing stems I'm still paying for it in all types of algae growth