3 gold barbs
3 bst tetra
3 lemon tetra
3 hy 511 tetra
1 clown pleco
2 Juilli Cory's
1 Bolivian ram
1 kuhili loach
The light fixture is 48in the bulbs are fluorescent 54 watts at 6500k and the other bulb will be 54 watts at 10,000k the tank is 48 x 12 x 21 that's length width and height
Good set up for just about any type of planted tank- I highly suggest upping your barbs to 5 and your kuhli to at least 3, though.... Watch out for kuhli uprooting plants and your clown plec eating delicate plants.
I have my personal planted routine of having first layer laterite mixed with floramax to build up my landscape. Then I use eco complete to soften the rough landscaping and allow for deep sand patches. I place flourish and rooting tabs and use pvc pipe to fill in with very fine grade sand. Cured driftwood is a fixture that is priceless to me, I don't think I'll ever stop buying or hunting for the perfect piece of driftwood for my tanks- they are fun to make little moss trees out of, and they are beneficial for the plants as well. Along with driftwood, lava rock is probably the best at retaining ferts to help plants root to the porous rock- it's actually kind of funny- the round lava stones I used to use for hydro and aqua ponics are now showing up in semi aquatic terrariums, palludariums, and vivariums everywhere (even in some biotope tanks) and the jagged porous rocks are showing up at my local htg store and round rocks are being phased out...
I digress, though, once I'm done with my substrate it's decoration time. I put all my large rocks and driftwood how I want them and make sure they are secured and I place any bulbs I'm growing.
I put about an inch or 2 of water in the bottom and start placing live plants... My preference is to lightly bury just the root endings (definitely make sure there are good roots- if not I suggest floating them until they do) and secured middle/near the base of plants with with rounded river pebbles, small rounded river stones and small pieces of dw or lava stone.
Slowly fill through hob filter, add your choice of aquarium ferts, usually a daily CO2 booster (if you aren't planning on using pressurized/ bubble co2 doser) and a balanced comprehensive NPK liquid fertilizer... This should be all that you need.... Oh, and a few boiled bones or shells usually helps keep a calcium balance to the water if you should ever need to keep snails for algae growth...
Also considering your stocklist you can use Amazon extract or blackwater extract and make all the colors pop!! Long winded am I, hope any of this makes sense or helps!!
I have a question that goes right along with the op conversation- 150g medium light Amazon tank, substrate is a plants heaven going with mostly swords, vals and Cyperus h.- best type of ferts, in your opinion? There is a lobster to take into consideration, though...
