Looking for advice on starting a planted tank.

[Jason the Lost]

I've read the stickies this seems sort of complex...

It will be a 55 gal fw tank...I'm looking to have it heavily planted with low light plants. Any suggestions? Basically I'm looking to do a beginners planted tank that makes it look more sophisticated than it is.

 

[travis simonson]

I would recommend starting off with the right equipment and materials so that, if at some later stage, you decide to try something different (high-light for instance) it isn't a major chore. The first thing I would recommend is starting with a good plant substrate. CaribSea's Eco-Complete is probably the most popular and also the easiest to use. Other popular substrates are Seachem's Flourite and Onyx Sand. While you don't need a nutrient-rich substrate in a low-light tank, it will save you the hassle of changing it out later if you decide to try increasing your lighting.

Lighting is next. A low-light 55G tank would do best with normal output or compact fluorescent lighting in the 1.0-1.5 watts per gallon range. This level of light doesn't require CO2 supplementation but any planted tank will benefit from it.

The type of tank you're looking at can do well with a wide variety of plant species. Anubias and Cryptocorynes are my favorites for low-light conditions and there are huge number of species of each from which to choose. I'm sure the other members will have a lot to add to this too

 

[Jason the Lost]

Yes, I actually I wanted to add that I would rather go overboard in the beginning in respects to having the tank started for a higherlight environment...but wasn't sure if it would be overkill in low light applications. Odds are after I have it going for a while I would improve and I'm not looking for a cheapo setup, I guess I'm looking for a happy medium between having a starter planted and being prepared for the future.

 

[Jchillin]

If that is what you want, starting out with what Travis recommended is a really good choice, especially with the lighting. If you get started with 1.5 wpg now, it will be easier to upgrade later than if you started with 1 wpg (take it from someone who is currently mired in this area ).

Using a nutrient based substrate is a little more expensive than normal gravel but it will save you some $$$ later if you decided to go high light with CO2 injection.

Also, I guess you've seen that the variety of plants that you can keep increases with your light.

You're on the right track...good luck.

 

[malkore]

For a novice, stick to Eco complete. I've used Eco and Flourite in two separate tanks, and frankly I find the Eco tank does better, even with less light. Plants just root into it easier, and plants that creep along the substrate have a better time spreading, instead of sending floating runners up (that can't get their roots stuck into the flourite)

Plus you don't have to rinse eco complete like you do flourite, and most peple like the black look of eco over the mixced colors in flourite, or flourite red for that matter.

A good substrate will be the only 'expensive' part on setting up this 55 to be plant friendly. you'll want about 5-6 bags of Eco complete. If you ever go high light, you'll only have to add lighting, and add pressurized CO2...no swapping out of substrate, which is a HUGE pain (and something I myself will be doing if this flourite doesn't shape up soon)