The most common mistake beginners make is....

[BrianNY]

Lighting. When it comes to a planted tank a little bit of information can hurt you alot!!! For some reason the first thing people hear is.... You can't grow plants without massive lighting. This is true for some plants but certainly not all. Then people seem to think I'll get the lighting first and worry about the CO2 later.

So people go out and invest in fixtures of more than 2 wpg without any understanding of the water chemistry required to balance the effect of that much lighting. Complex plants (the plants we want grow), require carbon, nitrogen, potassium, and a host of trace elements for health and photosynthesis. Simpler plants (algae), can proliferate without all of the building blocks mentioned above being in balance. Expecially carbon.

When you throw alot of light at your tank, and are missing CO2, the algae will steal that light from your plants. You soon realize that what you've accomplished is growing magnificent algae to the detriment of your plants.

Conclusion: High light and no CO2 will be a disaster.




(This thread is for information and resources only. Post questions in new threads. -- czcz, 9/06)

 

[Jchillin]

There is also the lack of overall knowledge regarding:

Wattage, Kelvin rating, CF's, NO and VHO. Everyone who does a planted tank should know or research this information beforehand as well.

I was completely depressed when I found that 40w is the highest wattage for a NO 48" bulb.

 

[Quake2player]

Just as buying inapropriate fish for small tanks ala the common overstocking problem... there's the similiar beginner mistake with plants. Large plants such as varieties of swords get too large for tanks under 30 gallons. But, we all make that mistake as I have. Perhaps someone can elaborate on some common plants we all find, but should not go in common small sized tanks (under 30? under 40?).

 

[malkore]

Good call on posting this Brian!

Jchillin - you can always overdrive a 48" NO tube to levels above 40watts

Greenmagi - yes, 1.5 - 2wpg is considered medium light, and is also the range where CO2 injection will noticably improve the plants, but isn't 100% necessary.

(references a post pruned from the sticky-- cz)

 

[BrianNY]

My reason for posting this as a sticky is simple.

It is hoped that anyone reading will be spared the money and frustration involved with buying that expensive light first. IMO, a newbie to planted tanks should start with low light plants first. Gain some hands on experience with the chemistry and maintenance, and then see if they want to take on more.

 

[Steve Hampton]

Brian, excellent post! I have preached this over and over on other forums and have never fully got this concept to "stick". To me the logic seems clear, CO2 is the horse and lighting is the cart. Never put the cart before the horse. Over the years I have seen countless hobbyist come and go starting with gobs of lighting, growing a tank full of algae, getting frustrated and leaving planted tanks or sometimes the whole hobby. Great post to have stickied and I hope folks take heed to your sage advice.

 

[Quake2player]

can I have a "beginners list" of low light plants? Thank you!

plantgeek.net is referenced quite a bit in this forum... I always use their plant guide and they do categorize nicely... check out by "lighting" requirements:

http://www.plantgeek.net/plantguide.php

Off the top of my head, common low light plants:

Java Fern
Java Moss
Anacharis
Watersprite
Wisteria
most Anubias
most Crypts

 

[TankGirl]

I think before people even get their heapum big lights they throw any and every kind of plant in there (terrestrial plants included - mondo grass being my personal favorite ) and when everything up and dies that is when they wind up here, only to discover they have 1wpg or even under.

They get their big new lights, start a thread about algae, etc. ... you know the rest!

Great thread, Brian!

 

[HiFi]

Sometimes LFS will tell you anything to get a sale. My recent experience (new to hobby) I had just bought a new perfecto canopy with the stock lighting for a free 29G I got from a friend. Got 2 Red Platty & 2 Dwarf Flame Gourami.

Then I went to maybe get a plant or two, before finding AA, I was sold some cabomba & rotala and was told its easy to take care of with my setup, and that I didnt need fertilizer. Back to the store I went and they suggested a new bulb and got me a 20watt 11,000k T6 superlux. $50 later the plants are not lookin so good.

I'm glad this information is made available to people like me, as I dont think the employee knew what CO2 was when I asked her Yesterday.

I've learned a lot here, over the past weeks and hope that I dont get fustrated with and give up on the planted tank which me and the wife are hoping for.

 

[Simpte]

Great post but you left out one very important concept. Plant heavy from the beginning. Plant mass is key to keeping algae at bay and keeping NH4 levels down during the cycle no matter what lighting level you have.

 

[Hypatia]

Heavy Planting, Fast Growth, & Nitrates?

Great post but you left out one very important concept. Plant heavy from the beginning. Plant mass is key to keeping algae at bay and keeping NH4 levels down during the cycle no matter what lighting level you have.

Oooh Oooh... I did this! At least I got something right ) Of course it was by accident and out of impatiance to have the tank look the way I wanted right away

Also, Someone earlier mentioned that like the inch/gallon rule, you have to make sure you buy plants that will not get too big for a small aquarium... but I have a different thought on this one. I choose the heavy planted tank to maxize my tank's ability to breakdown nitrates given it's size. What I have read said that it is the growth process (especially rapid growth) that uses up nitrates most efficiently.

You can't make the fish any smaller than thier natural size without hurting them, but you can certainly prune a plant. I am constantly having to prune the plants in my little 5.5... Elodea & Cabomba the most, but also the crypts and watersprite..... but it hasn't seemed to harm them at all in the three months I've had them. In fact, they keep sending out more fast growing shoots.. which as I said was exactly what I was hoping for.

I mean, I am sure that there are plants out there who's leaves might grow too broad even to prune effectivly, but growing alot in general is certainly not a problem if your keeping the plants to help balance the system as a whole.... of course I am open to being totally wrong here. I have a lot of expirience with aquariums, but not so much with heavy planted ones.. maybe one of the plant experts can confirm or reject this?

Of course, I should probably admit that I do have a lot of light.. 18w in a 5.5 gallon (at the time I got it, it was that, an incandesent hood, or I make it myself).. and I do have some algae, but I also have two ottos (who are really cute to watch) and a mystery snail (P. bridgesii only eats algae & dieing plant material... which is also a good thing) so in the end everyone is happy.. at least so far

Hypatia

 

[Tyree_Do_Great]

Hello Everyone, I Plan On Running A Planted Aquarium Soon, But would Like To Do my Homework Before Jumping into It. With That Said what Are Some Suggestions, I Want To Run a 30Gal With African Cichlids. Any & All Advice Will Be Appreciated

 

[fredenj]

****. I have 15 watts of regular output fluorescent on a 5.5 gallon with no CO2 and I guess we'll see what happens.

 

[fredenj]

Maybe I shouldn't have replaced the bulb

 

[fredenj]

whats the deal with the liquid CO2 boosters?

 

[MymonkeyMoue]

Ah, so that explains this:

My tank was lightly planted for a year and doing okay, but my plants weren't thriving. I bought a new light that came highly recommended by a friend, but a little over a week or two later and voila! Algae! Not what I was going for..

Will spend the rest of my night reading up on CO2, any advice is greatly appreciated. I actually came here looking for answers on my sudden algae growth and am happy to have found this thread.

 

[Mebbid]

My reason for posting this as a sticky is simple.

It is hoped that anyone reading will be spared the money and frustration involved with buying that expensive light first. IMO, a newbie to planted tanks should start with low light plants first. Gain some hands on experience with the chemistry and maintenance, and then see if they want to take on more.

Your suggestion is exactly what I didn't do. I had a resulting algae bloom which I dealt with appropriately, and am perfectly happy with how things ended up. It would have been boring to me to keep a low light tank which would have made me all that much more frustrated with planted tanks.

Hello Everyone, I Plan On Running A Planted Aquarium Soon, But would Like To Do my Homework Before Jumping into It. With That Said what Are Some Suggestions, I Want To Run a 30Gal With African Cichlids. Any & All Advice Will Be Appreciated

I would suggest that you start a new thread on this topic. It will get more attention.

whats the deal with the liquid CO2 boosters?

Complex carbon molecules that plants can utilize instead of co2. I've used the equivalent of about 3 gallons of excel and that stuff is amazing.

 

[Vincent]

When I bought a light fixture for my first planted tank, I made the mistake of assuming that the included T8 would be an appropriate default option. A bulb of 14W on a 5.5 gallon tank without CO2 yielded plenty of algae.

 

[Coursair]

Or they forget the most important accessory to a planted tank.....
an $8 timer [emoji1360]

6-8 hours is about all a planted tank needs unless you know what you are doing.

Leaving the light on all day....
Leaving the light on all night for a child's nightlight....
Putting the tank near a sunny window....
Good ways to grow a crop of Algae

 

[MDDad]

I only do low-light at the moment, so my "stock" plastic, single-tube hood is good, but I've found that few kits "out of the box" really provide enough lighting for medium to high-light plants.