Newbie setting up a Planted Tank

[mitche8359]

I should have done my homework before now but since I only have three plants in the tank, it's ok.

I changed my tank from a fake plant to a planted tank.

Tomorrow the lighting system will be upgraded to a little over 2 watts/g. What else am I going to need maintenance wise to support the plants?

I'd prefer not getting a co2 system at this time. Maybe down the road. I've heard fertilizing the plants would be good. What types of fertilizers are available?

Is there a FAQ on planted tanks that I can read somewhere?

Any particular plant to avoid? Any must haves?

I'll take all the advice and opinions I can get.

Tom

 

[Bearfan]

You can get a fairly cheap CO2 system that hangs on the back of your aquarium. You will have 100% better results.

 

[Guest]

http://www.thekrib.com/

All kinds of archived plant info here. takes a while to wade through, but lots of valuable info.

look for the DIY CO2 system, you can have CO2 for less than 5 bucks, easiest thing i ever built, and very effective for me in a low light tank.

What kind of substrate do you have?

I'm not using any liquid fert. yet, but I put Jobe's palm and Fern plant sticks near the roots of all plants except stem plants. THat particular kind of fert. is low in phosphate (i think) and wont cause an algae bloom.

 

[mitche8359]

The substrate is a part of the redesign of the tank. I had what I would consider a small medium size natural gravel and I introduced some larger gravel. I have plans to get some river stones when I can find them. The majority of the gravel is the size of a pea or smaller.

Thanks for the link to the krib. I'll check out the articles there as well.

 

[mitche8359]

ok I've read some articles on krib. A little hesitant at first to build my own CO2 system due to the horror stories of glass shattering and overflows and what not. However, I have an old 303 fluval canister filter that isn't working which I might just use to build a CO2 system. I figure the canister will be able to withstand the pressure of any build up and if a check valve does have a problem and water backfills into the canister, it shouldn't go very far if the connection is sealed well.

I was thinking of tieing the co2 system into the output of the other canister but the more I think about it, I think the co2 would back fill with the water from the other canister.

 

[Chrismac]

AS for C02 there are many options, I use the hagen C02 kit and it works really well. I've read on other sites you can build a C02 system with a 2 litre Coke bottle, lol and works well the same, but I went with the hagen kit its really easy and cost efficient at the same time.

You can use Peat in your filter as everyone know peat is a great plant fertilizer, you can but peat at the LFS in different forms, I use it in my filter and I buy the peat pellets made by hagen (Fluval) but i use it in an aqua-clear filter with the little sacs you buy to fill with media.

Chris.

 

[mitche8359]

Ah I forgot that I read to add peat if you have a planted tank. I have a fluval and I know they have peat media for their canisters. I also read some articles that peat turned the water brown. Have you ran into that situation? I'll have to research the peat a little more.

Tom

 

[targaboy78]

Hi mitche8359,

Some things for you to think about...
What types of fish are you going to keep
What water parameters do they require
What are the water parameters "right out of your tap"

Peat will soften your water and lower your pH. CO2 will also lower your pH.
HOWEVER: This may be beneficial (depending on your livestock's requirements).

My water out of the tap is pH: 7.0, GH: 20 and KH: 20 (very "vanilla" neutral / soft). Peat lowers my pH below the range that my fish prefer, so I tried adding crushed coral to raise the pH, the experiment worked, but then my pH swung to the high side, then it became too much work to try and stabilize it. I decided that I go without "additives" and everything has settled down.

Just my experience.