Starting First Planted w/65G, Please Advise

[AtariST]

The Mrs. gave me a new Aqueon 65G aquarium for Christmas and I would like to try my hand with live plants. My goal is to have an inexpensive, low maintenance, low light planed tank with tropical fish.

My first concern is algae. My house has tons of natural light all day and I've noticed my old tank suffering greatly with algae everywhere (glass, rocks, everything).

First question: Will a live planted tank just make this worse and is there anything apart from getting widow coverings that I can do?

Second question: Thoughts on planned equipment?

Planned Equipment:
Aqueon 65G (36"LX18W"X24"H)
Aqueon 200W Heater
Eco Complete Substrate
Marineland Biowheel 350B
Lighting: Either Finnex Ray 2, Trulumen Pro LED or Marineland Reef LED
I really like the timer features and distinct blue of the marineland but I'm not seeing the love in these forums.

Plants:
Cryptocoryne, Wendtii, Green (Cryptocoryne wendtii)
Java Fern
Dwarf Sag
Possibly Amazon Sword and I saw some plants at the LFS that might fit the bill. I cannot remember the name but they looked like 12" long blades of St. Augustine grass with two shades of green. Guy said they would be good for low light setups.


Fish:
Maybe Black Mollys, Zebra Danios, Mystery Snails but I'm really not sure what else just yet. I may go semi aggressive instead, I just haven't decided.

Any help before pulling the trigger on some of these items would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

 

[DanTheGuppyMan]

Well, you should place the tank as far away from any window, and paint the side against a window black if you have to. A planted tank actually can help control algae, and if you run CO2 that will be even better. Once your tank is balanced tho you should not have algae. Do you plan to run CO2? For low light plants you won't need it. About the lights- You want a low light tank, and the lighting choices you have are not really low. I would maybe suggest a 2 bulb fixture or the Finnex FugeRay. For my 60g planted, which you can check it out- the link is in my sig- might have a few things helpful to you- I run a 48" double T5HO fixture with 2 54watt T5HO bulbs plus 2 48" Truelumen Pro Series 8,000K 30 watt LED strips. The LED strips alone are pretty high light, so...if you like the blue by all means get it, but I am not a fan. I actually have all the plants you want plus a lot more, again the link is in my sig. Not sure about that other plant is. If you want a few good inverts that will help control algae I highly recommend Amano shrimp and nerite snails. I put 50 Amano shrimp and 22 nerite snails In my 60 gallon and since I put them in the water is crystal and no algae. Everything else seems fine!

 

[Oceangirl]

You'll want to avoid anything with actinic hued light because its an algae dream. Mollies will eat EVERY PLANT IN SIGHT. I had 2 small mollies eat 20 dollars in plants in 3 days. Reef lights are for reef dear. Some LEDS are made for planted aquariums some are not. I suggest you go with T5's dual, Like a Aqueon Hood. Then you can customize it with bulbs. Are you going to do CO2? I don't but I add excel, What types of liquid ferts will you be using? Try using a little Excel and planting heavy right from the get go. Excel will help keep the algae at bay giving the plants a chance to establish.

 

[DanTheGuppyMan]

+1 to oceangirl- I forgot to mention about the ferts. You want a good root tab system plus either a liquid fert or dry fert. I use AquariumPlants root tabs TOTAL, PHOSPHATE, and IRON. I also dose PPS-Pro and Excel one in awhile along with my pressurized CO2 system. I should also mention liquid ferts are also algae heaven like the actinic lighting.

 

[Oceangirl]

I would add Anacharis and Wisteria, water sprite even if not in the plan because they are fast growing and will help the plants take over and not the algae.

 

[Rivercats]

You need a lighting system with bulbs that are in the red and blue peak color ranges. I know little about LED's but I would suggest looking into T5HO lighting. Crypts and Swords are heavy root feeders and will benefit from root tabs. Since you want to go with a lower or maybe even medium light tank with the plants you have listed you will only need a good all around liquid fert such as Seachems Flourish Comprehensive. As time goes on and you get more plants you can look into dosing dry ferts. Also when first setting up a new tank using fast growing plants that absorb alot of nutrients will help keep algae in check. Also only run your lights from 6 to 8 hours, this also helps with algae control. I get alot of actual sunlight in my tank but have enough plants that I have no algae problems at all. Remember plants are your tanks best friend and the more you have the more nutrients they use and can then out compete algae. Plants that are good to use in the beginning are wisteria, water sprite, and fast growing stem plants. Also even low light plants can benefit from using a liquid carbon such as Excel/API CO2 Booster/Glutaraldehyde (Glut being the cheapest option). Medium light tanks benefit from CO2 or liquid carbon especially when you get alot of plants. I run a 220g high light heavily planted tank using only liquid carbon. You can view my tank at the link on the bottom of the post.

 

[AtariST]

I would add Anacharis and Wisteria, water sprite even if not in the plan because they are fast growing and will help the plants take over and not the algae.

Thanks for all of the input. How would you modify your plant list if I said no CO2?

 

[librarygirl]

For a tank of that size you may want to look into a canister instead of the Pengin (or in addition to. My very first tank had a Marineland biowheel filter and I did not like it; the biowheel would often not turn correctly and it takes a limited type of filter cartridge). If you'd rather use a HOB filer I'd go with an Aquaclear 110.

Be careful of some plants that fish stores sell; some aren't truly aquatic and they'll eventually rot if submerged for a long time. Mondo grass is one but there are many others.

You can certainly do a low-medium light planted tank. I have mostly mosses, java ferns, swords, crypts, guppy grass and vallisneria with not a lot of light and I dose ferts 1-2x a week and don't run Co2. Do a Google search for "low light aquarium plants" for a good list.

 

[Rivercats]

You wouldn't have to modify the plant list if you didn't use CO2. If you don't use CO2 using a liquid carbon will help with plant growth alot!

 

[Oceangirl]

co2 is like excel because it adds additional carbon for plants. I think This is correct. So use Excel and you'll be right as rain. Don't say excel is liquid Co2 though, its not, and it annoys one of our senior members that I happen to like.

 

[fishman793]

The Mrs. gave me a new Aqueon 65G aquarium for Christmas and I would like to try my hand with live plants. My goal is to have an inexpensive, low maintenance, low light planed tank with tropical fish.

My first concern is algae. My house has tons of natural light all day and I've noticed my old tank suffering greatly with algae everywhere (glass, rocks, everything).

First question: Will a live planted tank just make this worse and is there anything apart from getting widow coverings that I can do?

Second question: Thoughts on planned equipment?

Planned Equipment:
Aqueon 65G (36"LX18W"X24"H)
Aqueon 200W Heater
Eco Complete Substrate
Marineland Biowheel 350B
Lighting: Either Finnex Ray 2, Trulumen Pro LED or Marineland Reef LED
I really like the timer features and distinct blue of the marineland but I'm not seeing the love in these forums.

Plants:
Cryptocoryne, Wendtii, Green (Cryptocoryne wendtii)
Java Fern
Dwarf Sag
Possibly Amazon Sword and I saw some plants at the LFS that might fit the bill. I cannot remember the name but they looked like 12" long blades of St. Augustine grass with two shades of green. Guy said they would be good for low light setups.

Fish:
Maybe Black Mollys, Zebra Danios, Mystery Snails but I'm really not sure what else just yet. I may go semi aggressive instead, I just haven't decided.

Any help before pulling the trigger on some of these items would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

For semi-aggressive fish you could get kribensis or angel fish. I have both along with a German blue ram. You could also try some apistogramma.The rams are a step up though.

For lighting I have 1 Zoo Med flora sun and 1 Zoo Med ultra sun.

Crypts are very good low light plants.

For substrate I would do some organic soil capped with eco-complete.

For the natural sunlight issue I would put a background on you tank and like previously stated cover the side of the tank most exposed.