Where to start?

[Haileyjade]

I have been thinking about converting to a planted tank for a few weeks, but I find the research I have done to be a little overwhelming.

Currently, I have a 10 gallon aquarium with an LED hood, gravel substrate, and a Whisper 20 filter. I keep the tank at a steady 78.

I have been wanting to convert to a sand substrate (found a great how to on this forum...so happy I found this place!). Come spring this will be my project...and with it, hopefully I can swap out my silk plants for life ones.

In my tank, I currently have:

4 albino cory cats
1 male crowntail betta
1 female guppy
1 ivory snail
1 African dwarf frog
3 ghost shrimp

I know my take is pushing the limits, and want to provide my buddies with the best environment possible. I know plants are so beneficial....but my question is, where do I even begin? What kind of plants are forgiving of newbie keepers? Will I need a new hood? How does adding Co2 work?

If someone could give me a brief how to manual on this whole thing, I would be so appreciative.

 

[Sk3lly]

Depends what level lighting your LEDs give off. Try finding PAR values for it off the manufacturer. Then you can determine wether you have high, medium or low light levels. This will affect how effectively you'll be able to grow certain plants. If you go low light plants such as anubias or java fern you prob wont need much in the way of ferts or co2. If you decide that your lighting is high level and fancy trying harder to grow plants such as the red, pink or purple leaved plants; or even low growing carpeting plants like dwarf hair grass, then your going to have to dose a range of ferts and inject a co2 supply. This is more advanced and costly.

If i were you, id take your gravel out, use a special plant substrate and cap it with your sand. Plant in some easy going low light plants. Then buy some root tabs to push into the sand to help your heavy root feeding plants. Also to save the cost of a pressurised co2 setup, you could buy seachem excel which is a liquid carbon

Hope this kind of helps and hasnt confused you.

Feel free to ask questions, lots of people happy to offer advice

 

[wildroseofky]

If you want to keep the gravel check on plants that can be tied to decor or wood. I would suggest some type of java fern to start. There are many different ones. Anubias are also good. I have tied these plants to different types of wood and even seashells. If you use low light plants you do not need CO2. Just get a general purpose plant food like Flourish Comprehensive. Here is a link to a list of low light plants. Low Light Plant List | AquaScaping World Forum As you can see there are many. It is a lot less stressful to start with those. I made the mistake of jumping in full force with high light plants and it got really frustrating.

Another option is to put the plants in pots and bury in the gravel. You can use those little clay pots or buy the little basket pots sold on aquarium plant websites. Then you can decide if you want to change substrate. There are a lot of good post on CO2 on here. Just do a search. Ask lots of questions and you should do fine.