New to Planted

[Bubbleback_ek9_]

I have this 10g tank in the basement. Things that i am planning on getting this coming weekend is a heater and a filter. I have 30 watts of lighting over the tank at the moment. All i want is a foreground plant and a really nice plant in the middle or just some driftwood as my center piece so need advice on that to.

QUESTIONS???

1. I want good soil for the plants, which would be best ?
2. In my lfs they have this foreground plant called hair grass how many bushes would i need to fill the whole 10 gallon ?
!!!! I don't want to do any co2 but i do plan on giving the plants nutrients weekly. !!!!
3. Should i go with a plant or driftwood as a center piece ?

[Purrbox]

With 30 watts over a 10 gallon you've probably got somewhere between medium low and medium light depending on the type of bulb(s) you are using. For this amount of light I'd recommend sticking to marsilea sp. for a foreground plant, unless you are dosing Excel in which case HC might work too. Most of the rest of the foreground plants will get leggy with your current lighting.

As far as substrate there are many excellant options. If you are looking for something inexpensive then pool filter sand or Turface are great options (although you'll have a lot leftover). For an aquarium specific substrate, you could go with Flourite (rinse it a lot, and when you think you're done rinse it some more), Eco-Complete, AquaSoil. There are a few others that I can't think of the name of at the moment that I'm sure others will suggest.

Hairgrass is going to be an iffy choice for your aquarium. You could certainly give it a try, but it may just end up being an algae magnet. It can be difficult to grow even in better lit aquariums. Also depending on the specific variety of hairgrass, it may get a lot taller than you expect. Eleocharis Acicularis is a variety sold as Dwarf Hairgrass but can easily grow 6-8", which is a bit tall for the foreground of a 10 gallon. The variety that you would want is Eleocharis parvula, which only grows 1-2" tall.

I'd say go with driftwood if you can find a good peice, but then again I'm partial to driftwood and have some in all of my aquariums.

Oh, and Welcome to AA!!

[pitt420dude]

1. With soil, I sort of view it as two broad categories: (1) Expensive aquatic plant soil, (2) Inexpensive "other" soil that will work just fine for aquatic plants. So some things you really need to think about are color, grain sized (gravel or sand, or likely somewhere in between), and price. I have Soilmaster Select in charcoal color. It is very similar to Turface soil. It is available at Welcome to LESCO.com and costs around 10-15 bucks for 50 pounds. For more expensive soil, about 25 for 20 lbs, is Ecocomplete, or flourite. With any soil you may want to aslo buy Seachem Flourish root tabs.

2. Cool, I like hairgrass. I'd say four or five plants would give you a nice "row" that should fill in nicely. Sort of like a hedgerow of hairgrass would look neat.

Seachem Flourish is a good quality but expensive fert. You could just use it for CO2 and buy dry ferts online or at a hydroponics store.

3. Driftwood! JMO though.

[neilanh]

Welcome to AA! I second everything Purr said. I highly recommend aquasoil. It's pricey, but for a small tank it won't be that bad.

[Bubbleback_ek9_]

1. Were can i find turface ?
2. My lfs only carries bamboo shrimp and i would like some so i would have to buy some bamboo plants as well to accommodate... are bamboo shrimp good ?
3. What kind of fish can i keep in there ?

****Thanks for the help so far****

[rich311k]

1. You need to find a distributor in your area. I used to have a link but I can't find it on this machine. I am sure Joy will be along to give it to you.

2. They look like bamboo they do not need bamboo to be happy. They are filter feeders, I don't know much about them. They get to a decent size.

3. Bettas, small tetras, dwarf puffers, killiefish , dwarf gourami.

[neilanh]

Turface you can get from your local Welcome to LESCO.com

[rich311k]

I stand corrected Neilan will be along.

[neilanh]

I do what I can

[Purrbox]

If you don't happen to have a Lesco in your area then you can visit the manufacturer website to find out the stores that carry it in your area.

Bamboo Shrimp are great, but can be kind of tricky to keep. You need to ensure that your aquarium has really good flow so that they can eat. They filter the water for small food particles. Depending on how much food is naturally in the water column, you may have to supplement by dropping some finely ground up food in the out flow of your filter. If you see them picking at the the gravel to feed, they they are having problems. It requires a lot more energy for them to forage for food in the gravel, so it is a sign you need to up the flow or supplement feedings more. They completely peaceful, so you just have to make sure you don't put them in with anything that will pick on them.