overwhelmed a bit with starting planted tank

[T-Rexx]

Hoping for some help! I'm thinking of starting a planted tank. Starting off small. My 10 gallon betta tank. Where do I even begin?! I have been trying to do research online but it's way over whelming. I was trying to start off with lighting. i hear you cant have too high intensity light per light per gallons of water or something??? what light do i get? and if you remove plants it can cause a huge algea issue? so do I put in all the plants at once? aaand how can I find out what plants arent going to get too big for my tank??

I want to start one super bad but im just so lost! Help!

 

[jetajockey]

I'd start with some really basic low light pants that are not demanding at all. Java moss, java fern, and anubias are all extremely low demand plants.

One of the issues with high intensity lighting is algae, less light usually means less algae, so the simpler you keep it the easier it will be to maintain.

If this is a basic 10 gallon tank with a screw-in incandescent hood, you can get away with a couple of spiral CFL bulbs, just be sure to get some that are not too wide because the large ones don't fit into a stock housing very well. When choosing a CFL bulb, or any other bulb for that matter, get something that is labeled as daylight, the K rating should be somewhere around 6000-7000k.

If you manage to set up a tank with CFLs like this then your options will open up as to what you can grow, you can move to some other low demand plants like hornwort, cabomba, anacharis, wisteria, etc. I'd just get a few things and see how they do at that point, honestly.

 

[BigJim]

+1 for starting with anubias, java ferns, and java moss. The moss tends to get everywhere eventually. Anubias and java ferns don't grow very quickly, especially in low-light environments. You'd have plenty of time to find a buyer if they start outgrowing your tank.

+1 for the CFLs also. They're cheap and effective.

 

[gabysapha]

Hoping for some help! I'm thinking of starting a planted tank. Starting off small. My 10 gallon betta tank. Where do I even begin?! I have been trying to do research online but it's way over whelming. I was trying to start off with lighting. i hear you cant have too high intensity light per light per gallons of water or something??? what light do i get? and if you remove plants it can cause a huge algea issue? so do I put in all the plants at once? aaand how can I find out what plants arent going to get too big for my tank??

I want to start one super bad but im just so lost! Help!

I'm with you! i just started planted tanks this fall and I still skim the planted forums for advice. I don't understand lighting, but I do know that the lights that came with my tank hoods are sufficient for beginner low light plants. I haven't got a speck of algae in any of my 4 tanks.
I use a lot of wisteria, anacharis, and hornwort in my tanks. I think those plants suck up so many nutrients that algae can't really get established. I highly recommend hornwort for a beginner plant. It fills in nicely and is really cheap! My petsmart sells it.
My cabomba gets very leggy in my tanks, so i think they look best in higher light and taller tanks. In high light they get nice and compact. In low light they stretch out and don't look as nice.
Vals are also good and cheap. They get tall but you can cut off the ends of the leaves without a problem. They will just keep growing.

If plants grow too tall, you can prune them and replant the trimmings, or leave them freefloating until they root. i would only worry about certain anubias species and amazon swords outgrowing your tank. Everything else is very easy to maintain! Chain stores usually sell a lot of low light plants to get you started. And don't forget the short, super hardy plants like java fern and java moss. Java moss gets all over the place but fish really seem to enjoy it. And nobody eats it!

 

[T-Rexx]

OH MY GOODNESS!!!!! WOW!!!! I'm super sorry I never responded to any of your responses!!!!! I feel terrible! I looked in my archive because I knew I started a thread about a 10 gallon planted tank a while back. But I don't know what happened & why I never came back to the post! Thank you all so much for the input! Its very helpful!! & I really appreciate it!

 

[themox]

how are you going with your tank?

i'm fairly new myself and still get confused. there's a LOT of information but it's just about grabbing some basics and really learning as you go, i've found. you'll be surprised how much you can learn just by getting in there and doing it.

there are some great guides here that you can find, and the sticky's at the top of many topics are great starting points. post back with any questions you have and i'm sure you'll get many more responses.

good luck and have a lot of fun with it

 

[T-Rexx]

I actually didnt start it when I originally posted this! I wanted to plant my split betta tank. & my hopes went out the window when I read the plants needed to be in good filtration/circulation. (only one side of y tank got the filtration at a time) But im still dying to start a planted tank, so I decided to just buy 2 filters! one for each side! Lol! ^_^ So now that I solved that, i starting to do a BUNCH of research all over again! Im planning on buying substrate tomorrow! Thinking either flourite or sand

 

[Coursair]

I actually didnt start it when I originally posted this! I wanted to plant my split betta tank. & my hopes went out the window when I read the plants needed to be in good filtration/circulation. (only one side of y tank got the filtration at a time) But im still dying to start a planted tank, so I decided to just buy 2 filters! one for each side! Lol! ^_^ So now that I solved that, i starting to do a BUNCH of research all over again! Im planning on buying substrate tomorrow! Thinking either flourite or sand

Flourite or sand will work. I have Black Flourite Sand topped with Tahitian Moon Sand.

I used two Marineland bulbs http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0002DIFIO from Petsmart. U shaped mini CFLs will screw right in. Don't go too high on the wattage. I have 20 watts total on my 10g tank.

If I didn't show you before, this is my 10g

If you use sand add root tabs if you'd like to try Crypts. I love mine. Crypts do great in low light and grow slow. C wendtii are common.