Planted Aquarium HELP??

[MikeLani456]

I am new to the fish tank world and am intersted in starting a planted tsank.
Do you need a cycled tank and or fish in your tank to grow plant or can you use tap water and lighting to grow your plants???
Thank for the help guys

 

[Coursair]

You can add plants to a new uncycled tank...they can sometimes reduce your cycling time.

But, if you aren't using AquaSoil or substrate with ferts in them, just add some ferts for the plants.

What size tank ?
What lights are you going to use ?

For easy beginner low light plants
Look at
Java Ferns
Anubias
Crypts

The Crypts need root tabs once a month or so. You can get DIY ones cheap from members here or on EBay.

Look for Osmocote Plus root tabs. I got 50 for $8 shipped.

You can get Thrive liquid all in one from Nilocg for about $14. Should last you months depending on tank size.

The Thrive feeds the plants via the water, the root tabs are for heavy root feeders like Swords or Crypts.

My beginner 10g cheap tank

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Thrills22]

Hi Mike

If you're going to keep fish I'd highly recommend doing a fishless cycle to build a colony of bacteria that will consume your fish's waste. If not, you could run into problems quite quickly.

Alternatively you could plant really densely and have only a few fish. Using the plants to offset the waste produced. But from what I understand the latter is requires a fine balance. Hopefully someone with more experience can explain that balance should you choose to go that route.

 

[MikeLani456]

Thank guys for the help