Aquascaping, Introductions & Nitrogen Cycle

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PrettyFishies

Aquarium Advice Addict
Joined
Mar 7, 2003
Messages
1,689
Location
Durham, NC
I'm going to setup a 29Gal tank shortly. What I'd like some help on is how to pick plants, arrange and how to deal with introduction.

I would assume that I can't add plants until the cycle is complete?

What plant species should I consider starting with to attain a moderate to heavily planted tank setup? (with driftwood & rocks)

How long do I need to wait to add more plants (and stock fish)?


Setup Assumption:

29gal
130W 8700k PC setup
Hagen Natural Plant System x 2
Flourite plus additives (iron, excel, tabs)
Plant weights and anchors?
Pinpoint PH Monitor - have from SW and don't use anymore
150W Pro Heat heater
8-10 Neon tetras
6 Tetras (Bleeding Hearts maybe)
1 Snowball or Golden Nugget Pleco
2 Cory Cats
2 Dwarf Gouramis
8 Ghost shrimp
1 Golden Veil Angel

Should I get a canister or an Emperor 280?
 
I'm no plant expert despite having 3 planted tanks; hopefully our plant gurus will pop in. In the meantime I do have at least a little info to get your started:

No need to wait for a cycled tank. Plants use nitrogenous waste as fertilizer; most mature planted tanks have much lower levels of nitrates for example, cause the plants suck em up.

If you haven't read Rex Griggs site on planted tanks and his article thats at the top of this forum, do go check them out.

Tropica is a great site to look up info on the plants you think you want: http://192.38.244.204/go.asp?plant=045a
 
as far as arrangements go...it's art, so whatever looks good to you is perfect. there are some basic guidelines like groupings and leaf structure, creation of depth, golden mean, etc.... again, design is art, so this is my perspective: when first starting up, don't go for twenty different species of plants. it will look a little too wild, jumbled, unkempt, no focus..you get the idea. start with a few species of fast stem plants (water milfoil or hygrophila difformis, among others) and try to keep things simple and orderly. also really plan ahead on your foreground and where and what you want your focus points to be. you'd be amazed how beautiful a simple -well planned- design of glosso, anubias, java fern, and an accent plant can look. toss in a nice piece of driftwood covered with moss and i would be perfectly happy. ymmv

the best way to go about it is to simply examine what other people have done. pick out what you like and make a note of it. pick out what you dislike and make note of it. for example, one tank i saw made wonderful usage of pennywort and micranthemoides, so i made a note to do something similar. likewise, i've made a note to never use crypts. i suggest checking out the AGA contests for ideas. the tanks that are entered are some of the finest tanks on the net, and there is usually about 5 pictures and planning plots of each. a lot of the inspiration for my tank plans have come from the AGA contest and Takashi Amano tanks. luck!
 
As has been pointed out cycling a planted tank is totally different than cycling a fish tank. No need to cycle one actually.
 
I'll triple the comment that you don't need to traditionally cycle a planted tank. you have plenty of light and CO2...just plant some fast growing stems, like hygro, cabomba, and later on you can remove them if you like, when everything's growing nicely. Plants will soak up ammonia from the fish.

however, I would still slowly stock the tank. start off with 4-6 fish, let that go for 2 weeks, then add some more.
 
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