1st attempt at planted tank

[Phoenixphire55]

I have a 5 gallon tank that was sitting empty for a while and I've decided to try my first attempt at plants. So far the set up is as follows: 5 gallon tank with about 1 inch of fluorite clay gravel stuff, and two volcanic rocks from another tank (so they're probably full of ben.bacteria). I have it sitting in my windowsill which gets a lot of light for about half the day. I know that beneficial bacteria isn't necessary for a planted tank, but I am very un-knowledgeable in plated tanks. Do I need a filter for this tank? What else do I need (other than plants)? I wanna know everything I should do before buying the plants. I guess my only goals are to have a tank filled with plants, and probably no fish. I might add a betta or something once its nicely established but I'm not worrying about that at all yet. Lemme know what you guys think.

 

[An t-iasg]

I had two 5 gallon planted tanks with a betta for a long time. You don't necessarily need a filter, but you do need water movement. I used this filter in the 5 gallon tanks: the Duetto DJ-50. Duetto Multi-Filters

I removed the carbon insert and put in a small wad of filter floss. You could use a pump like this for water movement: the ViaAqua 180. Aquarium Water Movement: ViaAqua Water Pumps

You'll need a 25-watt heater if you put fish in later on. Beneficial bacteria are still necessary, and present, in a planted tank. The bacteria on your rocks will die off without any fish waste to feed on, though. The good thing about a planted tank in regard to the nitrogen cycle is that a heavily planted tank with fast-growing plants (not just a few crypts in a low-light tank) will consume the ammonia that the fish produce, so the fish are not harmed by high levels of ammonia while the good bacteria have a chance to catch up to the bioload.

I had this light over my 5 gallon planted tank and liked it a lot: (the 12-inch, 18-watt fixture with the dual daylight bulbs) Compact Fluorescent Aquarium Lighting: Single Satellite Compact Fluorescent Fixtures

You should start off by reading the stickies in the planted tank forum:
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f24/read-first-resources-references-83826.html

You'll get an overview of lighting, substrates, fertilization, etc. to get you off to a good start!

 

[Phoenixphire55]

Thanks for the help! 2 more quick questions. First, can I put a layer of sand over the fluorite substrate? And second, can I grow plants from natural sunlight since my tank is on a high exposure window sill?

 

[An t-iasg]

If you put a layer of sand over the fluorite, the sand will eventually sift down and you'll lose that nice layered look. There's no harm in doing that but it wouldn't really give you the look you want.

Placing a tank in an area of high sunlight is not recommended. You'll most likely get a lot of algae. If you are going to put fish in later, they won't like the temperature swings that come from the heat of the sunlight.

 

[Purrbox]

You can grow plants using natural light, but it an entirely different approach that most of the people that frequent the planted forum use. I'd recommend looking into Diana Walstad's book "Ecology of the Planted Aquarium" and looking for info on Natural Aquariums. These will give you information on the differences of approach. Keep in mind that while Diana's approach most certainly does work, the reasoning behind why it works in her book is not always accurate.

If you aren't planning on that approach, then you are probably better off avoiding natural light so that you have a controllable amount of light over the aquarium. This will help to avoid algae issues.

I tend to prefer avoiding mixing substrates. I've mixed in one aquarium and I prefer the results of the aquariums where I didn't mix. Just looks nicer in my opinion and it avoids diluting the benefit of the plant substrate.

If you don't add fish then you will need to dose all nutrients reguardless of how much light you have over the aquarium, where as in a lower light aquarium you would probably only need to dose a good trace fert and potassium.

 

[Phoenixphire55]

This first attempt at a planted tank isn't going to be as serious as my other aquariums. I basically just had the tank sitting around and thought it'd be fun to put some plants in it cuz I like growing plants in my windowsill (its not really a windowsill, its a big concrete ledge below several windows).
So, I want to think of a tank situation where I can grow plants on my windowsill despite the temperature fluctuations. I can deal with dosing nutrients. I'm assuming there is a general fertilizer in one bottle I can use?

I'll get more serious about planted tanks after I move out of my college residence in August.

 

[Purrbox]

It sounds like you'd definately be best off following the Natural Aquarium method with the way you are describing your goals and how you've set up things so far. Do a search in google and you should find more information. APC even has an entire forum dedicated to this method.