First time planted tank. 30 gal hex. Advice?

[SandyNaGig]

So we have never tried a planted tank and the only other tanks we have are little 5 gal and 10 gal beta tanks.

That said, here are our plans. Any advice is welcome. We have a 30 gal hex acrylic tank. We are thinking of maybe doing a large piece of drift wood going up the center. We will have some Amazon swords and a few other plants. The fish will be a black moor and an oranda.

We have a penguin bio-wheel and a 14 W florescent light. We got all of this used from craigslist, so I don't know the flow rate or anything.

Do we need to get something like eco-complete or can we just use pea gravel and those little tablets?



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[Mifsud]

My advice would be to get the substrate right. Changing your substrate scheme later on can be challenging.

Gravel is fine, just be sure that the average particle size is 3mm or less (granular) and the total depth is no less than 8 cm. Always rinse gravel before adding it. Pea sized gravel is too large for proper rooting.

I use EcoComplete. It is a great product, but by no means necessary.

Some people recommend layering dirt, gravel, and sand. I would caution you against this because it makes cleaning the substrate very difficult.