Starting at 10 G Planted

[e.mmareese]

I have a 10 gallon that currently has 3 danios and a red eye tetra in it and i've grown bored of of, so I'm wanting to try my first planted tank! I'm planning on doing a betta in it for sure and I may put some shrimp in it as well. I'm just wanting some easy beginner plants, nothing too hard to handle.

So My questions are:

What substrate should I use in it?

What Lighting would be best?

What plants do you recommend?

And anything else that would be helpful?

 

[nirbhao]

First, this is your tank. You have many, many options. Consider looking at something like Pinterest to get an idea of what you want your tank to look like.

As for your questions, I'll tell you what I have going on.

1. I have eco complete in one tank and pool filter sand in the other. The pool filter sand holds the plants better than the eco complete, but it gets anaerobic pockets. The plants in the eco complete are very happy.
2. I have a current satellite led+ that I'm very happy with. 10 gallons is shallow enough that you could do mid light plants. Regardless, I'd recommend LED.
3. I have some fast and some show growing plants. The former are good for instant gratification but take a lot of work. The latter are slow, obviously, but can be very beautiful. My favorite plants are pancuraji moss and ozelot swords.
4. Read the Barr Report. Consider CO2. Get stainless planting tweezers and curved scissors. Figure out your budget, because this is an easy one to spend a lot of money on.

 

[e.mmareese]

First, this is your tank. You have many, many options. Consider looking at something like Pinterest to get an idea of what you want your tank to look like.

As for your questions, I'll tell you what I have going on.

1. I have eco complete in one tank and pool filter sand in the other. The pool filter sand holds the plants better than the eco complete, but it gets anaerobic pockets. The plants in the eco complete are very happy.
2. I have a current satellite led+ that I'm very happy with. 10 gallons is shallow enough that you could do mid light plants. Regardless, I'd recommend LED.
3. I have some fast and some show growing plants. The former are good for instant gratification but take a lot of work. The latter are slow, obviously, but can be very beautiful. My favorite plants are pancuraji moss and ozelot swords.
4. Read the Barr Report. Consider CO2. Get stainless planting tweezers and curved scissors. Figure out your budget, because this is an easy one to spend a lot of money on.

Okay thanks for that, a lot of information[emoji23] I found a planted one on here that I liked the looks of, what plans are in it? And are they low light or medium light or high lights?

 

[nirbhao]

Ask the person who posted the picture! ?

 

[Nils]

With a 10 gallon you have a lot of different options, like Nirbhao said.
In mine, I use potting soil with regular black sand over it. Plants love it. I run Co2, and you can find cheap regulators on Ebay or other websites, I recommend Aquatek for very high quality regulators though.
I use a Finnex 20" 24/7. It's an awesome light and has a bunch of different modes, IMO a great plant light.
Do enough research, find plants you like and go for it!

 

[Bert2oo1]

I'd recommend a nutrient rich substrate like ADA or Tropica soil. Eco complete is pretty good too.

I can't reccommend lighting as I don't know much about nano lights but I'd suggest getting dimmable LED's (then you can have low-high lighting as you need it)

Good beginner plants are: Amazon swords, anubias, Java ferns of all types, anubias of all types, mosses of most types. If you get into the mid light u can probs get hair grass and dwarf sag aswell.

I highly recommend co2 to anyone venturing into planted tanks. So if you can afford it, get it!
A lot of people use paintball regulators and tanks for smaller tanks like yours. Should be able to get set up for $80-120 US.
Refills are cheap and tanks last a long time.

 

[e.mmareese]

I'd recommend a nutrient rich substrate like ADA or Tropica soil. Eco complete is pretty good too.

I can't reccommend lighting as I don't know much about nano lights but I'd suggest getting dimmable LED's (then you can have low-high lighting as you need it)

Good beginner plants are: Amazon swords, anubias, Java ferns of all types, anubias of all types, mosses of most types. If you get into the mid light u can probs get hair grass and dwarf sag aswell.

I highly recommend co2 to anyone venturing into planted tanks. So if you can afford it, get it!
A lot of people use paintball regulators and tanks for smaller tanks like yours. Should be able to get set up for $80-120 US.
Refills are cheap and tanks last a long time.

I'll look into all that, thanks for the reply!

 

[e.mmareese]

With a 10 gallon you have a lot of different options, like Nirbhao said.
In mine, I use potting soil with regular black sand over it. Plants love it. I run Co2, and you can find cheap regulators on Ebay or other websites, I recommend Aquatek for very high quality regulators though.
I use a Finnex 20" 24/7. It's an awesome light and has a bunch of different modes, IMO a great plant light.
Do enough research, find plants you like and go for it!

I'll definitely keep that in mind, thanks!