I want to plant a mature established tank

[Cherry Barb]

Okay, I've been in the fish hobby for over a year now and I have an established 20gal that I would like to plant. I have read alot of the threads and have visited Rex's site as well. I think I understand most of what I have read. Now here's the questions that remain:

1. I have not seen any threads (or I may have overlooked) that tell if there will be any major water changes after I start planting. Will there be any changes that I need to watch for that will be harmful to my fish? My water is very stable with good middle of the road parameters on ph and such. Will this change?

2. When I start planting, I want to create neat little "flower bed" effects in my tank. (I say flower beds for lack of a better descriptive term.) Do I need to change my entire substrate or can I do something that will create these little pockets of beauty that I am aiming for?

I hope I made sense, and I appreciate all advice.

Rose

 

[medge00]

you can put good plant substrate in clay pots and put those in your tank either on top of the gravel you already have or in a little hole you dig...

as far as adding plants, I'd add them slowly, say a few every few weeks... plants usually don't disturb things a ton, but its possible.

make sure your lighting and other plant needs are in place before you plant. if you have low lighting, stick to low light plants. if you're going to do co2 and don't already have it in place, remember that a quick drop in ph will really stress your fish out. which is not to say it can't be done, it just needs to be done very slowly....

 

[Cherry Barb]

Hey I like the clay pot idea! And, I'm getting some free plants from Lam. I will just keep in them in a non-fish tank until I can plant them all in mine. Oh, I'm so excited! I'll be at my lfs tomorrow for my finishing touches!

BTW, I will need to buy the clay pots, but do I need to treat them or seal them or something before use?

Thanks!

Rose

 

[medge00]

no need to seal or treat. you should just be able to use terra cotta pots that are standard at any garden dept. they shouldn't really affect ph.

 

[vega]

Make sure the lighting is >2 wpg. If you intend to use CO2 then increase your dKH to >3-4, and you might need to change the HOB/Bio-wheel to other filter.

HTH

 

[Robert H]

What can plants disturb or change? They only thing they do is consume ammonium and nitrate, so if you have enough light to keep the plants growing and add C02, the only difference in water conditions you may see is 0 nitrate levels, and you may actually have to add nitrate to feed the plants.

The "plant" substrates most people use are made of clay gravel. Clay provides iron and sometimes other minerals, but is also able to draw nutrients from the water and hold them for the plants, (over time). Some people add a little soil to the bottom of the tank, but you have to be real carefull not to unearth it into the water when moving plants around.

You can use just regular gravel and use pots to avoid having to change out your substrate, but you can also just buy some fertilizer tablets to push down into the gravel next to the plants. If you use pots, you can put anything you want in the pots to fertilize the plants as long as you are carefull it will not escape from the pot. Seachem Flourish tabs are great substrate fertilizers for minerals, and Aquatabs will provide nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, the three major nutrients plants need.

BTW, common Plecos can shread plants

Best regards

Robert Hudson
www.aquabotanic.com

 

[vega]

Yup, Pleco is bane for most planted tank mainly because they will move clumsily around the tank and uproot the plant.

 

[malkore]

I see no reason to hold off planting everything at once. Plants aren't going to create any bad water...they can only improve it. The only risk at all would be that you disturb the substrate so much that a lot of detris gets stirred up. HOwever since this has been fish only for a year, your weekly deep gravel vacuuming should minimize that risk.

 

[shogsten]

I just did this, I converted a well established tank (5 years) over to a planted tank. This included swapping out the substrate and removing my UGF filter plates. It was a lot of work but the tank only had a small cycle after I was done. The biggest problem was with the Flourite substrate. Despite major rinsing it still seriously clouded the tank. I am stilling pulling some of the silt out of the tank from the Flourite.

Scott Hogsten

 

[medge00]

my main concern was stirring up all the substrate, or putting something in that would make everything all cloudy at once. if y'all think its better the other way, plant away!

 

[Cherry Barb]

I didn't know that about Pl*cs, I will keep that in mind. I haven't heard about the filter possibly needing to change. I'll check on that. One more question though. After I put down this fluorite for the plants, do I need to perform my water changes/tank cleanings any differently? Right now, I do weekly vacuumings. What do I need to know about vacuumings after I plant the tank?

Thanks a bunch!

Rose