Critique my planned low -tech setup please

[illumnae]

Hi all,

I'm quite the newbie to planted tanks and so would like to run my planned setup by you guys before actually going ahead with it and meeting with abject failure.

Tank: 1 ft cube
Lighting: 18W PL (~2.5 WPG)
Substrate: ADA Aquasoil Africana (for low ph)
CO2: None, if need be i can dose those bottled kind (is it called Seachem Excel?)
Fertilization: Preferably none, but I can put in root tabs if need be
Filtration: Either Eden 501 (300li/hr) or Atman HOB (600li/hr)
Hardscape: 1 pc of bogwood so far, may put in lava rocks to tie moss on and some form of cave (possibly a chinese teacup)
Planned Fauna: 2x Apisto (1 pair), 4x Golden Pencilfish, Either 1x albino bristlenose or 2x oto

I intend for this to be a lightly planted tank due to the primary purpose of keeping a pair of apistos, and I'd like to actually be able to see my fish majority of the time

I'm thinking of tying some form of fern or anubias onto the driftwood (probably anubias nana as I don't really like the look of java ferns and don't know of any other type of ferns), a small section of spiky moss floor in the foreground and some moss tied to lava rocks as mentioned above.

I'm also looking for a nice background plant that won't require much trimming or maintenance. I was thinking of crypts but after reading up some threads in the Plants section of the forum I'm having second thoughts - my newbieness to plants will probably give me nothing but permanently melted plants. So now I'm looking into either vallis nana or cabomba. Any other suggestions as to what i should do?

Thanks for reading and taking the time to critique!

[valice]

Reduce your lighting to 13W. 18W abit too high. Especially so you are keeping lightly planted.
Also if you are doing Excel, you have to keep to the dosage and do it regularly. Else BBA will SURELY appear on your DW and glass.

Also, be prepared for melting of Vallisneria nana in the beginning as well. They need an acclimatisation phase.

Just go for crypts. One way to circumvent the melt is to float the plants for a period of 1 week or so.

[illumnae]

I can't seem to find 13W lights for a 1ft tank unfortunately =( I can just find 9W (which seems too low) and 18W. So between crypts and vallisneria nana you'd recommend crypts? I'd like something slow growing that won't require me trimming

Would I be able to get by without any form of CO2 (even without Excel) or fertilization at all? That would be my ideal =)

[bryan]

You don't need to inject CO2 for crypts,however they do appreciate somesort of root fertilizer. For a 1FT tank, the Java ferns are too big anyway. I 'd sugggest needle leaf ferns, dwarf nana,moss and Bolbitis if you want low maintainence plants

[illumnae]

Bolbitis is a good idea, I was just thinking of it last night, but unsure if it can be easily found in Singapore (Would C328 or Polyart carry it?). However, those plants you mentioned are all stuff to attach to my lava rocks or bogwood. I'd still like a rooted background plant that's slow growing and low maintenance. Root tabs shouldn't be a problem I think as it's just a one time insertion of the tab every few months.

[illumnae]

I've gotten the 13W PL light as recommended by valice =) now just to get the driftwood/nanas and moss/stones in and to decide on the background plant (which i might just end up omitting) and i'm all set!

[illumnae]

i ended up getting crinium as a background and am gonna get e. tenellus as foreground =) slow growing foreground as it's low tech

[ranmasatome]

Crinium??? which species?? If you're only using a 1ft cube.. its NOT that the plant can't grow.. but scaping-wise.. plants like Bolbitis and Crinium will be too big for the setup. Also when you find that out for yourself.. you're going to have a heck of a time uprooting that Crinium.. surely hiroshima one...unless you're super careful...even then still will be a bit.

[illumnae]

i don't really know what species of crinium it is =\ got it from Polyart and was advised that it would be ok as my tank is very low tech so it'd grow too slowly for it to matter...the guy there just recommended i snip away the long leaves as they grow too long.

[ranmasatome]

haha.. these shop people, will tell you anything to sell ....guess snipping the long leaves does work but its leaves are so huge anyway.

[illumnae]

haha he advised me against getting a number of others...mainly e. ozelot and e. oriental etc...but he said this one was ok lol...the leaves aren't that big per se at the moment, they're about 2/3-1ft in length and about 1 inch wide with varegated leaves...looked pretty and he said it was suitable so i figured why not =)