New a few tips on Planted Tanks

[ihawk]

Hi everyone,

I was recommended by blue whale to come here. Had a bad experience over my 1st setup of my tank.

Basically I overlooked quite a number of things discussed over here. As a result, I lost a whole fleet of tetras.

I am now starting to recycle my existing tank. Any help and advice on how to go about starting a 3ft planted tank would be good.

I spent a few hours here reading as much as I can but I couldn't absorb much.

So my question would be the following.

1. Before the fishes can be added, what are the steps on how to setup a planted tanks. Basically I know we need a good substrate. Gravel quality has be good from what I read from other sites. Also any other equipments needed eg thermometer, chiller etc which I am not too fimilar with. So sorry but I am kind of new to this hobby.

2. Basically for this round, I just want to gather as much info as possible with regards to the topic of substrate and gravel.

Once I get a clear understanding on this, then I would like to move on to plants but not at the moment cos I want to get the basics 1st.

Meantime I am going to spend some time reading other post.

Thank you so much for your assistance and have a good weekend.

Cheers

[Shadow]

1. Before the fishes can be added, what are the steps on how to setup a planted tanks. Basically I know we need a good substrate. Gravel quality has be good from what I read from other sites. Also any other equipments needed eg thermometer, chiller etc which I am not too fimilar with. So sorry but I am kind of new to this hobby.

For substrate, you need a rich substrate, I would recomend ADA aquasoil Amazonia.

First of all how many watt of light did you use? type of light (T5, T5HO, PL, MH, etc)? Light will determine whether you need to inject CO2, dose fertilizer, which plant species you can grown.

Chiller is optional, plant able to adapt wide range of temperature. Although moss normally like cooler water, they will grow thicker/fatter. Thermometer is good to have, your plant should be ok as long as your temperature max 28C. Use fan if it is higher. Fan can reduce about 2-3 degree but it will increase the evaporation rate.

You can visit http://www.littlegreencorner.com/tipsgeneral.html there some tips on planted tank that we have been working on

[reveru]

Hi ihawk. You can take a look at this manual and this website:

http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...ad.php?t=27279
http://www.aquajournal.net/na/basics/basics_02.html

I personally found the information there quite useful when setting up my 2 ft tank. If you like, you can take a look at my setup process, it may be helpful to you. http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...ad.php?t=64855

Also, advise you to be patient when doing the planning for setting up. Work out all the important details such as Lighting (high light or low light), CO2 (diy or pressurised or using Excel), Flora & Fauna, Filtration flow rate (with or without chiller), etc. These are the things I can think off right now.

With regards to planting, i found the AQ sticky link very useful to me. It is a YouTube video with some guidelines on how to prepare and plant different kinds of plants. YouTube- Tips and tricks for handling plants in the aquarium, Tropica Aquarium Plants

Hope this bit of info helps and good luck!

[ihawk]

Good evening shadow and reveru, thank you for the help rendered. Actually I am closely following your setup process reveru. I was reading that thread and a very good tips for that will help me as a beginner Reveru. .

Shadow thank you for the link you have given. Spent time reading and was very enlighting to me.

I have got JBL AquaBasis plus. Is this good enuff or I got to buy . I have not opened the bag yet. Do you recommend that i go for ADA aquasoil Amazonia cos my cousin is willing to buy the JBL from me.

Appreciate if you could kindly advise me on this. Also my tank is actually 3ftX1.5X1.5. So your recommendation for lighting as the current one I got is not good enuff. Lighting is an important aspect for planted tanks. So I don't want to blow my pocket by buying the wrong one.

Went to a shop at yishun. The man was advising me to go for a 6 tube T5 lighting set which cost about $130. I was thinking 4 tube T5 lighting would be enough. So if am wrong here in trying to choose the best lighting for my tank, what cateria should I consider. Is it the type of plants I want to plant determines the lighting?

Btw shadow, nice showcase of tanks you have got there. Saw it on your blog.

Thank you and have a good week ahead.

Cheers

[Shadow]

Yes I would recomend to go for ADA soil.

actually light is the most important part of planted tank. Light will dictate whether you need to inject CO2, dose fertilizer, type of plant you can grow. When you look for light set, check for spectrum (unlikely you will get this info ), wattage, color temp and reflector. My tank have the same dimension as your, I'm using 4x39W T5HO which I modify to house individual reflector.

[ihawk]

Thanks Shadow, Will be posting a few more questions later.

Once thanks to all

Cheers

[ihawk]

Good evening everyone, I have done some reading on aquascaping. I have a rough idea on how to go about to do this but I need help on plant choices.

Since this is my 1st time trying to scape the tank, I would like to have plants that can be maintain easily. Will be using Co2 and 4 T5 lights roughly.

What kind of plants would you recommend for starters like me. I would likely be starting this Saturday. I would be much obliged if you could give me some tips and pointers with regards to plant choices and Co2 advice. I have read quite about this on some sites but I am not sure as to how much of bps is enough?

Once again thank you very much for your assistance

cheers

[Shadow]

what kind of scape you want to create? photo?

[reveru]

with regards to scaping and plant choice, it really depends on what kind of scape, mood, etc, you want to recreate.. so perhaps if you have something in mind, you can help yourself by sketching a rough plan out. from there perhaps we will be more able to help you according to your idea!

also i think the bps is just a rough gauge. it depends on your dissolve rate of the co2 bubbles. i find that for my 2 feet, due to the cold water (25 C), my CO2 dissolve rate is quite high. so 3 bps is sufficient for me (from visual observation of growth of plants and absence of algae for me) although i did not use a drop checker solution. also depends on whether you use reactor or diffuser. just some thoughts to consider in case you overlooked!

hope this helps and good luck for saturday! remember to post your pics up to share

[ranmasatome]

i am just a bit confused because it seems as though you are just starting out and want plants and tank that is more easily managed.

If that is the case, then i don't understand why you chose to use co2.
Using Co2 simply means more work, more maintenance, more demanding plants and slightly more understanding needed.
However, if you succeed, it does give more flexibility on how the tank is scaped since more types of plants can survive in your tank.
Just thought i'd give a heads up, if its not already too late.

If it is, then lets begin the co2 journey .
Reveru is right. BPS is but a guage. If you choose not to go with a co2 indicator, you need to judge how well your plants and fishes are doing by eyeballing it (got indicator also need to eyeball) Which isn't that easy for a begginer. as a rough guide, values i use for a 3ft high tech tank are about 3-4bps. Also, get a timer for your co2 and set it to, switch the co2 on about 30mins before the lights come on, and switch it off 30mins after lights go off. This will help to ensure that during the light period your co2 levels are more constant. For Co2, i find consistency more important than bps. Work to get co2 levels consistant within your light period, and by eyeballing it, in your case, to a level consistant and good enough for your fish and plant growth.

Also for your light, is it single switch? can you switch on only 2 if you choose or is the set like those, "once switch on all 4 will come on" type?

Planting - Don't be stingy and buy a few plants hoping for them to "grow into your tank" because you will realise that for a tank like what you planned, the algae will probably "grow into your tank" before those few measly stalks of "real plants that you want" can.
Right from the get go, you need to stuff that thing as much as you can.
This also means you need a good conceptual idea on what you want. No point stuffing that tank with a whole mass of plants you're just going to pull out later anyway.
As you can see, this post is getting lengthy... why? mostly because of co2. haha.
Good luck.
i strongly advise more reading and planning and questions here before you actually embark on this. We have great people here to answer some of your queries...Shadow is an excellent scaper and reverus tank is really looking up!
Anyway.. i'm sleepy...

[ihawk]

Good evening everyone, I have just uploaded my photo of the tank.

From the photo, I am thinking of doing heavy planting at the left side and to leave the right side alittle bare with rocks. Trying to keep it simple till I am able to manage my tank. I guess I'll be able to learn more about this as I continue to spend more time here reading.

With regards to aquascaping, I am relatively new to this and from the websites that I have visited, I can only manage to gather inform with regards to the following.

1. Concave, Convex and triangular methods of scaping.
2. Co2 and ligthing infos
3. How to keep it simple and attractive.

More or less this the info I can gather at the moment. Correct me if I am wrong and I'll be happy to learn. No pain No gain actually

http://s939.photobucket.com/albums/a...k.jpg&newest=1

Thank You for all of your help.

Cheers

[reveru]

Sounds like you're going for the triangular scape setup? I am also a beginner but perhaps you want to think about how you going to create the "high" shape on the left. in my opinion, it would help if you have some driftwood to help create the shape you want instead of just planting heavily on the left and hoping that they will grow high. do tie some moss on the driftwood as they grow very beautifully and are quite low maintenance. as for the rest of the plants, i am not sure which plants are easier to maintain so perhaps other bros can recommend you some plants to use.

share one tip i learnt from forum with you. in my setup i choose plants with smaller leaves because my tank is small, only 2 ft. this creates the illusion of a bigger tank since the flora and fauna inside are all pretty small. since you have a 3 ft, i don't know if you would like to use this approach but from the picture of your tank, it looks pretty spacious so maybe you can ignore this info too

your T5 lighting is it 4x39watt? i think it is sufficient to plant most plants if thats the case since your tank is not very deep. just need to pay more attention to the light temperature of your T5 bulbs.

what plant do you want to use for your foreground? HC looks very nice but its quite high maintenance compared to hairgrass. have you any idea of the plants you wish to use at all?

i think it is a great thing that you decide to use CO2. my opinion is that it gives you the flexibility to plant most plants. also, plant growth tend to be faster with CO2 injection, which can indirectly help to combat the growth of algae. do arm yourself with a bottle of seachem flourish excel too. it is a wonderful carbon supplement to the plants as well as a great weapon against algae.

hope this helps!

[beetroot]

hi Ranmasatome, just wondering how long into the hobby should one then start (to consider and subsequently) to embark into the co2 journey?
sounds a bit "scary"... more work, more maintenance, more everything!
but i'm a bit bored with low tech already... hehe!

[reveru]

it's not scary at all. at the most you accidentally kill a few fish from CO2 suffocation if you underestimate your dissolve rate. but this can be easily avoided with the use of drop checker solution or simply by observing the behaviour of the fish. i strongly recommend bro beetroot try using CO2 as plants really grow lusher and faster

maintenance probably comes from having to trim the plants more often than you used to, or finding a balance between your lighting, co2, plant growth and algae growth for me i find that the balance is the more difficult thing to achieve and it needs time and patience to get it right. but since forum has so many knowledgeable people, you can try it and at least if you encounter any problem, you know where to get help!

[ihawk]

Thanks to all who have contributed in helping me. Appreciate the gesture. Yes Reveru i am going to use T5 lights and your suggestions of having driftwood is correct. Thinking along the same line.

Have been reading on plants choice. Do have a few in mind. From PlantGeek, i am read that some plants eventhough its low in maintanence can produce better results with light. I do have to see it for myself. Will be going down to Pasir Ris on Saturday though to purchase some.

Will update you guys on my progress. I do have fishes already. The 1st time I did, I got it all wrong and lost a fleet of tetras. So as advised by Bluewhale, I have moved all my fishes to the pail and so far they are good, no deaths. Just slight water change every 2 days. Hope they stay that way till the tank is ready.

You guys are great and I like this forum very much.

Cheers all and have a good evening

[reveru]

You going pasir ris OTF fish farm is it? Buy plants there is OK but in my opinion, you can get better deals on equipment elsewhere.

[Goondoo]

Hi,
Just remember light is one of the major contributor to the speed your plants will grow. Some plants (especially stem plants) need high lights to stay low or nice. Some plants (like java ferns) can survive well without much problem.

There are all kind of equipments, and there are all kind of followers. There will be hobbyist telling you nothing beats LED or MH give you the best glossy look on the leaves. It all bottom down to you, not others, since all followers manage to grow some plants, somehow. In those days, we do not have much access to ADA, but we still grow plants

I suggest you do not jump into the wagon directly, but look around and read around. What do you want to achieve? Many beginners claim they want a simple tank, but they are unable to control the urge to try some nice looking plants such as HC, Glosso which requires higher lights. Soon they start buying higher lights then to know that the water need more nutrients to cope with the growth. After which, need to inject more CO2 so the plants can grow properly...... by then, usually, the tank is full of algae and beyond economical control. They gave up, sell everything, blame everyone else, leave the hobby...

I do not usually comment much on planted as I hung my tank quite sometime ago. Just remember you are suppose to control a balance of Lights, CO2 and Nutrients. If you have low lights, too much nutrients and CO2 can only stress your fish as plants uptake is much slower than the supply. If you go high lighting, be prepared for more investment as uptake are a lot faster and might even require lower water temperature so as to allow your plants to consume its "food" easier.

SO, if you decided on a low tech tank, chose low tech plants , but even so, some need cool water to grow well. Good Luck!

My two cents.

[ihawk]

Thank you reveru for the tip and yes I heard plants down there are cheaper and have more varieties down there.

As for the other things like lighting etc, I will try elsewhere for those.

Thanks Goondoo for your valuable insights on managing the tank and I do completely agree with you on your points. Will bear this in mind when I go tomorrow to get my plants. I want to get the tank and start recycling tomorrow.

Atleast I am learning and thats what is important.

Going to play WoW tonite. :P


Have a good weekend all of you.