Newbie to planted

[bravobb]

Is it true that Java Fern and Anubias is good for beginners who wanted to go into planted tank ?
I am thinking of using my 5 feet tank with IOS to do a planted tank so that once it is setup, i can leave it to run with minimum maintenance require.
I intend to go for low lighting of about 5 hours daily.
Will these plants survive and grows ?
Any advise appreciated.

[Loudness]

fern and nana are good low maintenance plant for beginner. you can also have moss.

for lighting, 8 hours would be better or maybe minimum. i suggest at least 2 watt per gallon.

if you want minimum maintenance, best is make it heavily planted and very little fauna inside. so you can keep your no3 level low and acceptable range for you fauna.

[bravobb]

Thanks for the advise and sharing.
For lighting, is it true that LED cannot be used on planted ?
One of my objective is also not to use too much electricity for this planted tank. Is it achievable ?
Also, the tank is installed with an OHF (like those bakki shower), will this prevent the plants from growing ?

[Loudness]

i'm not sure of LED as i never use for planted tank before, but surely there's LED set that's suitable for planted tank. think there's T8 LED? from Australia forum, i see lots of them using LED flood light for planted too, many with good result, just make sure it's strong or suitable for your tank set up.

for electricity wise, think the only thing is light and pump only? maybe you will spend more money on electricity, surely it's lesser than monster tank due to the food that you need to feed daily. with heavily planted tank plus high nitrate absorber and minimum fauna, you properly can 2 weeks water change once?

ohf filter is not recommended as too much surface movement will increase O2 and reduce CO2 level in your tank. your tank is already a low tech tank, best is as little surface movement as possible so you would have enough co2 for your plant to take in.

[bravobb]

Argh... i just invested on the OHF... it is still brand new and has not start operation yet... just installed.
Was originally planned for a full fauna tank, but later realised will have alot of climbing to do for feeding and changing of wool.
So now planning for planted but seem like my tank is not suitable also.... really headache ....

[Loudness]

you can try the OHF, but not recommended.

http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...Non-CO2-method

this can be a good guide for you.

[bravobb]

Very informative... still reading that thread.
Thank you.
If possible, i will start doing my tank and experiment with it.
Definitely will post finding stage by stage regardless of the results.

[diazman]

Anubias and fern are good beginner plants. The one they named as "bulletproof kind"

Your tank quite big, if you got the budget can hook up canister filtration. Else, you can modify your OHF with a pipe running into the tank so that the water wont splash on the surface too much.

Lighting wise, you can start up @ 6 hours, gradually increase them weekly until the max hours of light you intend to on.