1st time live planting

In the continuing saga of my up-and-coming 90(+?), I want to go green. I have less than zero experience with live plantings, so once again I'm after your advise. Don't want to go too dense, in fact, perhaps rather sparse. I want the rock and wood to dominate. I have seen individual plants sold in pckgs. at Petsmart. Any thoughts on that? I picture some rather dense, tall groupings in back, a specimen sword, and a carpet of short-stuff(grass) in the foreground. This fishy abode will be a focal point in our living-room, so I am taking the planning stage slow and methodical. Thanks y'all!

do not buy from petsmart nor petco unless youknow what u r buying..they sell too many plants that are not true aquatic. and the aquatic few they have are grown emersed and might die transforming
a good source to get healthy fair priced plants is GWAPA.org/forum

short easy foreground hairgrass i would say eleocharis parvula. stays around 2 inches tall. fairly easy.
a large sword...uhmmm...any sword! lol, they get pretty big. they are heavy root feeders so whereever you do put one or two, put a few root tabs underneat for it to feed off.
then you have tooooons of plants to choose from...my fab. are crypts because they are easy and atractive =)

have you thought about what substrate you will be using? light option?? have fun planning

Use good substrate. Eco-complete works great and is pretty. Go with easy plants: swords, crypts, java fern, anubias, wisteria, hygro, water sprite. Petsmarts sometimes has some really nice swords, and some good potted plants. Look for those called "true aquatic." Aim for about 2 watts per gallon. And use Excel rather than CO2 (to keep on the easy side)

I am probably erring in the wrong direction, but I like course medium. My current set-up has a smooth granite base(1/2in stone), topped with a medium smooth granite topping(1/4in stone). Course base is 2in. depth, top coat maybe an inch. I am currently planning on utilizing UG filtration, but am considering just covering a portion of the bottom surface with the UGF. Any adverse affects with UGF and live plantings? And lighting, well, you tell me! I was considering LED, but with a 24in deep, would that be too low lght?

hollyfish2000 said:

Use good substrate. Eco-complete works great and is pretty. Go with easy plants: swords, crypts, java fern, anubias, wisteria, hygro, water sprite. Petsmarts sometimes has some really nice swords, and some good potted plants. Look for those called "true aquatic." Aim for about 2 watts per gallon. And use Excel rather than CO2 (to keep on the easy side)

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Forgive my ignorance, but in a well stocked aquarium, don't the slippery inhabitants supply the necessary CO2? I understand if additives are necessary in the initial run-in. But truthfully, what do I know? Little to nothing!!!

If you are planning to use course gravel and an UG, I suggest that you consider crypts, anubias, java fern and moss to attach to your driftwood.

All of the species you mentioned will need to acquire nourishment primarily from the substrate. Do a search on the particular plants you want to find out what their requirements are before you head in the wrong direction and become frustrated.

http://www.plantedtank.net/articles/Basics-to-starting-a-Planted-Tank/4/

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/setting_up_planted_tank.php

http://www.aquatic-plants.org/articles/basics/pages/

I have a java fern that is ten years old. It has spawned many daughter plants for me wich I have put in my other tanks, and gave some away as well. Love this stuff.

Today's prevailing theory is the amount of light you have drives the need for co2 and ferts, the more light, the more need. All lighting is not the same, the wpg theory doesn't work for T5's or LED's, as it was designed for T8's.

Occasionally I'll buy a sword, crypt or wisteria at Petcrap, but Damien is right, they sell many non aquatic plants and the wisteria comes in emersed form. I've noticed lately they are getting better at labeling them as "vivarium" plants.

The theory that heavy feeding of fish supplies co2 for the plants is "touted" by Diane Walstad's "Natural Planted Tank", but her method also requires a capped soil substrate, heavily planted tank, no wc's, etc. There is a NPT forum ("El Natural") here:

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/index.php

I have a 125g calvus/multi tank that has PFS for substrate and one T5HO 80W bulb hanging 5" from the waters surface. I'd consider it moderately planted it with low light plants. I dose excel daily, add root tabs every 3 months. After the first few "settling in" months all my tanks go thru, the algae subsided to a manageable roar.

Good luck with your new tank. Watch out for the planted tank bite, it bit me and I'm hooked!

I prefer to have more than enough light at my disposal. It is then easier to cut back on the lighting rather than fitting another fixture.

My planted tank is a 40b. It has four t5ho bulbs on it (though I run three). I use compressed co2 at 3 bubbles per second and my substrate is a mix of flourite and eco complete. I water change 50-75% weekly using tap water (I used RO/DI until this past summer and am a bit worried about the chemistry this winter), and dose excel once per week. It is heavily planted and has a lot of fish. I have a mix of medium and high light demanding plants but had to remove the anubias- the intensity of light resulted in spot algae all over it.

The planted books by Tepot and by Hiscock are very well written and have a lot of photos. www.plantedtank.net is another great resource.

Actually, that is a good point. The fixture on the 125g has two bulbs, but I found w/out co2 it was too much light, so I only use one bulb at a time. I have 4 catalinaaquarium.com fixtures, they will customize fixtures, so I have them add switches/cords and hanging brackets for lighting options.

this is a recent thread, very good imo : http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...s/81247-tank-defies-some-common-believes.html

so you can have a lush tank and keep it simple =)

Hey thanks for all the comments and the links to the web sites. I'll definitely check them out. Everyones help is VERY much appreciated. I hope this project turns out in reality as awesome as it looks in my mind! Thanks again

Another great source for your planted tank: GWAPA (Greater Washington Aquatic Plant Association). Great group of people. They meet in members homes once a month. Great monthly auction (where you might find all of ther plants you are looking for) at the end of each meeting. Look for well planned examples of aquascape with plants on their website. Also, many members post excellent shots of their planted tanks. You may find a pic similar to your dream tank.

Check out the GWAPA notebook which pictures of over a dozen members tanks.

Many thanks Marge. I'll definitely check that out