Planning a planted tank

[Anonymous]

I have done saltwater for many years and think I want to start a planted tank. I've read about different substrates and such but haven't seen much as far as filtration goes. What do people typically use for filtration these days?

 

[Anonymous]

I have done saltwater for many years and think I want to start a planted tank. I've read about different substrates and such but haven't seen much as far as filtration goes. What do people typically use for filtration these days?

This is a formula I got from freshwater and marine aquarium back in the late 70's. It has worked in many cities in the US since that time.

1. Add play sand water and plants. I recommend fast growing plants especially anacorus (eldora), vals. And also like a amazon sword some potted varieties.


2. wait 1 week.

3. Add a single male live bearer. My fav is a red wag platty.

4. Don't feed for a week. then feed 1 single flake of food the second week.

5. Add a femail and continue feeding a single flake.

The idea is to get the plant life ahead of the nutriends and bioload. Maintenance is just replacing the water the evaporates and feeding the fish. Water is tap and in fact ro/di would probably be detrimental because it provides nutrients for the plants. You may want to vacumn the mulm from the bottom every so often just for looks. And you may get a light hard algae that needs to be scrapped once or twice a year. You also may have "green" water if you have extremely high lighting. But then you just reduce the lighting and the water clears. If you notice a brown cloudy water reduce the feeding. I feed my current once per day.

In about 6 months you should have a tank teaming with fish and lotsa plant growth. At that point you could consider some different fish/plants.

Absolutely the easiest, most reliable, goof proof method of doing a FW tank. Again the key is getting the plant life thriving as the very first thing.

 

[Anonymous]

So you use no filtration other than the plants themselves? What provides water movement? I was thinking about and Eclipse hood for filtration and a fairly minimal amount of live plants. I don't care for the really full look.

 

[Anonymous]

So you use no filtration other than the plants themselves? What provides water movement? I was thinking about and Eclipse hood for filtration and a fairly minimal amount of live plants. I don't care for the really full look.

It is correct that I use no filtration or mechnical water movement.

I have only limited experience using fw filtration so perhaps others can help. Mainly because I have had such great success with the above. I have noticed, however, that less plants will simply support less fish.

Before I tried this I did attempt to use more normal methods. With filtration, water changes, and the like. The results were not good. Constant algae, fish not living long, and even the few plants I tried did not last long. But with this method everything thrived. I suspect what is important is to get a balance between the plants and fish.

Hope you have the most awesome tank ever.

 

[fishfanatic2]

So you use no filtration other than the plants themselves? What provides water movement? I was thinking about and Eclipse hood for filtration and a fairly minimal amount of live plants. I don't care for the really full look.

IMO bobs results are proven but against the grain. I have an eclipse on my tank and I love it, very compact, very quiet, and very useful. The only complaint I have is that the lighting isnt very good at all and it doesnt come for tanks over 30 gallons i think. Surface agitation should be rather minimal for plants. I agree that the full look isnt very appealing IMO and it makes it a PITA to siphon every once in a while.

With the lighting on the eclipse you can get most of the plant types but they wont thrive. Also a special plant substrate is best to use and fertilizer tabs arent a bad idea. CO2 is optional, but it will increase growth. Hardness isnt too important but dont keep them at either extreme.

HTH

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks, it helps a lot. What types of plants are best for a lower-light setting? Also, if you know of any freshwater sites out there I am happy to do my own research.

 

[fishfanatic2]

Bolbitis and Java Fern will grow like weeds but the aren't very attractive. Hygrophylia won't do too bad and a few of the swords will also do pretty well. Crypts like C. wendtii are very nice and are bulletproof about 80% of the time. Crypts hate to be moved around, otherwise they are pretty hardy.

http://www.plantedtank.net has some nice info.

 

[Anonymous]

The type of filtration also depends on if you will be adding CO2 or not?