Couple of Questions

[blakestreet]

1. I use filtered r/o water from the store as I have ridculously hard water at home. Is this OK for live plants? I have not planted any but want too. Also, I have read you need to plant 3 or 4 at a time?

FYI I did read the plant sticky but didnt see where it mentioned the amount to plant on initial planting

2. Is there a consensus as to which slime coat/water treatment that most use on this site for tank changes and cycling?

[cocoa_pleco]

RO water gets some minerals depleated for it, so if you have sensitive fish you may have to replace them. Plants also would need these minerals. As for water conditioner, any type works, ex. amquel, nutrafin, slime coat, etc. as long as its not a very new company or a really shoddy one, they all do the same job. just make sure they say "removes chlorine AND chloramines"

[Lady Hobbs]

Most of us use different dechlorinator and I see no difference in what you chose other than to get one that claims to also remove chloramine. Most of them do but some don't.

The entire tank can be planted all at once. The heavier you plant, the more likely you are to not need to cycle the tank before adding fish.

RO is fine but don't use all RO. Use half tap and half RO as RO removes even the suppliments in water.

[blakestreet]

Yeah I learned that when installing the RO in the house because you cant use it for Plants.

So are you saying I should not plant my current tank with fish in it?

[cocoa_pleco]

dont get really sensitive plants. The regular stuff like java moss, cabomba, etc. is fine. Plant it all at once. It will do way more good than bad.

Wait, there is no bad!

[Lady Hobbs]

Heck no. Just that you can plant it all at once if you want.

[nanaglen2001]

The more plants the better, and I really mean LOTS of plants. In the beginning I would start with really fast growing stuff like:

-Cabomba carolinia, will soon die off, cause it needs softer water and much light, but it will work fine at least 4-6 weeks.
-Egeria densa
-Ceratophyllum demersum
-Hygrocotyle leucocephala
-Najas guadalupensis
-Hygrophia polysperma
-Hygrophila corymbosa

Sorry for the scientific names, but I really dont know the common names in English.

These plants grow pretty fast and help a lot to build up a healthy environment in your tank. Also with fast growing plants, you wont have that much trouble with algae.

Some of those plants will become ugly and die off, but when this starts to happen, you already will change over to those more slower growing ones. And then you just give or through away the starter plants.

A good plant for hard water is, for example Java Fern. In my hard water I keep Cryptocoryne, but I need to look up the name.

[Lady Hobbs]

Thanks Andrea. I needed that list myself!

[blakestreet]

Great

Thanks All

[nanaglen2001]

Your welcome Lady Hobbs.

Man sometimes I sit here, and could get a screaming fit, cuase I just cant tell you what I really want to tell you...

Next time I will take a Dictionaire to my office:wink2:

And I found a historic picture.:19: My tank in its first week, after putting it up. The green stuff within the fog is cabomba.

I got that fog cause I was too lazy to wash about 100 kilo (more than 200 pounds) of sand. And after a week my water was chrystal clear.

[vellais]

whats ro water?
is it water that comes out of a reverse omnosis thing?

iv seen the ro units they look very similar to the water filter I have hooked up under my sink (with the 2 cyliners and all) do they do the same thing?

should I use filtered water from my undersink filter or just unfiltered water to fill my tank?

[blakestreet]

Yes RO = reverse osmosis

It is ok for just fish but apparently should be mixed 50/50 for plants or more.

It removes minerals and other nutrients