Planted/Artificial plant setup

[Phantom2k4]

Been reading into planted vs. non planted tanks, and although I really like the sound of a planted tank, but I don't really want to hook up a CO2 tank at this time, maybe once I get more experience under my belt.

If I were to pick a few tall background plants, some Java Moss and maybe a few Anubias plants, would I be able to keep them healthy without additional CO2? Also, would 100% nutritional substrate be necessary or could i get away with a mix with normal gravel? (60/40? 75/25?)

I'm assuming i'd have to add some sort of nutrient tab or something to the plants as feel correct?

[Brhino]

you can do a "low tech" planted tank and keep it pretty simple. My first tank had no CO2, no special substrate, no fertilizers, nothing "high tech" except for a reasonably good light. I grew java ferns, anubias, vals, water sprite, and water wisteria all fine. My current tank has a special plant substrate but I'm still not messing with CO2 or fertilizer. Yeah, I have a bit more algae than I'd like but I'm happy with my plants overall.

High tech planted tanks with injected CO2 and fertilizer dosing tend to look more vibrant and have more options for plant species, but you can definitely start basic and then later on decide if you want to spend the extra money and effort it takes to run a high tech planted tank.

[mermaidwannabe]

I do fine with the standard lighting my tanks came with and Anubias, java ferns, java moss, marimo moss balls, floating hornwort and floating elodea. I recently got an Amazon Sword, so am using non-copper root tabs for it. I also dose minimally with all-purpose Flourish. The rhizome plants (Anubias and java ferns) need to be attached to something in the tank, or resting on top of the substrate with only their roots buried, but NOT the rhizome. The marimo moss balls just sit on the substrate and look like fuzzy, deep green beanbag cushions. Hornwort and elodea can float at the surface. Amazon Sword needs to have its roots submerged in the substrate.

I like to combine living plants with artificials for greater visual diversity. The quality silk plants look very natural once they're anchored in the substrate. That way, I can have a greater variety without needing to go high-tech.

-- mermaidwannabe

[Phantom2k4]

Those are both very reassuring posts! Sounds like i'll have no problem having some live plants in there. Would be it be worth it to mix a bag of nutrient rich substrate in with the rest of the substrate before adding to the tank?

[mermaidwannabe]

I don't see how that could hurt anything, and it will probably give your living plants a boost.

I have only gravel in my tanks, and even the Amazon Sword seems to be doing okay. Of course, it does get the root tabs with every other water change. I'm a minimal doser with ferts. The plants I mentioned above don't need a lot of feeding, anyway, but if you want them to grow faster and hardier, it helps to feed them.

[wijnands]

I'm Dutch. I think I was 16 when I first discovered people run an aquarium without plants.

Fairly standard setup to me is a layer of nutrient rich substrate covered by a layer of gravel. Plant what you picked and within a few weeks it will have rooted trough the gravel into the nutrients. Use tabs only after several months when you see some plants struggling.

I now keep a big piece of wood with anubias growing all over it, trickiest part of that was tying them down in the initial phase.

I've never worked with "real" CO2, occiasionally toyed with liquids. My experience light is the more limiting factor in most standard tanks, there's few species that really benefit from added CO2 int he average setup.

[Phantom2k4]

Thanks for all the help. I'll have a layer of the nutrient added substrate below the normal gravel

[Lady Hobbs]

If you don't have high lighting, like 3-4 watts per gallon of T5HO bulbs, you don't need it but you still have to have something better than stock hood lights.

[Phantom2k4]

If you don't have high lighting, like 3-4 watts per gallon of T5HO bulbs, you don't need it but you still have to have something better than stock hood lights.

Sounds good. I'll try to go for 200 watts of lighting approx.

Also what's T5HO mean? Some type of bulb i'm assuming?

[sir kyle]

yes, a t5HO is a flourescent bulb. t5 is 5/8" in diameter. the HO is high output rather than the NO, which is normal output. i believe you cant use an HO bulb in a NO fixture, but others here can verify that.

[fullpampers]

This book might be of interest to you : http://www.atlasbooks.com/marktplc/00388.htm

I'm sure a lot of people have read it here. My tank is full of plants, I don't use ferts, no Co2, no chemicals, and my lighting are two flora-glow tubes or something like that. I barely do any water changes anymore.

Most of the plants i had were given to me by my girlfriend's uncle who was closing down his tank. When i first got them they started dying, i started adding products, and i changed my lighting. I talked to my girlfriends uncle and he told me my substrate wasn't ideal. So i redid the tank with a peat substrate, sand and gravel as it was what he had and it seemed to work.

I was then doing strict weekly water changes (actually every 4-5 days) and the plants were either not growing or slowly dying.

I read diana walstad's book and basically started doing less and less to the tank. Less water changes (nitrates stabilized), turned off my air pump. I didn't have to do a whole lot more, because my substrate was similar to what she described, and i had a mix of fast/slow growing plants, and mostly easy plants.

It took a while but my plants are now growing like crazy. My algae went down (although i have alot of algae eaters, but I'm sure there is less algae the more my plants grew).

I'm no expert, and there is no guaranty any of this will work for you, but my point is it doesn't have to be complicated, and it is worth it to give plants a try. Just start with fast growing, low cost plants and see how it goes. And if it is at all a possibility, start right, with a good substrate.

Just to give you an idea, hee is a video i shot of the tank a year ago : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_0gTNDuhYE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_0gTNDuhYE)

And here is a picture of the tank a couple of months ago. I don't have a lot of time to take care of it... When i took the picture i had to do a little pruning and replanting. And the tupperware on the bottom is for the snail apocalypse. I added Cacombas last and they brought me some snails. And my kubotai loaches are too lazy to eat them...

25692

Sorry for the long post, but if you are at all interested in plants, it's a good read.