# begining planted aquarist.



## netobeto (Dec 23, 2005)

i got a 28 gallon tank that i am planning of making it a planted aquarium. and i was wondering if you can help me?
for subtrate will be using flourite,fro lighting will be using 2 Twin-Tube Black Strip Light 24" a with this will be 4 Life-Glo 2 18" 15W, and i will be using a CO2, and this will be the plants 1 Micro Sword or 1Dwarf Hairgrass, 1 Anubias Nana or 1 Anubias Barteri Round Leaf, 1 ChainSword - 1 Narrow Leaf, 1 Java Fern, 1 Red Cryptocorne or 1 Green Cryptocorne, 1 Water Sprite, 1 Ludwigia - Broad, 2 anacharis, 2 cabomba, and 1 Amazon Sword Plant (Regular Potted). there will be Malaysian Driftwood. what do you all think of this? and the fish will be 1 king tiger pleco and 4 ottos and some schooling fish. thanks


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

As for the substrate, do some reading in the substrate forum on setting up a planted tank. Flourite will work well (as will most other substrates) over a "dusting" of peat. The addition of mulm to the substrate and filter will help get some bacteria established in both. Also, make sure to soak or boil your driftwood. I would also recommend you do a bit of reading in the fertilization forum. With the addition of CO2 your plants will grow faster and will need the fertilizers. If you can't find the information you need in the Substrate or Fertilization forums, ask questions! There are plenty of people here who are willing to lend a hand!

Not to sound snooty  but you may want to look into the latin names of the plants you are interested in. Chain Sword is a common name for at least three types of plants, Echinodorus tenellus, Echinodorus tenellus, v. 'Tenellus', and Echinodorus quadricostatus, and maybe a few others. I'm not familiar with a Narrow Leaf either. Common names such as Chain Swords also may refer to a different type of plant depending on the region of the country/world people live. Again, not trying to be snooty but it is a bit hard to give good plant selection advice without know which specific plant you plan on using  

Now for the plants, I would ditch the Potted Amazon Sword. Most of them will get too big for a 75g tank, let alone a 29g. It may be cute now, but it will soon outgrow the tank if fertilized properly. 

For the Hairgrass, Microsword (I assume one of the lilaeopsis species), and Chain Sword, I would probably choose one or the other since they are all foreground plants (unles you just want to try them all to see which you prefer  ) Also, make sure you read up on how to plant them. I have seen many people remove Hairgrass and Microsword from the pot and plant the whole mass into the substrate. They need to be separated for the best, quickest growth. If your Chain Sword has runners, you can separate them from the mother plant and they will grow on their own. Easy way to get more plants into your tank  

I would go with the Anubias barteri v. "nana" over the A. barteri if you want a smaller plant. The latter will also grow pretty large though it will grow much slower than the sword. 

With your light level and CO2 usage, you will soon grow tired of pruning and maintaining the Water Sprite, Anachris, Cabomba, and Ludwigia (depending on the species) but these are all good starter plants and should be easy to grow. Once (if) you start to grow tired of pruning, you can look into starting to replace some of these plants. The Plant Finder has some very nice plant pictures in it and most have descriptions or will have them soon!

Your fish list sounds good. I would be interested in hearing what type of schooling fish you decide to add to the tank. There is a good discussion on schooling fish for planted tanks. It is a sticky in the Fish for the Planted Aquarium forum. You seem to be headed towards South American fish with the Hypancistrus and Otos so you may want to continue that and go with some sort of tetras, maybe Cardinals or Rummn Noses. 

Again, if you cannot find the info you need by doing a search, ask questions! They are plenty of people here willing to lend a hand! Welcome to the Planted Side of Aquaria and also Welcome to APC.


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## netobeto (Dec 23, 2005)

thanks you for the info


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