# Wow....



## sickonblues (Mar 15, 2005)

Well I've got a bee in my bonnet thats making want to put plants in my aquarium. I've been reading around on different sites about plants and I think it's more confusing than taking care of fish. I am honestly at a loss on what to do. I have a very small 10 gallon tank right now with 1 Ryukin goldfish and a common pleco. It hasn't been setup for very long (a little over a month) I really need someone just to lay it all out in simple terms I can understand. I'm not looking to go out and spend hundreds of dollars on this and it sounds like it's what you have to do. If it is then maybe this hobby isn't for me right now. If someone could take the time to give me some suggestions and tips about what kinda of plants to get, where to get them, etc. I would appreciate it so much, or if you think my setup is inadequate then tell me that too! Thanks so much for you help


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

Welcome to APC sickonblues. 

Sure, a 10 gallon is very suitable as a planted tank with just a few additions.
You can go as simple or elaborate as you want, which is a nice thing about planted tanks.

The first thing I'd do is find a new home for the common Plec and Goldfish since they will both outgrow the tank before you know it (planted or not). Get yourself a few nice small fish, or shrimp that will do well in a small tank, and not tear up your scaping, like the fish you have now will.

Tell us what kind of lighting, substrate and filtration you have now and we can go from there for suggestions on what you might need.


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## sickonblues (Mar 15, 2005)

They'll both outgrow the tank? Wow that's a bummer  I have NO idea what to do with them.... Would little Neon Tetras be ok? As for lighting I have a fourescent light (GE Plant and Aquarium bulb) The filter I have is a Pengiun 100 Bio-Wheel Power Filter. In the bottom of my tank I just have some gravel. Anything else you need to know?


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## Osteomata (Jan 11, 2005)

Welcome sickonblues,
I am relatively new to planted tanks myself, but I have a couple of tanks under my belt now, so I'll take a shot at your tank:

Regarding your current fish: The common pleco grows fast and can exceed 18 inches when fully grown.... so yeah, he's gonna outgrow your tank. My pleco is only about 5 months old and already about 5 inches. Adding to the problem, both the pleco and Ryukin goldfish are heavy bodied fish with a large mass compared to a narrow bodied fish of equal lenght. Thats a complicated way of saying they poop a lot, and represent a big bio-load on your aquarium. My advice: Take them back to the fish store, complain with a winning smile and unfailing politeness that they grow so large, and request store credit. Get some thing small. You have lots of options, neon tetras would be fine. Som other nice things later on might be otocincus (midget sucker fish, think of them as 1.5 inch long plecos, dwarf cory cats, some of the smaller barb species or small small rasboras. 

OK, as for your tank, Ill address the four big concerns: filter, light, substrate, plants selection.

Filter: Your current filter will be fine. See, that was easy. If you decide to start putting in some liquid fertilizer, you wil want to remove the activated carbon from the filter, and replace with floss. Some people remoce the biowheel portion as well, and just use lots of floss. If you want to upgrade the filter, a relatively new option on the market that has several strong proponents is the Zoomed 501. This is the smallest cannister filter on the market (that I know of). It is marketed for turtle tanks, but is an outstanding 10 gallon planted tank filter. Remove the carbon bag, replace with floss, its excellent.

Lighting: I assume you have a single bulb 15 watt T-8 fl fixture. This is a low light set up, but it is doable with some low light plant species. Upgrading to more wattage would be better, but adding leads to some other issues, like the need to add CO2 and can complicate your algea situation. If you feel like upgrading, go for a nice 28 watt freshwater bulbed power compact flourescent.

Substrate: Im guessing you ahve standard aquarium gravel. This stuff sucks for plants. If I were to change only one thing on your tank, it would be this. For 17 bucks you can get a bag of Eco-Complete or Flourite, and you are in a much better situation.

Plants: if you keep your current light, you will need to stay with low light plants. The standards for this would be Java Fern, Java Moss, possibly Anubias Nana, and some of the very simple stem plants. If you find a good online plant store (check the sponsors from this site) most of them will have a bit of information about every plant they sell. Look for those listed as low light tolerant. Some of them even sell "low light packages" of plants. Pretty cheap way to get a fully set of plants meeting your exact criteria.

OK, some of the more advanced/complicated things you can worry about after you are comfortable with the four basics: CO2 and fertilizers. There are several hundred posts dealing with these on this forum, so I wont go into it in detail except to say that some form of CO2 REALLY improves plant growth, and is almost mandatory if you get into the high light tanks, say about 36 watts or more for your ten gallon. As for fertilizers, worry about trace elements and the thre macros (Nitrogen, Potassium, and Phosphorus). Lots of fish stores have various plant ferts, I have found the seachems Flourish line is pretty nice, though a bit pricey. 

Hope this gets you started.


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## sickonblues (Mar 15, 2005)

Wow, thanks so much for all of you help so far! This is really great. My only problem is finding a good home for my fish that I already have. I've had them for a long time now (this isn't my first tank, but the only one I have right now) so I don't really have a store I can take them back to.... This will take some figuring out....


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

Welcome to APC :smile: 

You have already gotten good advice so there is not much to add. 

With a low light tank you will not need C02 unless you just want to try it in the future.

Do you know of anyone that may be able to take the Pleco & Goldfish off your hands... Check around your area there should be a LFS that would be willing to take the fish in for store credit.

Fish such as Endlers, Guppies, smaller Tetras would be good fish for your tank.


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

One other suggestion for you. You have heard others mention CO2, rather than worry about that at this point in time, I would suggest you look into a product called Flourish Excel, which is a liquid carbon source for plants. The great thing about this is that it is also been shown to keep algae under control and for a beginner, that is one of the major headaches. Even with low light Excel will be beneficial, and real easy to do especially with small tanks.


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