# Thought I'd try a planted tank...



## Nubster (Aug 12, 2011)

I have had plants in my tanks before...but this will be my first serious attempt at doing some real aquascaping and planting. I have always kept predator fish but this time around I am doing a peaceful community tank with lots of small schooling fish.

Tank is a 75g with an AquaClear 110 handling filtration. Substrate is a mix of Petco brand black sand and Tahitian Moon Sand. Rocks are from a local creek that have been scrubbed and boiled. Plants are just a few I grabbed from the LFS. Tank is cycling now...hope to have fish in soon. But here is it...definitely a work in progress...needs some wood and need to figure out what to do with the right side...I am open to suggestions and please...tell me what you think...

Water is hazy...I just added the rocks and a bag of sand prior to taking the picture...


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## wi_blue (Apr 5, 2005)

That's a nice placement. What kind of plants?


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## zchauvin (Jul 28, 2011)

Sword, crypt, anubias, and what looks like Christmas moss- maybe 

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## zchauvin (Jul 28, 2011)

Nubster said:


> I have had plants in my tanks before...but this will be my first serious attempt at doing some real aquascaping and planting. I have always kept predator fish but this time around I am doing a peaceful community tank with lots of small schooling fish.
> 
> Tank is a 75g with an AquaClear 110 handling filtration. Substrate is a mix of Petco brand black sand and Tahitian Moon Sand. Rocks are from a local creek that have been scrubbed and boiled. Plants are just a few I grabbed from the LFS. Tank is cycling now...hope to have fish in soon. But here is it...definitely a work in progress...needs some wood and need to figure out what to do with the right side...I am open to suggestions and please...tell me what you think...
> 
> Water is hazy...I just added the rocks and a bag of sand prior to taking the picture...


Plant some foreground plants there. Hc or something of the such. Maybe micro sword kept very low, depends of what kind of look you want. And idk about dw, you may want to stay with just the rock, I find it looks quite nice the way it is. Sort of an iwugami but you see too many tanks crammed with too much crap and its too much to please the eye

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## Nubster (Aug 12, 2011)

Yup...Amazon Sword, an Anubias barteri nana, a C. wendtii 'Red', and a piece of wood cover in Java Moss (I assume it's Java Moss). Yeah...I really like the wood...but you might be right about leaving it out. I might try scattering a few small rock around the bases of the larger rocks and see how that works. It would be easy enough to take out. I do want to get some foreground plants. I'd like something grasslike...and perhaps some Anubias petite. I need lower light stuff...I only have T8 lighting now...four 40 watt 6500k bulbs but I think that should be enough to grow the stuff I want to grow.


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## zchauvin (Jul 28, 2011)

Nubster said:


> Yup...Amazon Sword, an Anubias barteri nana, a C. wendtii 'Red', and a piece of wood cover in Java Moss (I assume it's Java Moss). Yeah...I really like the wood...but you might be right about leaving it out. I might try scattering a few small rock around the bases of the larger rocks and see how that works. It would be easy enough to take out. I do want to get some foreground plants. I'd like something grasslike...and perhaps some Anubias petite. I need lower light stuff...I only have T8 lighting now...four 40 watt 6500k bulbs but I think that should be enough to grow the stuff I want to grow.


Micro sword looks grassy, I'm not sure about light needs though but I believe its 2-3 wpg. 160 over 75g should be enough. Idk about for hc or something of the sort but sword possible.

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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

I think you have a nice start there. I like the general direction of your tank a lot. Your amazon sword will get very big. It could easily overtake the rocks. There are some crypts that stay the size your sword is right now. You might want to consider a switch. Or you could continue to try to keep it small by pulling off the outside leaves of the rosette. Have you considered a tall plant in the back left corner?


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## Nubster (Aug 12, 2011)

Yeah...still not sure on the complete planting plan. I don't want to have a bunch of different plants but rather a bunch of a few different plants. The ones in there now I bought more or less to help with the cycle...I have a few more coming in the mail too. I know the Anubias is staying and will probably get a few varities of them...I'd like to get some Java Fern, the moss will stay, and I like the wendtii as well. I may move the sword to that corner...nothing is planted yet. They are all potted so I could move them around easily until I decided on final spots.


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## Nubster (Aug 12, 2011)

Well...tank finally cycled...added some fish, had an outbreak of columnaris and ick, lost most of the fish despite treating with Furan-2. Now the plants are dying on me as well. So it is a very real possibility I'll be starting over. Same rock layout. Looking for some planting suggestions. Lighting is four 54w T8 6500k bulbs. I want to stay away from CO2, at least for now as budget is super tight so I can't afford it at the moment. I do actually have a 5 pound tank but that's it. I need a reg. and all the other stuff that goes with a CO2 system. So...looking for low tech plant ideas.


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## Nubster (Aug 12, 2011)

Here is what it looked like the day before death struck...


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

Sorry to hear about your fish and plants! That is so discouraging.

With 4 T8 tubes, you likely have low-medium light. Go to the PlantFinder and select low or medium low under Lighting Requirements. You will see many options for your new set-up.

One more suggestion: it really helps to plant heavily right from the start. When you look down on the tank from above, plants should cover 75% of the substrate.


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## Nubster (Aug 12, 2011)

Yeah....that's what I want to try to do before putting fish back in the tank. I figure the plants will offer a more stable environment and help reduce stress which in turn will hopefully prevent another outbreak of anything. That with appropriate QT time. 

I have an idea of some stuff I like...mostly the different Java Fern varieties, anubias, low light crypts...maybe some moss of some sort. Now I just need to find some of these plants...my LFS's pretty much blow when it comes to plants...fish too but plants especially.


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