# Which substrate and plants would be best for low maintenace?



## apctt77 (Mar 15, 2009)

Hey Guys

I'm going to build a huge tank in the future for my Mbu Puffer and have decided to change the dimentions of the tank from 10w x4d x4h to 10w x5d x3h as I've been told it'd be hard to get light through 4ft of water. This will give me 1122usG, a Mbu's minimum tank size is 1000usG when fully grown (between 26inches and 30inches including the tail!).

I want the tank to be really easy to maintain so was wondering if I could just have soil in the bottom with some kind of plant growing/covering the entire floor (a grass or moss etc). I was hoping this would save me having to syphon the gravel every 3 weeks.

Would this work and what single type of plant would you recomend?

Would all the fish poo/waste that I normally syphon out of my gravel be used up by the plants like a kind of fertaliser?

Thanks for your time and expertise


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## VisionQuest78 (May 22, 2009)

Hey, im by no means an expert on planted tanks, but certainly have a lot of experience with other types. But i will give you my best educated guess on your questions. I dont know much about the Mbu puffers, but if they are anything like any other puffer ive ever known, they're EXTREMELY messy. And while some leftover food and fish wastes can be good for a planted tank, i think SOME is the key word. Too much and i think you will be having algae problems, but maybe with a tank of that volume it wouldnt be an issue, but no tank its maintenance free...im thinking eventually too much piled up crud will catch up to you.

As far as the plants go, i would say going with a soil substrate is a mistake unless your going to be planting very heavily. Would make for too much excess nutrients otherwise. And im not sure if your talking about doing a ground cover like glosso or HC or micro or chain sword, to get a carpet effect or not. from what i understand those all need high light, and to accomplish that in a tank that size you would need several high wattage metal halides. If money is no object, then go for it! but im guessing to get enough light to the bottom is just going to cause major algae growth elsewhere, especially with out more plants through out the tank. In a tank that size you could prolly use a lot of different plants as ground cover though, whatis seen as a mid or background plant in most tanks would prolly look small or tiny in your tank. But even still, talking about low tech, low wattage lighting you're still talking about lighting of 1000+ watts.

My advice would be to scrap the idea of live plants all togther, invest is some serious canister filters, and use fake plants. With the right ones and with the right skill you can make a pretty impressive display. And i would just forget about the idea of not vacuuming with a puffer that size...pretty sure thats just unrealistic.

So thats my 2 cents on the idea, and it was free! lol


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## davemonkey (Mar 29, 2008)

If you went with live plants and a soil substrate (capped with 1" + gravel or sand), you'd need some serious lighting for a 3' deep tank. Metal Halides would reach, but the lost intensity would limit you to low-light plants that can take that depth (Vallisneria). You could use Java Fern and other epiphytes on driftwoodas well. As for ground cover, MAYBE Marsilea could take that depth, but I wouldn't bet money on it. A floor of cryptocorynes might also work as they can tolerate low light levels.

Even so, you would not have enough light or fast growing plants to filter the water effectively. A part of using plants to filter water is giving enough light for them to perform.

In the end, if it were me and I was bound and determined to have live plants in this tank, I get the brightest metal halides I could find, plant some variety of crypts and vals, and use plain gravel or sand with root fertilzers (root tabs). The use of root tabs would keep you from providing too much nutrition for the tank to handle. Plus, you'll be getting extra ferts from the fish/fish food. Then I'd invest in a good canister filter to supplement some biological filtration (that would otherwise not be needed with fast growing plants).

Then again, Tom Barr has a 4' tall tank (I think) and has a vast array of live plants. Find out what he does and copy him.

-Dave


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