# want to start a planted tank!



## Riona (Sep 22, 2008)

I kinda have 2 right now. I have my goldfish in a 29 gallon tank(though they'll be in a 20 for a while next year after I move, so I can put my little reef tank into a bigger one. My boyfriend HAD to tell me that he was planning to go back to school AFTER petco's $1/gallon sale was over for the year!) which has some bolbitis ferns, some anubias and some java ferns(though I'm really not a fan of those and wish I'd gotten more of one of the others instead!) that they haven't eaten so far, or tried to eat. I also have a 10 gallon tank that has a betta in it that has the rest of my java fern, and what is left of the plants a friend gave me when she moved and didn't want to take her tank. I had a lot of mondo grass that I threw out since I read it isn't aquatic, and a couple of pieces of ribbon plant that I am trying(but they aren't cooperating ) to keep alive in some potting soil on my windowsill. I kept the Cryptocoryne(did I spell that right?) wendtii and another sort of plant that she said was a cryptocoryne that stays small, but she forgot the name of it. There was also a bit of a small grassy looking plant mixed in with it that I kept because it looks like micro sword, and she said she had put some of that in her tank but that it had all died. I also got a cardinal plant from petsmart because I read that it was aquatic, but then I read on another site that it isn't and will die like the mondo grass would have, but here it says it will either grow huge or will stay small and that when it still has the red leaves from not being underwater that you can't tell which is which(the tag says it is a foreground plant, so I figured it wouldn't outgrow my tank!) And since I started looking at tanks online to figure out what I need to do for my tanks(the goldfish have a 65 watt pc light from when I had my reef tank in my 20 gallon tank and my betta has the 15 watt regular light that came with that one when I got it) I have wanted to put plants and LITTLE(so I can have more!) community fish into my 20 gallon tank once we get settled so I can have another pretty tank to look at  I've never really kept a community tank before, all my parents would let me keep was my betta, and I got myself the reef and the goldfish when I moved away from their house when I was 21.

I am getting confused looking at things though. I was looking at the plant finder here and at another site to see what sort I thought looked nice and that I'd like to try, and then I started to look at the care requirements and some say they need a lot of things like fancy fertilizers(I have a bottle of flourish my friend gave me and she said that is all hers ever needed =/) and fancy lights(like what I have on my reef tank!) and the really expensive carbon dioxide systems. A few of the plants I like say they need those things and a few of them say that they'll just be not so nice looking if you don't have them and a few say they don't need them at all. If you don't have them, do they just not grow fast, or do they not grow at all and look bad until they die? I was also looking at some of the plants at aqua botanic and a lot that that site says are easy to care for say they are picky and need all of the fancy equipment here. I really want to set up my community tank right if I make one, so if I put a list of the plants I like here, could someone tell me if I need to get better lights and if I really have to have the other stuff to go with it too?

Thanks ^_^


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## huntersponyfarm (Sep 25, 2008)

Hi, I am in the same boat as you with the new planted tank. I guess, according to what I have been told, that I don't have enough light for my plants. Now I am trying to figure out what I can do to fix that. I am of the mind to take the black background off and let the window light come in. I am anxious to see what people say to your post.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...ums/14684-new-tank-setup-guide-parts-1-a.html is a good place to start getting the information you want.


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

Along with what Hoppy suggested, check out these other 2 sites for info:
http://www.aquatic-plants.org/articles/basics/pages/index.html
http://www.rexgrigg.com/

And welcome to APC!


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## huntersponyfarm (Sep 25, 2008)

I will for sure check those sites out. The tank has leveled out now. All fish are well, plants are growing, looking ok. Thanks for the help.


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## Riona (Sep 22, 2008)

Oops! I completely forgot that I quit just lurking around here ^_^ I've. . . Been reading the links you guys gave me! And looking at plants that I like. And I got a second betta! He's really pretty like my first one and I think I am going to divide my 20 gallon in half for them after I get it planted and just not do a community tank for a while. They'll be happier that way! I don't have any fish, so all I really would need to do with my reef tank is to get rid of some of my live rock(the pieces that don't have coral on them) and then once it cycles again get a pack from somewhere and cycle that and scape it.

Is it cheaper to buy the liquid fertilizers or the dry ones and have them forever? Or could I buy some liquid ones and then when I run out of them, get the dry stuff then? The 500 ml bottles of the flourish stuff say they treat up to 50,000 gallons of water, but I don't know how long that would last in a 20 gallon tank(I've seen the dosing guide here ) Should be a bit about 4,500 doses if I use their recommendations, right? I am going to use excel since I read that you can use that stuff instead of co2, and I'm soooooo not technically inclined! I'd blow up the house if I tried to set a regulator thingy up!

Would this light work? http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsU...4/cl0/coralifefwt5aqualightdoublestriplight24 It is a lot of light, but it only has one reflector. And isn't 1.5 watts of t5 supposed to be a lot? That is nearly what that one has without the reflector being counted. Or should I get the next size up? It is 30" and it has 2 18 watt bulbs instead of the 2 14 watt one that one's got an it still has one reflector.

All I know so far is that I want a moss wall of some sort, some stems in the background and some sort of foreground carpet plant. And maybe, if I'm lucky, I'll find enough plants that I like so I could make each side different instead of a mirror image of itself  I'm really still looking at plants though!


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