# Complete Honesty Here



## Sacrifice (Sep 24, 2006)

I just repaird a 30G Long tank that I plan on putting a Sanchezi in. My question is this. I love the look of a planted tank, I've always loved trying to give my Fish the most realistic tank possible but I've never completely tried a fully planted tank before.

Here's the honesty part:

I want a planted tank but I dont want to spend a lot of money on one.

*Can I grow and sustain a fully planted tank with just 1-1.5WPG of lighting, and only dosing a few liquid ferts.*

What do you think is the bare minimun to maintain a fully planted tank???? I plan on buying black or natural gravel and a light that produces 1-1.5wpg. I figured that I would do my first planted tank in a small tank so that I dont blow $100 bucks on plants for my larger tank. *So what do you guys feel are the bare necessities for a planted tank and be honest please.* I"m willing to shell out the cash if I have to, but I'd rather not on my first tank without knowing the just of it all. How hard is it to run a CO2 system, and if I do that do I have to continuously monitor every little param? Just being honest not lazy.

Thanks.


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## Ægir (Jan 21, 2006)

YES... here are some pics of my tanks previously... running around 1.5wpg, and a homemade CO2 generatior.... dosing with flourish, and iron once a week...



















I would look into a small ODNO fixture, and go for atleast 2+ wpg as i found it makes things easier to controll (algea, water params etc)

you can read up in a topic i made a while ago:

Operation Overdrive

once i made that fixture, things became more routine, and less of a fight all around.... i will get some updated pics when i return home from denver but i am still running a homeade co2, and dosing about the same....

oh... and drop me a PM if you need anything


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## Sacrifice (Sep 24, 2006)

Would 2wpg work without CO2...and I noticed that BigAls has a liquid CO2...does this stuff work???


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## Ægir (Jan 21, 2006)

Dunno about that liquid stuff, and if you go near 2wpg CO2 is a must... its extremely easy to make a DIY self CO2 system out of a bottle, sugar, and yeast.. you can surely find an article in the DIY fourm


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## Sacrifice (Sep 24, 2006)

I'll have to take a look a DIY CO2 system.


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## Fish on Fire (Oct 23, 2004)

Some plants can go without the CO2 system and with low light. Java fern and java moss for example. Just look for easy to grow plants that don't really need all that extra stuff to flourish. They may take longer to grow, but it's a hell of a lot less expensive.


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## BlackSunshine (Mar 28, 2006)

SB420's on the right track. 1.5 is doable without pressurized co2. I would recommend getting some excel to supply the carbon needs of the plants. But yeah its totally doable. I would also suggest a DIY or yeast can CO2 setup as well as the excel. 
I would recommend just getting a 2lt of Excel to begin with. it will be cheaper and last longer then getting the 250 or 500 ml bottles.

bare nessicties are

Decent plant substrate. Eco, Flourite, or soilmaster select (go to www.lesco.com and see if there is one near you best bang for your buck.) you want to give the plants 2-3" of substrate to take root in. 
light fixture with bulbs that are in the 5000K-10,000K range 
Full line of Ferts. Micro(flourish Comp), Macro (N,P,K) and Iron. Maybe Trace as well.


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## Sacrifice (Sep 24, 2006)

I put 56watt light 6700K. I've been using Flourish Excel and so far so good. At least my plants aren't turning brown. I ended up using black gravel. Wish I had a decent camera I'd post some pics.


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## BlackSunshine (Mar 28, 2006)

If you wanna add some plant friendly substrate and mix it into yoru gravel you can hit homedepot and in the fert section there is a product called Schultz aquatic soil. works great. its a little light in color but aside from that its cool.


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## Sacrifice (Sep 24, 2006)

BlackSunshine said:


> If you wanna add some plant friendly substrate and mix it into yoru gravel you can hit homedepot and in the fert section there is a product called Schultz aquatic soil. works great. its a little light in color but aside from that its cool.


How does the plant substrate do with gravel vacs? I've always been afraid of using it because I didnt know what it would do when I vac'd it. I had sand once and I hated vacuuming it.


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## BlackSunshine (Mar 28, 2006)

it works the same as gravel. its just a bit smaller but one thing. I reread and noticed you said you had black gravel. I wouldn't mix schultz with black gravel. 
If you are serious about doing it up as a planted I would really reccomend hitting up a lesco and getting some soilmaster select. Its about 15 bucks for a 50lb bag. rinse it real good and use that instead.


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

diy co2 is so cheap and easy (also can combine multiple bottles for more co2)

you could also do some driftwood with cryps on the floor, and some javamoss and fern in the driftwood


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## ...Jay... (Nov 2, 2006)

This thread makes me happy. I was just about to make one asking the same thing. "What is the bare minimum for starting out" kinda thing. I've never had a planted tank, but love how they look.

I got something cool yesterday at a garage sale. Its a center piece for a table, but is basically a perfect circle of glass that holds around 2 1/2 gal(bigger than basketball, smaller than beach ball). I thought some java, one plant in the middle with some snails, 1 crayfish, and a few guppies, would be nice. I got everything in there but the guppies. Oh and I collected some of that stuff that grows on the surface like little green things, from a turtle/frog pond.

Thinking I'll give it a go. So will it just grow under a light, or should I fert it once in a while and add co2? I have yeast for my dart frogs fruit flies, so a diy co2 should be no problem if its needed.


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## bsonetwo (Aug 25, 2006)

a good starting out plant that can be used in many different ways (i.e bent into shapes, walls, etc.) is bamboo. i have about 10 bamboo plants in my tank and when i get them exactly right as far as shape wise i am gonna add more. bamboo is a hardy plant and doesnt require much to hold it down in a tank.


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## cueball (May 24, 2005)

just buy some java fern and let it bloom up it may take a wile but it well be cheep ... there hardy

actualy the only way to kill them is to much light and extra fertz thats what ive seen happen anyways


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## BlackSunshine (Mar 28, 2006)

bsonetwo said:


> a good starting out plant that can be used in many different ways (i.e bent into shapes, walls, etc.) is bamboo. i have about 10 bamboo plants in my tank and when i get them exactly right as far as shape wise i am gonna add more. bamboo is a hardy plant and doesnt require much to hold it down in a tank.


No. Actually bamboo is one of the worst plants for planted tanks since they are not true aquatic plants. If you don't have the tops emerged they WILL rot away. And then with the tops emerged you have to have a open top tank and no canopy. 
a better starting plant is swords. they are pretty hardy and will grow in most conditions.


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