# Sooo Clueless



## Fresh (Feb 8, 2004)

i will be attempting my first live plant tank and i'm clueless on where to start. i know i want a low light set up. i have playsand as substrate and one t8 32 watt 6500k daylight bulb. plant wise i know to go with a low light one but what about nutrients and substrate? i've read about a root tab and co2 liquid, about all i know so far. thanks. trying to get this in before i buy the p's next week


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

Fresh said:


> i will be attempting my first live plant tank and i'm clueless on where to start. i know i want a low light set up. i have playsand as substrate and one t8 32 watt 6500k daylight bulb. plant wise i know to go with a low light one but what about nutrients and substrate? i've read about a root tab and co2 liquid, about all i know so far. thanks. trying to get this in before i buy the p's next week


low light plants typically don't need any ferts, especially if you have a saw toothed tetra in there lol

They create enough nitrates and phosphate, and if you do weekly water changes, micro nutrients should be just where you want them.

You NEED (just a rough calculation, not exactly) about 1wpg or so to do the trick. 
So therefore, your 32w 6500k bulb will be perfect for a 30g tank.

Hope that helped


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## Fresh (Feb 8, 2004)

well its a 55 gallon tank, i'm not using the second bulb since im into the dim look for piranha's. even with the one bulb i stil have it taped up so it's even dimmer.

sounds like that tetra is doing some work for you lol


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

Fresh said:


> well its a 55 gallon tank, i'm not using the second bulb since im into the dim look for piranha's. even with the one bulb i stil have it taped up so it's even dimmer.
> 
> sounds like that tetra is doing some work for you lol


You should use more lighting than your bulb over a 55 for low light plants, for best results.

I have used 220w of power compact lighting over a 75g tank with a compressus, and then with a rhom with NO problems at all. They loved the lighting in fact.

I have pictures on this site to prove it. Id go with at LEAST 55w of light, but that is me, and someone else might disagree with me here, but from my experience with plants, 1wpg as a GENERAL rule works great for a low light tank.

In fact, I had a low/medium light tank with no CO2, running 160watts of T12 lights over it for 10 hrs a day that grew really, really well.

But whatever you want to do, hope it works out for you


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## Fresh (Feb 8, 2004)

yea thats the problem since i dont want bright lighting at all for the piranha's


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

Give it a shot, you never know.

You could buy a bunch of java moss, and tie a thin layer on all your rocks and driftwood, and that would work, that stuff survives the lowest light of any plant I know of.

Did you see these tanks?
These have lots o light, the piranha loved it


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

You can do that light on a 55g though like dippy said if you want optimal growth and such you want a bit more light. If you don't mind slow growth the light you mentioned should suffice.


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## Fresh (Feb 8, 2004)

i have no rocks, im only gonna have one piece of driftwood as well. i will look into the java moss. well im not trying to turn my tank into a jungle lol so if the plants do grow slow then that is fine with me, all i care about is spending like $50-60 on plants and they end up dead. if i have to i will add the second bulb back in though. thanks


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## Fresh (Feb 8, 2004)

whats a root tab and would i need co2?


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

Low light tanks, no CO2 required.

Root tabs are ok for root feeding plants, but I wouldn't move the plants around at all with those in the substrate, as it can create ammonia spikes, and too much nutrients in the water column

(If you uproot the plants too early that is--I never use them)


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