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Hi all.

I am very keen on starting up a new planted aquaria. Im getting a 3 x 1.5 x 1.5 tank and wanted to start up something simple and beautiful. I cant afford co2 injection, so I am wondering what the recommended plants are for a system like mine. I will offcourse have lights etc etc on the hood. I am thinking of getting either a hangon filter system (3 stage) or a cannister filter. Any recomendations?

Cheers

the earlybird gets the worm.... but the second mouse gets the cheese...

Jimbooo,

Lighting, temperature, pH and hardness will drive the plants that you will be able to maintain in the tank.

Your initial considerations will be light intensity and substrate. Light intensity is determined by watts per gallon. If you have 60 watts of light over 30 gallons, you have 2 watts per gallon (wpg). A simple rule of thumbe for you would be over 3 wpg - bright, over 2 wpg - medium and under 2 wpg low light.

Now that you have a rough idea of light intensity, let's talk about substrate. Many plants like a nutrient rich substrate like fluorite or EcoComplete, some plants could care less. I recommend using a good substrate with a depth of 3 to 4 inches in your aquarium. Many swordplants (echinodorus) and cryptocorynes need deep substrate or the root system will push the plants out from the substrate.

I highly recommend using www.tropica.com for research. The ADVANCED SEARCH button takes to to a screen that allows you to input your tank parameters and receive a list of plants. Great site!

I also encourage you to take a look at the aquascapes at www.aquatic-gardeners.org/ for some wonderful ideas.

Remember oscars are a wrecking crew for planted tanks.



__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

As Bob as alreayd said, lighting and substrate are your big to starter. If you do not want to run CO2 then I would go with a Low to Med. lighted tank. You will be limiting yourself for plants/growth rate but don't let this limit your creativity.

Check out keithgh's tank for a easy low light ideas.
Pictures

Plants like:
Anubias
Java Fern
Java Moss

Are great starter plants that will be really hard for you to mess up.

Crypts are also good but then you would need a good substrate like Flourite or Eco.

Flourite is messy and needs tons of rinsing. This can be made easy by putting small amounts in a large fine mesh fish net and rinsing with a hose. (This is what I have in my tank and it works well)

Eco is a little simpiler. No rinsing! (Bob likes this one because of this and it also works well)

Other than the websites that Bob hooked you up with, take some time to read some of the really long threads in the planted forum. Also look up stuff from Tom Barr's.

Hope this helped.
Don't be afraid to ask questions.
Take your time and do it right the first time.



55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

thanks for the websites.

im going to have angel fish, cardinals and platties in the tank.

cool!

the earlybird gets the worm.... but the second mouse gets the cheese...

Make sure you get your cardinals nice and fat before adding the angles. Make sure your angles are smaller too. Problem being cardinals = angle snack!

Keep us updated on what you have going on!

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric