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Well, I have decided to become truly addicted to this hobby and undertake live plants. Unfortunately, I'm not really sure where to start. I have read the sticky with Frank's excellent advice as well as the FAQ. I have looked at azgarden packages and I'm considering purchasing the easy life kit. Hopefully I can pick this board's very knowledgeable aquascapers to help me do this right.

Here are the specs on my tank.
It is a 25G Tall Tank with Eclipse System2 Hood and Bio-Wheel.
There are two 18" 15W lights.
I am using a 2" to 3" of layer pea gravel.
There are several fake plants and some bogwood.
The tank dimensions are 24"x12"x19".

Here are some pics as the tank looks right now.
http://www.bean-family.com/rick/images/tank.jpg
As well as the gravel with a one inch ruler.
http://www.bean-family.com/rick/images/gravel.jpg

I want this to stay a low tech setup as I am not yet willing to get into all the CO2 and customs lights.

My goal is to have a tank that is a little more comfortable for my fish and appeasing to the eye. I'm not trying to win an aquascape contest though and would like to keep it easy to maintain.

Where do I begin transforming this to a planted tank? What other plants in addition to the ones in the package do you recommend?
Should I get any fertilizers like Flourish and Flourish Excel?
Do you have any suggestions on how I can aquascape it to look nice?


I look forward to your comments and suggestions. I may even turn this into a journal documenting the steps that I take.
Thanks
-Rick


Rick
See all my pictures at Google Web Albums

Wow, that's not bad for fake plants.

You have a little more than 1.5 watts per gallon, so that's not a bad start. Good plants would probably be some aponogetons (mimicked by the tall plastic plant in the left and right back corners), some crypts, and you can try some bunch plants like bacopa or rotala, thought they might get leggy due to not enough light. Anubias would be nice, too, though you'll definitely want to go for the smaller varieties like nana, coffeefolia, and maybe congensis. You can either plant these in the substrate (making sure that most of the rhizome is above the gravel) or tie it onto that chunk of wood. Java fern and/or java moss (or any of the similar mosses) can also be tied to the wood and do well in the relatively low lighting you have. You may want to get some basic fertilizers like flourish excel, regular flourish, and probably the nitrogen and phosphorus supplements, too. Most of these plants will do okay without, though, they will just grow very slowly.

I am not overly fond of AZ Gardens packets. They may say they are easy, but only experience can really tell you otherwise. I also think that their packets are too large for your relatively small tank. Aponogetons are easy to get at your LFS, or even a Wal-Mart. They come as little fuzzy bulbs, and I've had good luck with most of them sprouting in a week or two. Crypts like balansae and spiralis can give you a tall grassy background, and crypts like wenditii are small and look good in the foreground. These plants are nearly unkillable and do perfectly well in low light with no ferts. As some moss and maybe an anubias or two, and I think you have a decent, easy aquascape. Some bunches of rotala indica and bacopa will add texture, and I've had no problem not adding ferts with those plants.

Hoping that there must be a word for everything I mean...

Thanks for the tank complement I appreciate it.

Some more questions though. Should I plant the tank all at once or can I add plants over time? My concern is that when I put in one plant I need to keep the lights on, but if there aren't enough plants to use the nutrients then algae will take over.

Also, is my gravel suitable for the plants you recommended?


Rick
See all my pictures at Google Web Albums

It's true, if you don't have enough plants to use up enough nutrients, algae can move in. However, I don't think you have enough light to make this an immediate concern. It doesn't look like you've got algae on the plastic plants or the gravel, so I think you have some wiggle room to add plants slowly.
Your gravel is fine for pretty much any kind of plant. I suggest getting a pair of tweezers if you plan on getting any stem plants, though, because they are difficult to get them to stay put in the gravel if they have no roots yet.

Hoping that there must be a word for everything I mean...

Rick,

Focus on low light plants. These plants would be many cryptocorynes, java fern, many annubias var., some echinodorus and very few stem plants. I can suggest many plants but you need to know what they look like and how large that they will grow.

Voila! I can suggest going to www.tropica.com, a plant company that does a great job in providing information on their website. Pay close attention to that black bar in the upper right hand part of their home page - ADVANCED SEARCH.

In ADVANCED SEARCH, you can put in your tank parameters and what you want in a plant. Tropica will make suggestions and you can see what the plants look like! It's a great way to research plants...

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

all of the info stated before was good but i think the snail situation needs addressing. It is alright to have a few small ones in a planted tank but as many as you have would harm plants with delicate leaves and eat the tips off. Just remove some as you see them each day or install snail eating fish.

I've thought about the snails a little bit, but to be honest I really haven't worried about it to much. I guess the reason why they are so prolific right now is that there is plenty of food available. The tank only has one Neon Tetra so no matter how little I feed, flake or Bloodworms always seem to make it to the bottom for the snails to feed on.

Before I plant the tank, I planned on added 11 more tetras and 6 Cories to the tank to help clean the bottom. I had hoped with more fish to feed off the food, the Cories to sniff around the bottom, and no live plants the snails would start to die off.

I am I being to wishful here? Should I start culling them now?


Rick
See all my pictures at Google Web Albums

Escargot time!

Yeah I'd start culling them, they will b e able to find food that you and I can't see. I would also add the plants BEFORE adding the new fish, and add the fish in small batches to prevent a mini cycle from happening. The plants will help with the excess nutrients when you add the fish. In fact it is usually recommended to start the tank with plants well in advance of adding any fish to get the plants established and actually using nutrients (you will have to add some) before the fish come in. It makes the transition much easier on the fish.
I would start with low-light plants like you yourself said and Bob Wesloski has suggested good ones. Get Flourish excel, Kents has a product with iron, potassium and the trace minerals, it looks good to me, or you can go with Tropica Master Grow for your trace elements. When the fish go in you may not need to add as much Nitrogen but to start with you may need a source of that, I use Plant-Gro N,P,K, but there are probably other better products out there. You can get just nitrogen from the flourish line as well. There are actually a lot of options, check out the logs of Little_Fish, Tetratech and Nowhereman6, they discuss fertilizers in great detail, especially at the beginning.

"If you're afraid you'll make a mistake, you won't make anything."
-Family Circus