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hi all,

all of u green thumns out there i need some help on what to do with my tank. Right now there is two live plants in there. Its a ten gallon, that is fully cycled. Can u give me some tips, pictures, ideas, advice and products that has worked for you guys! I'd appreciate it.


Peter

20 GALLON LONG CURRENTLY EMPTY ~~~~ 10 GALLON W/ STRIPPED CONVICT

And by the way i need all the tips, advice, pics. etc. on how to start a planted tank...slipped my mind...stupid me...lol

20 GALLON LONG CURRENTLY EMPTY ~~~~ 10 GALLON W/ STRIPPED CONVICT

hello Peter

In order to help you, the following information would be really really useful:

- What is the existing substrate of your tank?
- If you have lighting, what kind and what wattage?
- Do you know the names of the plants that are already there? (If not, a description might help to identify them). How are they doing in the tank?
- What kind of fish do you have?

Looking forward to helping you plan your tank
whetu

Peter,

I assume that you are looking for ideas and a place to get information. At his point in time, you know that you would like a planted tank but you don't know where to start or what you would like it to appear when you are finished.

Here is a great site for wonderful planted aquariums: http://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2004.cgi

Key considerations for setting up your tank for plants will be the water parameters, lighting, substrate and temperature. This site http://www.tropica.com is an excellent site with great articles. Most important is the "Advanced Search" found in the upper right hand portion of the home screen. It takes you to an area that allows you to plug in your tank parameters. The engine that gives a list of plants...

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

And let's not forget Bensaf's great article (in three parts) in the Planted Aquaria forum: Want to know the secret of a successful tank?".

Hi Peter,

Welcome to the green side

For starters you should read some of the already posted articles there are in this thread and in the aquatic plant one, you will sure find some good answers on how to start.

You will find that in order to keep a successful planted tank, you don't have to do something really special, it's just a matter of creating a balance between the lights you have, and the plant species you want to keep in your tank.

You may get confused with terms, but don't worry, it's actually easy to keep up with them, if you are starting, and you already have to live plants on your tank that are doing well, then you have a good start, all you have to do is keep up whatever you are already doing, and add more plants, forget for now to change the substrate, adding CO2 or fertilizers, go with your plants rhythm, plants will let you know if they need something more to keep growing healthy.

As for design, I tend not to recommend for people to look at "professional" tanks like the AGA site, of course it's a great site and tanks there are gorgeous, but it's like looking at beauty magazines, it often comes with a dose of frustration, after watching all those tanks you tend to look at yours and feel the equivalent of "fat".

I would recommend you to just go ahead and play with your aquascape, try new things, move them around, experiment. HAVE FUN! As I said before emulating an already established tank in the beginning can often be very frustrating.

Learn as much as you can about the plants you own already and the ones you plan to keep, learn your parameters of light, and you are in a right path.

As for design, I can help you with that, if you give me a starter idea of what you have in mind, I can do an electronic drawing of how the tank may look and post it here so that you can use it as a reference. just let me know.

Thx Guys and Gals!

I really appreciate the replys! Heres some of the info on my tank:

10 gallon
25 watts
2 live plants
Subsrate gravel
I dont know the species of my two current plants but heres the description of them:

1.) One is very tall and grows like crazy . Its very clover like and kind of skinny, its doing fantastic and the fish like because of its hiding purposes.

2.) This newly added plant is very bunchy like. The employee at my lfs said that this plant is capible of reproducing itself therefore allowing me to clip it and replant it????

Any way this some of the maor information on my tank...as for the fis go..i have 2 cherry barbs, one gold barb, 3 x-ray tetras, 2 corys and one snail.


Flastaf

i would appreciate the tank picture thingy as soon as u can...i dont have thet much time right now but ill post soon!




20 GALLON LONG CURRENTLY EMPTY ~~~~ 10 GALLON W/ STRIPPED CONVICT

Hi again,

I just came back from the lfs and boy dd i get alot of good stuff...i bought a new water syphon, ph tester, plant fertilizer, and a new live plant by the name of a norwiegin? ( if i spelled that right? ) and got my money back for my deciesed corys.

Any way, back to the subject of live plants. I have a question:

Q: How many plants can i have in my tank...is this a depending factor on my watts?


Petr

20 GALLON LONG CURRENTLY EMPTY ~~~~ 10 GALLON W/ STRIPPED CONVICT

Hi Peter,

No it does not depend on your WPG, it depends on the look you want to achieve, you can have a big jungle like tank with many many plants or you can have specimen tank where you just show less plants or a a variety of one, it all depends on what you want, of course if you croud up your tank the plants in the lower parts will get less light which will cause bare stems.

Ok thanks for stickin with me...

ok, well i just bought a new amazon i think and i like the broad green leafy look and would love to have a corner of my tank like that...and then maybe some more plants on the other side, kind of sloping twords the back of one corner so it gives my fish a place to hang out and a middle region so they can swim with maybe a hollowed out rock or drift wood? What do you think? Here are some of my plants...i have only four..:

1: I am pretty sure that i have some sort Norwiegen..
2: One Amazon
3: I am not sure about my two other but i will give you some descriptions and maybe you can identify them...


ok the first one is very skinny stemmed...with little clovers all over and its tall and skinny..

the second is a leaft morsal with ridges on the ends of the leaves and its got a reddish stem...


Thanks for all your help so far...Peter

20 GALLON LONG CURRENTLY EMPTY ~~~~ 10 GALLON W/ STRIPPED CONVICT

Not to b rude because iam sure that ur busy...but stil waiting....


Peter

20 GALLON LONG CURRENTLY EMPTY ~~~~ 10 GALLON W/ STRIPPED CONVICT

Peter17,
Give it time, and no continual bumping of the posts please.

For questions specific to a type of plant, try the planted form found [link=here]http://www.fishprofiles.com/interactive/forums/forum.asp?id=11" style="COLOR: #EB4288[/link].

Thank you,

~Your Friendly Babelfish.

^_^
[hr width='40%']"I'm alright, I'm alright
It only hurts when I breathe"