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Alright I want a planted tank I think. So I think I will total all of my unanswered questions here in one post in which I won't need any more boards . But wheras most people stock fish after planting a fish tank, I already have the fish, so here was my plan, and I need you guys to tell me if this works. So first I bought this ten gallon in a kit from wal mart. It has incandescent lighting, and later I plan to switch to flourescent DAYLIGHT or SUNLIGHT before planting. But I think I will buy another ten gallon without a filter, hood, heater, or lighting and start planting in that fish tank while leaving my fish in the other fish tank with the hood. So I put some flourite substrate on the bottom, and then sprinkle black gravel on the top of that, and begin planting. But my problem is, I only have one filter. So who needs it more, my fish or my plants? And can my plants/fish survive for a few weeks with no filtration and only an airstone? (I have never used one of those and I need someone to tell me how that works if I use that). And what about cycling the tank? Should I cycle it with my fish first before planting? Or will the planting take care of that? And after planting and after it is cycled, do I add the fish then? And which would be a better stocking for a planted tank? 1 male betta, two cherry barbs, and four khuli loaches? (My current stocking) Or 1 male betta, two cherry barbs, and 4-6 long finned danios? (2 inches each) Does it matter? And will khulis uproot any plants in there? And I was planning on adding a ramshorn snail, but do they reproduce like crazy? Or will adding one be fine, and will they leave my plants alone? And how do you clean a newly arrived plant of snail eggs or snails themselves?

Otherwise I think my fifty questions just about cover it, and I have been doing some reading on plants. I also went to my lfs, and they suggested a 16$ light bulb that would allow me to grow pretty much any plant. How much can I expect to pay, and is that reasonable? Or should I go with the original light bulb (unless that is the original light bulb as I am not sure which one it was he was describing.

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer ^_^ I know it's a lot, but I really want to do this right, and I hope it made sense.

Fish are like potato chips. . .you can't have just one

dreamseeker12,

Before the site crashed on Monday I already added an entry to this thread, maybe you had a chance to read it.

Basically, what I said was that I would recommend not to throw all these questions into one thread as incoming answers will be all over the place and digging into a subject focussed would be almost impossible. I would suggest to break it down into subject related threads, like "Redoing an Existing Tank", "Lighting for My Planted Tank", and what not.

Hope this helps,

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Thanks little fish ^_^ I did read the earlier post actually, and I must thank you for your imput. However, I would have to start so many threads one could accuse me of spamming

Fish are like potato chips. . .you can't have just one

I would have to start so many threads one could accuse me of spamming

- good one, haven't thought about that

No seriously, if your individual threads are not called "Should I use Anubias Nana" and the next one is called "Should I use Anubias Barteri" I think you would be fine. Grouping them by topic like plants, fish, hardscape, changing substrate, light should pretty much cover all the basics and that would be maybe 5 to 7 threads, not sooooo much.

Also, think about how you would respond to a thread that has as many questions as yours. You may feel that you have the knowledge to answer one of them, but then you somehow feel obligates to state something to the other questions as well. It is just too overwhelming for most people. Let's assume you get a few answers, first one to one topic, next to 2 more topics, third one again with info to the first topic and another not yet answered question, and so forth. How long do you think it would take until nobody knows the status of the individual questions and how much have they been answered already anymore?



Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club