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i was wondering if anyone could tell me how to plant a tank, maintain it and the basics to raising a tank with plants in it while keeping fish healthy too?

my tank is a year and 6-7 months old now. i test pH and nitrates and they stay constantly the same. my fish stock is below in my signature if you would like to know what fish i own.

but all i need to know is the basics from the start to the end!!!any help is much appreciated!!! also any suggestions on what plants are easy to maintain for beginners would be helpful and any special equipment to keep plants.


[span class="edited"][Edited by 2004-07-15 22:28][/span]

[span class="edited"][Edited by 2004-07-17 20:56][/span]

kj fishy-finn <*)))><
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you'll need light for the plants, about 2 watts per gallon should be fine for starting. fluorescent lights only.

hornwort, crypts, anubias, java fern, and wal-mart bulbs are pretty easy to grow, at least thats what i had.

makesure your gravel is somewhat fine, 3 mm in diameter is probably ok. and you'll need at LEAST 2 inches of gravel.

give your plants about 10-14 hours of light a day, although i wouldnt go over 12 hours, because unwanted algea wil be knocking on your door.

makesure you do partial water change to provide the plants with minerals they need to grow.

thats all i can think of right now, good luck.

[font color="#000080"]apart from what greenfootball has said above, i want to add some more comments.
your stock level is over the sky
for plants, first decide what lights are you planning to have
they don't come cheap, so plan the light first then the plants
gravel from 1mm to 3mm is suitable (less than 1mm with end up having anerobia bacteria built up, more then 3mm will create too much space)
java ferns are great choice with any light (even no light)
wisterias are great at building a back drop, they grow really really fast and suck up all the unwanted nutrient
hornworts are great too, easy to keep and does the same as wisteria

anything else, just ask me or anyone from FP

first of all, why do you say my tank is overstocked??? because actually that right now is really understocked for it. my LFS said that the two angelfish should be fine in my tank. i also think that they are suppose to be smaller at full grown, right now they are about 1 1/2 inches long. but if you say so then maybe i should check the total length of inches again.

second, i believe my lights are flourescent but i would have to check the watts. the hood with the light came made for a 20 gallon tank from the store though. also i would need to check the gravel size but it is kind of big, i hope it will work!!!

third, with the suggestions for plants could you suggest easy plants for:
background plants - tall plants that will hide the background more and cover my filter tube that hangs down.
middle plants - half as tall as background plants to fill in space in aquarium.
short plants - to fill in the front of aquarium and provide a sort of little yard area.

but these would have to be easy to grow since i still have to care for the fish, my bird and the dog.

any other things i need to know for plant growing would be great!!! oh, and my lights are on from around 6:00am to around 9:00pm and are set onto a timer so that they are on the same time every day.

kj fishy-finn <*)))><
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well, i dont think your tank is way over stocked, but as your angels grow, you'll have to think out the numbers. another thing i just noticed is that your cory, and cardinals, they should be kept in a small group, but since you are pushing your limit, i guess it'll be ok for now.

for background, easiest you can find right now is hornwort, and wisteria

for midground, get crypts or some shorter type of anubia

for foreground though... some kind of yard? you mean the grassy carpet look? i havent tried that yet, so i cannot give you suggestions. most foregrounds need a lot of light and care though.

your timer need to be shorter, shoot for 12 hours, try to do 7am to 7pm if thats possible, or if you wanna see your aquarium lit at night, then do 9 to 9.

your fluorescent light, if you only have one tube, most likely you are running 20 watts, makes your tank 1wpg, you'll want to get another tube.

good luck

my light is 15 watts and is flourescent. will it work??? do some plants need less light than others and if so then would these work?

kj fishy-finn <*)))><
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if its only 15 watts, i would strongly recommend another tube, if you go to homedepot you can get one for 10 bucks, with tube will be 15 bucks total, not too bad.


if you are into wood work, you can make a hood that holds a couple compact bulbs, that would be way better since you can put a lot more light this way. thats what i did, i have 5 bulbs in that thing, plus a light strip.

your tank is considered low light, so i would only go with java fern, crypt, and hornwort. i know for sure that crypt will do GREAT in low light, java fern is VERY slow growing, and hornwort can get VERY messy. becareful when you introduce crypt into your tank, soak it in tap water for 15 minutes first, then rinse it with fresh tap water, this way it wont "melt"

good luck

greenfootball, you wouldn't by any chance have pictures of these three plants that you could post so i can get some idea of what they are???

also what do you mean the hornwart can get very messy??? because i don't want something that will mess the tank up.

are there any other plants that do very well in low light besides those three, and please tell if they are back, mid or foreground so i can get an idea of what to research.

kj fishy-finn <*)))><
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