New to Planted

[JohnTr]

Hi everyone, I'm new to the planted tank. Mostly of my fish keeping time is monster fish. And now, my gf asked me about a planted tank for her office. I have couple questions. Where do you buy equipment, lights, co2,....ect? and Where do you buy plant, fish, and snail? for the good-price and quality.
Thank a lot.
JohnTr

 

[Deadliestviper7]

Look online and on Craigslist for good deals on equipment, most snails are best wild collected, a good exotic petstorecontains a lot of the good fishes, look up some in your area, I'll let the plant geeks tell u where to buy plants. Have u thought about native fish for your tank such as orange throat and green stripe darters, studfish,Redfin shiners etc in a long flow tank.

 

[Deadliestviper7]

Pond snails, Amano shrimp, vampire shrimp and bamboo shrimp , native mussels and microcrabs might be good additions, make sure u have good lighting for the plants.

 

[joe jaskot]

Any fish clubs in your area? I get most of my plants from club auctions or trading with other members.

 

[xxUnRaTeDxxRkOxx]

I get some of my plants from people on http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/ , I also get some from http://trinsfish.com/plants/

My lighting was from ebay, for both of my 45 gallon long and my 30 gallon tanks, filters are from ebay, co2 regulator from ebay, co2 tank is from a local liquor store who sells them and also refills them.

Dry fertilizers are from http://greenleafaquariums.com/aquarium-fertilizer.html

Fish are from local fish stores, driftwood was found by a local river, flourite and floramax substrate are from petsmart.... Tanks and stands are from craigslist!

 

[JohnTr]

Thanks for all your advices, i was searching on Craigslist, nothing's there. Only 2,3 local forums and they are mostly in cichlids. And one planted aquarium group on fb, but last updated was 2014.

 

[Deadliestviper7]

Craigslist the place to buy tanks, but u might have to order online if u want some of the better/ more exotic plants. But your local fish store should carry elodea, Java fern, and a assortment of sword plants.

 

[Kentuknown]

Best advice I can give is to choose your species of plants carefully. It can be just as easy as having a tank of plastic plants if you select the species you know will thrive in your specific set up.

 

[Frog111]

Head to planted tank.net. . Lots of info there and will get you pointed in the right direction. The challenge for you will be how often will you be at the office to work on the tank, or will the SO. Do some of the maintenance ? My wife has a tank in her classroom that I maintain. Had to go for a low tech approach, slower growing plants, lower light, since I am not there often, and she won't do much other than feed the fish.

 

[skjl47]

Hello; Been doing planted tanks for over 50 years without Co2, so I know it is not a basic requirement. From the posts on forums about the Co2 it appears to be an enhancement.
Another area is the lighting. In the last couple of decades I have noted the arrival of some pricey light fixtures. Money was tight during the first few decades of my tank keeping and I got into the practice of making or modifying light fixtures.
In the last few years I have modified light hoods to use the screw in LED bulbs that fit a standard socket. The old hoods that took the incandescent bulbs were fairly easy to modify. The hoods for the fluorescent tubes took more work and some hardware sockets. Anyway turns out using the LED bulbs in the 5000 to 6500K range will grow plants. Of note, I went with the CFL (compact fluorescent) bulbs for a number of years and they work also.
Of course if money is not a consideration there are some nice units out there.

It has been a while since I ordered from them, but when I taught I ordered tank supplies from Carolina Biological Supply. The are some other school supply outfits as well. These outfits may still have live plants.