1st attempt at a planted tank

[biggoballs]

Well my friend gave me a 150 gal a month ago and I couldn't decide what to put in it. I decided to go with plants and it has been up and running for almost a week now. I only bought 4 pots of plants so far, but if everything keeps growing I'll buy some more. I started with dwarf baby tears, giant baby tears, and some other grassy stuff. For substrate I used 50lbs laterite, 80lbs flourite, 12lbs floramax, and 100lbs sand. I just completed my regulator 2 days ago, so I was pretty excited about that. Kinda too excited, I broke the diffusor right away trying to put on the suction cups, so I had to glue it back together. I heard wet/dry sumps aren't good for plants? Because of that, I only have it on at night once my co2 and lights turn off. This is my first planted tank, so any advice is welcomed.
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[Pyramid_Party]

Sounds pretty good. What kind of lighting are you using? Reason why someone might of told you a wet/dry was bad was because of splashing. Lots of splashing/agitation at the surface gasses C02 out. Are you dosing any fertilizers? General rule of thumb, and you might know this, but make sure to put taller plants in the back and smaller in the front. Try to come up with some kind of design in the tank that looks good. Throw some rocks in there and wood if you can. Here is something you have to think about; what is your goal? Do you want something easy that will grow a few plants or do you want to go all out?

 

[L!NUS]

Good luck, I couldn't afford CO2 for my planted community so I don't have any ground cover plants, but I'm sure your's will look fantastic once they grow in. Are you planning on adding any Fauna. I think once everything grows in a big group of Harlequin Rasboras would look perfect.

 

[biggoballs]

Sounds pretty good. What kind of lighting are you using? Reason why someone might of told you a wet/dry was bad was because of splashing. Lots of splashing/agitation at the surface gasses C02 out. Are you dosing any fertilizers? General rule of thumb, and you might know this, but make sure to put taller plants in the back and smaller in the front. Try to come up with some kind of design in the tank that looks good. Throw some rocks in there and wood if you can. Here is something you have to think about; what is your goal? Do you want something easy that will grow a few plants or do you want to go all out?

I'm using 4 T8 and I was going to try diy fertz. I want to have plants everywhere!

Good luck, I couldn't afford CO2 for my planted community so I don't have any ground cover plants, but I'm sure your's will look fantastic once they grow in. Are you planning on adding any Fauna. I think once everything grows in a big group of Harlequin Rasboras would look perfect.

I have some cardinals and roselines in another tank, but I want to see how the plants do first. I might put shrimps only in there later.

 

[mgamer20o0]

might want to add another t8 fixture. some of the stems might need it.

 

[biggoballs]

got some plants and fertilizer from bob, awesome stuff

once i put in the fertilizer, everything started pearling like crazy

every single plant started pearling, even my marimo ball

got some banana plants from bob too