Beginner questions

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FreshwaterHawaii

Gambusia
MFK Member
Apr 1, 2011
203
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16
Hawaii
Hello MFK,

I've always wanted to setup a planted tank and I will now get my chance. I've read the stickies for some great info but still had some questions. My tank is a 30 gallon tall tank and i wanted to set it up very low tech style. I was planning on buying seachem flourite for my substrate but how much do i need? and am i supposed to mix it with gravel or can i just use exclusively flourite? I planned on growing java moss and java ferns and im looking for some recommendations for low tech plants? I do have a light but not sure which type yet. Any tips?

Just starting out very basic until i learn more...
 
FreshwaterHawaii said:
Hello MFK,

I've always wanted to setup a planted tank and I will now get my chance. I've read the stickies for some great info but still had some questions. My tank is a 30 gallon tall tank and i wanted to set it up very low tech style. I was planning on buying seachem flourite for my substrate but how much do i need? and am i supposed to mix it with gravel or can i just use exclusively flourite? I planned on growing java moss and java ferns and im looking for some recommendations for low tech plants? I do have a light but not sure which type yet. Any tips?

Just starting out very basic until i learn more...
Click to expand...

You can just use flourite. It doesn't matter how much you use, its really how much you want in the tank. I have a crappy light but a good light is the life glo 2. Its 20 watts and perfect for plants. You can grow a variety of plants, like mosses, ferns, swords, floating plants with low light. Java moss & fern do well in low light as well as christmas moss, flame moss, some swords, pennywort, frogbit, duckweed etc.

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ALSO just an fyi, Jave fern does not get burried. Attach both moss and fern to a nice piece of Driftwood.

If you are going for LOWTECH, stay in the Normal Output range.
 
Yeah if you want low-tech, definitely don't go with high output fixtures. One thing that hasn't been touched on is the kelvin rating of the bulbs you use. I have several planted tanks and always go with 6700k if I only have one bulb to work with and a 6700k/10,000k combo if I have a dual bulb fixture to work with.

Fluorite by itself will work just fine for you but if you plan on keeping fish like cory's you'll want to top it off with some sand or something similar considering fluorite is actually crushed up clay and is therefore really sharp for the cory's to be digging in. Additionally, if you just want to keep low-light plants like java moss/fern I wouldn't even use fluorite, just pick up a bag of play sand from Home Depot. If you really want to use fluorite, a single bag should do you just fine, that'll give you 1.5"-2" of coverage, but grab a second bag if you like a thicker substrate bed.
 
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