Actually there's 4 main categories with planted tanks...
1) Substrate
2) Lighting
3) Nutrients
4) Co2
Once you've got these down the plants will flourish with healthy growth, so lets discuss these 4 things...
1) Substrate - Why is substrate important; Because you want a substrate with a high CEC ratio (Cation Exchange Capacity), a CEC substrate will soak up nutrients in the water and then slowly releases them back into the water over time. High CEC substrates would be Flourite, Eco-Completes, All Natural Cat Litter, ect... And yes people do use kitty litter as a substrate such as, Special Kitty All Natural Kitty Litter is the brand I mix in with flourite. It's 100% safe, it's dye and chemical free and has a high CEC.
2) Lighting - This is a major factor in what kind of tank you want, low tech/low light, medium, or high tech/high light. Personally I always go with T5HO light fixtures because it lets me put more focus on the lighting wavelengths and here's why...
The image above shows the chlorophyll peaks in live plants, plants have 2 chlorophyll stages chlorophyll A and chlorophyll B which peak at different wavelengths. I go with T5HO quad fixtures because it lets me use a specific lighting schedule, but the bulbs I use are important because they hit the peaks of the chlorophyll wavelengths.
Here's a list of the bulbs I use and my lighting schedule.... (front to back) 6500k, 420nm actinic, 12,000k white actinic, WavePoint ultra growth wave bulb.
8am front bulbs turn on (6500k/420nm-actinic)
10am rear bulbs turn on (12,000k-actinic/wavepoint-ugw)
2pm front bulbs shut off
4 rear bulbs shut off
This schedule gives a 4 hour burst of light simulating high noon sun light... Here's the wavepoint ugw bulb wavelengths...
As you can see the wavelengths line up with the chlorophyll picture, which is why I use them but they are only produced in T5HO.
3) Nutrients - Nutrients are important for every living organism to sustain life, Nutrients or Ferts for short are supplied in the aquarium a few different ways. Such as dry or liquid solution, and fish waste; Plants need these nutrients for a healthy life...
There's 2 classes of nutrients 1) Macro which is your Nitrates, Phosphates, and K-Potassium; 2) Micros which is everything in between like iron, magnesium, boron, etc...
Yes, there are people who have healthy planted tanks without the use of ferts, but that's because the fish supply the nutrients via their waste but that's a whole different story I'm going to avoid lol.
4) Co2 - C02 or carbon dioxide is another thing that plants need, whether it's a DIY co2 system, automated co2 system, flourish excel, and by fish "breathing". An automated co2 system is when there's a regular/solenoid, and a co2 tank that supply the aquarium with co2. A DIY system is what we call the poor mans method (I'm a poor man) where utilizing bakers yeast, and sugar produces co2 which us caused by the yeast using the sugar.
Flourish Excel is a carbon supplement that people use in place of any kind of co2 system, however it should be said that some plants have trouble utilizing excel and melt/die. Sum of these plants are species of Vals, don't know why they have trouble with excel but not looking into it....
