First planted tank - 10g

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Z

Zfishies

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Apr 5, 2010
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Milky Way Galaxy,
Hey guys I want to start a small heavily planted tank. As my first planted tank what should I start with with? Any special gravel I need? Co2? I have a SW coral lighting on the tank right now. Can I add all the plants at once or do I need the tank to cycle first?

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Different plants require different things. Some need lots of lighting, some need CO2, some get their nutrients from the soil and some get it from the water. Give us a list of plants you want and we'll be able to point you in the right direction.

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Probably any plant that doesn't require serious lighting. Other than that I dont mind buying new gravel and co2.

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Doing some research I think ill be going with Java Fern, Java moss, amazon sword, amazon frog bait. Do I need to wait for the tank to cycle through before adding plants in?

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Zfishies said:
Doing some research I think ill be going with Java Fern, Java moss, amazon sword, amazon frog bait. Do I need to wait for the tank to cycle through before adding plants in?

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The Java fern and moss will benefit from being attached to driftwood. They pull their nutrients from the water. They also don't require much lighting either.
The sword you'll either want some planted tank substrate or some root tabs. As it pulls it's nutrients from the substrate. Also it will require more light than the Java's but I wouldn't go buy new lighting yet, your reef LED's might do fine.
I don't really know anything about frogbit other than it's a floating pad. We'll have to wait for someone else to chime in.

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Thinking now the frogbait might cover to much surface area to allow light into to tank. So it doesn't seem that I need to let the tank cycle if I have proper gravel and drift wood as they get their nutrients from those items. Please correct me if im wrong. Ill be picking up the plants friday.

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Zfishies said:
Thinking now the frogbait might cover to much surface area to allow light into to tank. So it doesn't seem that I need to let the tank cycle if I have proper gravel and drift wood as they get their nutrients from those items. Please correct me if im wrong. Ill be picking up the plants friday.

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No need to cycle the tank at all unless you will be introducing fish or shrimp.

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Plants actually help with cycling. You said you are using a salt water light though? That's not really good for plant growth. It's intense but the color spectrum doesn't help plants and will only help algae get a foot hold.

Also, if you don't know what substrate you want to do yet, I suggest doing organic potting mix, with 1.5" of some smaller substrate like sand or flourite or eco-complete (essentially, anything that catches your fancy), as dirt in a low tech tank will basically be super easy to maintain and all.
 
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