i been in this hobby for almost 20 years now an never thought of starting a planted tank. The main question for a common planted tank is it better for a deep tank like say a 37 gallon or more horizontal like a 40 gallon breeder? I’m not worried bout price cause it’s for the miss.
Going to start my aqua garden
- Thread starter Predatorykeeper
- Start date
The only plants I know is Java fern, Java moss, Amazon sword, an assorted rooted driftwood an those banana plants? But other then that I haven’t not. She wants something like sandy soil, plants an driftwood with guppies, mollies, swordtails, an Cory’s. So myself I wanna go as big as possible for the space provided which right now could be a 110 but I was wanting to stay on the smaller 55- side if I could.
Something consider when deciding on a planted tank...what type of scape, which will lead to the type of plants...leading to type of lighting. Carpeting plants like dwarf hair grass and dwarf baby tears require more intense lighting so a more shallow would work better...whereas java fern and anubias require less lighting so a tall tank would not affect it much.
Go rimless...you won’t need a lid. It’ll prevent lighting from penetrating fully.
Go rimless...you won’t need a lid. It’ll prevent lighting from penetrating fully.
Sounds to melike you’re looking to setup a low tech tank...
Sand substrate as a bottom = Inert substrate, so you’ll possibly be limited a little in plant selection because of that...
With that said, plants that can be tied to driftwood etc would be a good choice; so things like Anubias / Mosses / Bucephalandra /
You could also throw in some floating plants for the surface such as Frogbit or Water Lettuce to help dim lighting and use up any extra nutrients in the tanks water column ...
Sand substrate as a bottom = Inert substrate, so you’ll possibly be limited a little in plant selection because of that...
With that said, plants that can be tied to driftwood etc would be a good choice; so things like Anubias / Mosses / Bucephalandra /
You could also throw in some floating plants for the surface such as Frogbit or Water Lettuce to help dim lighting and use up any extra nutrients in the tanks water column ...
I love sand in a planted tank. You can use root tabs for root feeders. (I use diy tabs) I have no problems growing several different kinds of swords and crypts.
A wider tank will give you more room to play with the scape and create depth in the scape.
A wider tank will give you more room to play with the scape and create depth in the scape.