Help planting please

[Aquaguy]

Hey all,
I have a 125 72x18x25 that i purchased a week ago. It is currently cycling through. I want to make it a fully planted tank. My only problem is that I have no idea what needs to be done to plant and sustain plant life in my tank. what type of substrate and other such things do I need?

 

[jcardona1]

you have A LOT of research to do. check out the planted tank sub forum. there are lots of good stickies there. that will give you some good basic info

 

[velanarris]

Ok, well let's start with the basics.

For substrate you have a ton of options,

I just gave the aquariumplants.com substrate a try and I'd recommend agianst it in most cases, it's super dusty stuff, but, it's cheap and if you don't mind the initial setup then it's a good buy.

Typically I recommend eco-complete but the size of your tank will make that cost prohibitive (around $100)

So you can go with a mix here.
What I've doen in the past is a black sand substrate with a layer of ecocomplete on top. Black sand will match the eco and works as a good neutral filler substrate.

Of course the choice is yours, and there are far more options than just the above two.

If you want, PM me your budget and I'll try to help set you up.