How can turn my existing Tank into a planted tank

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Iron Buddha

Iron Buddha

Gambusia
MFK Member
Dec 21, 2008
143
2
18
St. Louis
I have a 55 gallon with some african mopani wood, A brown african knife and an african featherfin cat fish...I will later add a congo leaf fish, rope fish...bichir and some congo tetra..i am going for an african river like set up.

My gravel is not sand ..it is regular small rock gravel ...with a natural look. It's like a brown and black river bed rock..or really small pebbles.

i have fake plants..i want to take them out and use real african plants.


Questions I have

What type of native african plants could i get. I know anabius is one...any others...also i hear anabius can grow on my mopani would..how could i make that happen

What type of lighting...i have 55 gallon with two short lights

would i have to change my gravel to sand (if so,.. then not an options.) what could i put in my gravel to help the plants survive and grow.

I still have a brown tannis color in the water from my wood..i was told i have to get rid of this before i put in plants..this true?
 
anubias will work but its a south american plant not african. the only one i can think of off hand that would prob work is Bolbitis heudelotti.

i would use shop lights if you want to stay cheap.

nope dont have to change the substrate. i would prob stick with java ferns anubias moss stuff like that. i not sure how well africans and plants work out other then those.

you dont have to wait until the tannis are gone.
 
i started exactly like you just described with my 75 gallon.

Do not use shop lights! i did that and it was an algae maker! go for t5 ho or better and start off right. just spend the money and keep the ball rollin. you have a great start. i bought my lights for 100 bucks you just have to search.

i changed my substrate to flourite from sand. it works really well with my plants but from what i have seen of others, gravel works fine. there is just really good plant nutrition in other substrates though and you might want to change very slowly if you do, just dont do it quickly do it over a period of like a month (possibly bad advice). gravel seams to work ok though like i said. but also, good planted tanks have better substrates.

my tank went from this with all fake stuff, no living plants.

DSCN0370.JPG

to this

DSCN0533.JPG

you just need to take the right steps. i made a lot of mistakes before but now i have corrected them and after 3 weeks of planting those plants, which were only like 6 inches tall 3 weeks ago, its turnign into a forest.

in a month you wont even be able to see through it it will be so thick.

read the sticky that is entitled, planted tanks for begginners and when you have a problem ask here and you willl get it done.

i chose to do injected CO2, watch for dramatic changes and do your research here, i went with flourite, and dry fertilizers using the Estimated Index method. this is what has worked for me. not all of this is necessary but this is the easy way. i tried others and ran into problems and this is like my third go around basically starting over. its finally right now and i will not change a thing except add more plants because these are finally doing amazing. my jungle vals grew from dead and half inch tall, to over a foot in 3 weeks.

do research, and ask questions and have fun. good start. check out this link to my before post and look at the responses. check out jcardona1's 55 gallon that he posts in this forum page and look at his results with the same methods. his tank is amazing. and its posted in this link.

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=263086

good luck
 
Do not use shop lights! i did that and it was an algae maker! go for t5 ho or better and start off right. just spend the money and keep the ball rollin. you have a great start. i bought my lights for 100 bucks you just have to search.
Click to expand...
i agree just some people dont want to spend the money. you can get 48 inch 2x54w t5 ho for $80
http://www.fishneedit.com/t5ho-4ft--2lamp-aquarium-light.html
 
thats a good deal on those lights! with good co2 you can grow anything under those suckers.

nice find man!

and sorry to bash your idea about the shoplights. someone told me to do that and it just takes too much work to make that happen with such low light. it caused way to many headaches for a planted tank beginner like me.
 
oh i fully agree. cf and t5 are much better options. at one point i had 6x32w t8 over my 120. switched over to cf with a lot less light and never would look back. i use t5 and cf only. the only problem for some is the cost. they are well worth it in my eyes but some times people are iffy if they want plants or not really dont want to spend the money.
 
Thanx for the info guys..i will look around for those paticular lights. also, I'm i getting the wrong info on anubias...one of you said they were not african...but.. "Anubias is a genus of aquatic and semi-aquatic flowering plants in the family Araceae, native to tropical central and western Africa. They primarily grow in rivers and streams, but can also be found in marshes. They are characterized by broad, thick, dark leaves that come in many different forms. The genus was revised in 1979[1] and since then its nomenclature has been stable. Species can be determined by using mostly characteristics of the inflorescence. Because of the often shady places where the plants grow, the genus was named after the Egyptian god Anubis, the god of the afterlife
 
malachi;3438672; said:
i started exactly like you just described with my 75 gallon.

Do not use shop lights! i did that and it was an algae maker! go for t5 ho or better and start off right. just spend the money and keep the ball rollin. you have a great start. i bought my lights for 100 bucks you just have to search.

i changed my substrate to flourite from sand. it works really well with my plants but from what i have seen of others, gravel works fine. there is just really good plant nutrition in other substrates though and you might want to change very slowly if you do, just dont do it quickly do it over a period of like a month (possibly bad advice). gravel seams to work ok though like i said. but also, good planted tanks have better substrates.

my tank went from this with all fake stuff, no living plants.

View attachment 405159

to this

View attachment 405163

you just need to take the right steps. i made a lot of mistakes before but now i have corrected them and after 3 weeks of planting those plants, which were only like 6 inches tall 3 weeks ago, its turnign into a forest.

in a month you wont even be able to see through it it will be so thick.

read the sticky that is entitled, planted tanks for begginners and when you have a problem ask here and you willl get it done.

i chose to do injected CO2, watch for dramatic changes and do your research here, i went with flourite, and dry fertilizers using the Estimated Index method. this is what has worked for me. not all of this is necessary but this is the easy way. i tried others and ran into problems and this is like my third go around basically starting over. its finally right now and i will not change a thing except add more plants because these are finally doing amazing. my jungle vals grew from dead and half inch tall, to over a foot in 3 weeks.

do research, and ask questions and have fun. good start. check out this link to my before post and look at the responses. check out jcardona1's 55 gallon that he posts in this forum page and look at his results with the same methods. his tank is amazing. and its posted in this link.

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=263086

good luck
Click to expand...

What kind of light is that in the second pic?
 
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