Planted Tank Help

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Davey_8313

Davey_8313

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 17, 2007
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With Wife & Kids in Stafford
I've never had a planted tank before so I could use some help. I have a 150g that I would like to put some plants in. My wife loves the carpeted look in tanks she's seen online so I was wondering if their are any low light carpet plants? Would dwarf hairgrass work? I can add some DIY Co2 if needed so that doesn't matter. Would a pad of moss grow out and cover a terracotta house if I tied it on top of it? One last thing about the carpet, I have sand in the tank so what can I do about that? I want to leave the sand, so can I just try to add some stuff to it w/o draining the tank? Thanks.
 
Color temperature isn't very important, and there is a lot of variation between bulbs of the same kelvin. 6500k-10000k looks nice, not too yellow and not too blue. Get what looks good to you.

Sand is fine, special plant substrates (flourite, eco) don't have much in them other than iron.

DIY CO2 will probably not work on such a large tank. It will be a massive PITA to have ten 2 liter bottles running, which need to be re mixed (water, sugar, yeast) every week or two. If you're buying 5 lbs of sugar every week just for CO2 you might as well invest in a pressurized system. The inital cost is high but refilling is cheap (probably $15-20 to refill a 10 lb tank, maybe 3 or 4 times per year)

A moss carpet would be easy. You could use plastic mesh of some sort and tie it to that, or cover pieces of slate.
 
Thanks, FSM. I never really thought about how much it might cost for the DIY Co2. If I'm just doing low-light plants, do I really need Co2? Or would just a little Co2 help any? So the substrate really doesn't matter as long as I add some Flourish/Excel? I was just wondering about the kelvin b/c I need new bulbs as what I have right now are house bulbs that are way too yellow. So I can just tie some moss to slate? That's good b/c I have a bunch of slate I collected myself in the tank now.
 
For plants you are going to want lights on the lower end of the kelvin spectrum. I would recommend 6500 to 10000k and no higher.

DIY co2 is going to have to be pretty awesome on a 150g...and even then probably wont work well. If your tank is any bigger than a 20g...the DIY co2-wise probably isnt worth it.

Hairgrass is NOT a low light plant, and most carpeting plants require co2, intensive lighting, and good nutrients. The best and easiest way to provide nutrients is by using a proper plant substrate. Seeing as how you have sand and dont want to dispose of it, I would recommend using seachem's root-tabs to supplement your sandbed with.

Lastly I would recommend the use of excel, even if you do get pressurized co2. Its great stuff, and can be a life saver for beginners as it was for me and many other begining planted aquarists in the day. Good luck, post pictures
 
FLESHY;4262974; said:
For plants you are going to want lights on the lower end of the kelvin spectrum. I would recommend 6500 to 10000k and no higher.

DIY co2 is going to have to be pretty awesome on a 150g...and even then probably wont work well. If your tank is any bigger than a 20g...the DIY co2-wise probably isnt worth it.

Hairgrass is NOT a low light plant, and most carpeting plants require co2, intensive lighting, and good nutrients. The best and easiest way to provide nutrients is by using a proper plant substrate. Seeing as how you have sand and dont want to dispose of it, I would recommend using seachem's root-tabs to supplement your sandbed with.

Lastly I would recommend the use of excel, even if you do get pressurized co2. Its great stuff, and can be a life saver for beginners as it was for me and many other begining planted aquarists in the day. Good luck, post pictures
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Thanks Flesh. Are you talking about the Seachem Flourish tabs? As for Co2, you think that THIS would work for a little while until I can afford something bigger? I'd just transfer it a later on to one of my smaller tanks. Is their anything that I could mix w/ my sand? Or how hard would it be to swap out sand for a good plant substrate?
 
i dont think those co2 kits you linked would work very good on a tank that size, if at all. i would stick with low light plants until you can get a full co2 setup, youll find that trying to add carbon through other means will be a PIA and a endless money pit, even Excel will get expensive on a tank that size. a full co2 kit can be pieced together for around $200, not sure what your budget is...
 
jcardona1;4263647; said:
i dont think those co2 kits you linked would work very good on a tank that size, if at all. i would stick with low light plants until you can get a full co2 setup, youll find that trying to add carbon through other means will be a PIA and a endless money pit, even Excel will get expensive on a tank that size. a full co2 kit can be pieced together for around $200, not sure what your budget is...
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Thanks, Jose. I'll have to look around for a co2 kit. Know anywhere I should start to look or a certain brand to look for? I'll keep to low-light until I can save up for the co2. How about dwarf baby tears? I've read it's good in low light and that it needs med-high.
 
no problem, send me a pm once youre ready :) for a low cost kit, id go with a milwaukee regulator/solenoid combo. you can get these on ebay less than $100. get a used co2 tank ($50-70) and build yourself a PVC reactor to run in-line with a canister. this will bring you to about $200 :)

if by dwarf baby tears you mean hemianthus callitrichoides, then no. this is a very demanding plant requiring lots of co2, full ferts, and high light, that is if you want it to grow properly as a carpeting plant
 
I'll be sure to send you one. So I shouldn't try to get something like THIS? Yep, hemianthus callitrichoides is what I meant. What would you suggest for some easier carpet plants? Would eleocharis acicularis or glosso do okay? I heard glosso can be a pain though. Oh yeah, do I have to do a pansy fish in a planted tank? By that I mean neons and stuff like that, lol?
 
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