Planted Tank Idea

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Celticdragon

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
May 16, 2011
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Nebraska
I have never done a planted tank before, and have been kicking the idea around since set up my 75 gallon. I would prefer to go low-tech. Don't want to have to mess with co2 unless I have to. The current lighting in the tank is 6500K at 120w, but I can bump it up to 240w with the flip of a switch. After looking at various plants, I have decided what I think may work for me. I am just looking for a little input as to what others with experience may think. So, here's my idea.

-Mixture of Corckscrew val. and Anubias congensis backround on either side of overflow
-Java Fern backround in front of overflow
-Two or three Anubias nana scattered between mid and foreground

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Thanks!:)

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Should work pretty good, but you may have too much light. The anubias will need to be shaded. Adding some floating plants could help with that. Watersprite is a good one.
The vals might work or moght not. A finer gravel is always better with rotted plants. The gravel you have is pretty large. Vals will probably still grow like a weed though, especially if you have a decent KH in your water.
 
Hello; I have grown a lot of plants over the years without CO2. I have grown plants under 6500K. I like up to five inches of gravel in a planted tank. That amount of light should grow amazon sword plants. Perhaps a giant saggitarius (sp?) at one end, I have had them grow out several feet of leaves.
 
JamesF said:
Should work pretty good, but you may have too much light. The anubias will need to be shaded. Adding some floating plants could help with that. Watersprite is a good one.
The vals might work or moght not. A finer gravel is always better with rotted plants. The gravel you have is pretty large. Vals will probably still grow like a weed though, especially if you have a decent KH in your water.
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Using my T12HO bulbs would I be better off just leaving the 2 bulbs running at a time?(120W) Don't know exactly how these compare with the T-5HO setups most people use, but there might not be too much difference. I am still struggling with the best "formula" to figure my lighting needs. WPG=1.6 or 3.2, LumensPG=6000 or 12000, and PAR=100 or 200(estimate, no info for T-12HO) Watt is a unit of energy used, Lumen is visible to the human eye(therefore useless to photosynthesis), and PAR is photosynthically active radiation. How do I know what the PUR rating is for the bulbs I use? Has anyone researched this? This confusion is the whole reason I have avoided a planted tank, lol. All this make me want to pull what is left of my hair out.:nilly:
 
You're overthinking it all. 2 bulbs of HO of any type are going to grow everything you want to put in there. At the start, some stem plants would be usefull to control algae and get everything established. Hygrophila works great.
BTW, in my previous post, it should have read "rooted" plants, not "rotted" plants. Rotted plants don't care what kind of substrate they are in. :)
 
JamesF said:
BTW, in my previous post, it should have read "rooted" plants, not "rotted" plants. Rotted plants don't care what kind of substrate they are in. :)
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:ROFL:I did catch that, and thank you for your help. That does help, knowing that I can switch the fixtures back and forth when the bulbs burn out.
 
Actually, I am thinking of doing an african setup with my future stock. Anyone have any suggestions on african plants that would do as a similar setup?
 
Celticdragon said:
Actually, I am thinking of doing an african setup with my future stock. Anyone have any suggestions on african plants that would do as a similar setup?
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Africans are great for low maintenance since they are generally made up of anubias and bolbitis that don't even care if there is substrate or not. You just need some nice furniture to tie them to. In fact you just have to add them to your current setup, do get more plants as they are really slow growers and take a long time to fill up. You might want to note that some syno cats do like chewing on anubias.
 
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