Total plant noob, quick questions

[Gage Zamrzla]

I just got a Nutrafin Co2 today. I'm considering possibly trying some plants out in one of my tanks in the future and I was able to get the Nutrafin for $5 why not?

Basically is this thing decent or is it a cheapy petsmart/petco product?

I know I need Co2, plant specific substrate, and iron. What else?

And last I wanted to add some live plants in my 75g, Datnoid grow out tank later on. Would that risk my dats lives with the Co2 and minerals for the plants?

Thanks for taking the time to read and feel free to be blunt.

 

[Bhack91]

In all honesty you could plant your tank right now, it all depends of what kinds of plants and what effect you want. If you stuck to anubias and there a few different variety of them you could probabaly grow them with your setup now. But if your looking for a lush garden with different plants covering the whole tank then your taking a step in the right direction. Reading the stickys will help out a lot though, with which ever route you go.

 

[Younglin]

C02 is not necessary for a nice planted tank.

 

[Pyramid_Party]

It all depends on the plants you choose. SOme plants are really easy and you need to add nothing to the water. Other require a little extra care, and some require alot of care. The harder the plants you get the more expensive and complicated it gets to take care of them. I'll assume you wanan keep this cheap and easy as possible.

So I would suggest all easy plants. Do you want your tank with just a few plants or moderately planted, heavy etc? Get some decent lighting. DO not need high light at all. For a 75 gallon 3-4 bulb T8 lighting would do the trick. Or you could get a dual bulb fixture of T5 normal output. You could add some flouritse or eco complete substarte to feed the plants, but for easy plants sand would be fine, and you could add some root tabs.

There is alot of variables to this. It all depends on the plants oyu want and if you want a light, moderate, or heavily planted tank.


To answer your questions, yes and no. CO2 can kill fish if there is too much present. Fertilizers would not affect fish except nitrogen/nitrate (that I am aware of), but in large quantities. The plants feed off of it, so if there is so much then that would be bad for the fish.

 

[Gage Zamrzla]

Great, thanks for all the answers all of you. I want a decently planted tank just to color it up a bit nothing too fancy but didn't want to rush it and end up with dead dats, I've seen too many of those threads on here lately.

Anyway, I'll get started on some easier plants soon. Thanks again!