Is this planted heavily enough?

[jmottle]

I've just planted my 90 gallon last night but I wanted to make sure that I have planted enough to ward off any algae for the first while. I'm following the directions here:
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_newtank.htm but was unclear what "heavily planted" implied.

In my 90 gallon I have the following:

6 Cabomba
15 Corkscrew Val
6 Green Stricta
6 Bacopa
2 Ludwgigia
2 Pinetree
6 Wisteria
6 Hygro Polysperma

Is this ok?

Here are a few pics of my tank. Overall I'm quite happy with how it's coming along. Also I have a presurised CO2 setup.

http://www.cgarchitect.com/upload/fishpics/pic1.jpg
http://www.cgarchitect.com/upload/fishpics/pic2.jpg
http://www.cgarchitect.com/upload/fishpics/pic3.jpg

Please let me know your thoughts.
Thanks Jeff

[jmottle]

Oh yeah I forgot to mention that I will be planting 2-3 Java ferns on the driftwood in a few days.

[Captain Hook]

I am only familiar with some of the types you planted and those that I do know about are fast growers, which is exactly what you want. Overall I think your tank looks very nice. I like your combination of rocks, wood, and live plants.

I think it's pretty hard to say if you will have any algae problems. What kind of lighting do you have? I think that CO2 will probably help the plants get going quickly too so hopefully you will be fine.

[Leopardess]

Many of the plants you have are fast growers, but as your tank stands now, it is not what is considered "heavily planted." Its pretty darn hard to just set a tank up to a level that is heavily planted:) Yours should grow into one though.

Try finding some hornwort - it releases chemicals that help dissuade algae. Also, perhaps you could find some floating plants that grow quickly to help eat up extra nutrients. Duckweed is great at growing VERY quickly... to the point of being invasive, but if you don't mind having it and thinning it out to prevent it from blocking light, it helps a lot:) (make sure its not illegal in your state lol)

But, even if you do have all the plants in the world, if your fertilizers aren't balanced, or your lighting/co2 isn't in sync, you're gonna have algae problems. Heck, even when everything seems perfect you're gonna have algae problems lol.

What is your WPG? Are you going to be fertilizing? Co2 saturation?

Id personally trade that background in for a solid blue or black one - I bet you'll end up doing that sooner or later anyway;) They tend to give a more natural appearance while highlighting the colors of your plants/fish at the same time.

Are you planning on getting any algae eaters? Otos are always a great help.

*You can see what a heavily planted tank looks like in my website thats listed in my sig. - I need updated pics though because its grown in quite a bit since that picture...which wasn't even that long ago!

[bobalston]

In my book, really heavily planted is where you cannot see the gravel and the fish don't have much room to swim. I call that "jungle aquascaping".

Bob

[Slappy*McFish]

Here are some examples of a heavily planted tank. This guy has it going on...very nice tank.

http://akva.dadak.cz/index.php3?PAGE_NAME=fotos6

[MrGoodbytes]

Wow! Czech that tank out :p! Ya, that's what I call heavliy planted.

We need some more information regarding your setup, because depending on factors like CO2, fertilization routines, lighting, etc, it's hard for us to tell what kind of setup you have (low maintenance vs high maintenance).

If you have more than 2.0WPG, CO2 pretty much becomes mandatory.

Graeme

[jmottle]

Thanks guys,

Check out my Tank Specs (in my sig) to see what kind of setup I have. I have just started my tank so I just want to be sure that I have enough plants to suck up any nutrients without having algae beat them to it. It's only been set up with plant for 1 day and I'm running the lights for 8 hours. On another forum people said I did not have near enough plants, but I don't want a jungle tank. My real question is do I have enough plants to avoid algae. I know that there is a fine balance, but I'm not going to be adding ferts anytime soon. Just want to follow the intructions in the article I posted. 2 weeks with plant, introduce a clean up crew, add ferts in about 8 weeks and within the next 4-6 weeks add some of my quarantined fish.

[Slappy*McFish]

The best thing you could do right now, would be to buy a huge clump(more) of the water sprite and float it at the surface. This plant is the best at sucking up nutrients in the water while starving any algae in the process. Once your "regular" plants have made themselves at home, have settled in, are rooted and growing, you can remove the water sprite or save some of it and plant it with the rest.

[djlen]

Jeff - If you take care of it, your tank will develop into a "heavily planted tank" somewhat like the one in those pictures. That's a mature tank and no one starts out with that look.
Expect some algae issues......they are part of the process, to one degree or another. The object, when you have them is to stay the course, keep the CO2 as close to 30ppm as possible, keep up with your water changes, and prune/scrub/vacuum away as much as you can to give the tank an opportunity to build it's nutrification system and mature.
You are getting good advice as to the floaters. They shade, to a degree and suck up nutrients, and can be removed later if you don't like the look. I would not be without at least some Salvinia or Water Sprite, as they have saved my butt on numerous occasions.
Just wanted to add that you did a great job with the aqua-scaping. I personally like the background too.

Len

[Sumpin'fishy]

Personally (my opinion) I would call your tank "moderately planted" at the moment. To get it to being heavily planted (IMO) it would need plants covering 75%+ of the total bottom surface. Your rocks and driftwood (I know you are going to add some more on the driftwood) have a bold presence in your tank right now, and the plants need to take that role in the beginning.

I finally listened to all the advice this time on setting up my 55 gallon, and made sure I had enough plants. I actually filled (and I mean FILLED) a 55 and a 20 gallon with all the plants I bought. I traded in the extra plants a day after I filled the tanks. Two weeks and everything was well established and the plants were nutrient hungry. I had to add 1/4 Nitrate and a few drops of Phosphate every day for the next week or it would become depleted . Now it's gotten to be about every other day. I'm about 1 month into this tank so far, and only minor traces of algae are seen. I have some serious light over this tank, though, so it may go a bit slower in your tank. I used Water Sprite over about 1/4 of my surface area (lower light side) and these have sent out roots like crazy.....looking for any nutrients to consume.

Do yourself a favor and at least buy some floaters for a couple months. You can always trade them or toss them (don't throw into a lake or stream.) I would also (just me) add some more ground cover to start filling in the bare substrate areas in the front. I do like your basic aquascaping, and I think the background will look good when the plants have filled in a bit. It may help add some more depth to your tank (looks like plants go farther back).

The background works really well if you plant the same plants that are in the picture in front of the background. I placed some Alternanthera Reineckii in my tank (not paying attention to my background) and the next day thought, WOW, those plants have really filled in! It turns out that it was just the background picture had the same plant right behind where I planted them......LOL! It looks really good, and adds several inches of apparent depth to an otherwise narrow (front to back) tank. 55 gallon tanks are hard to add depth to, so you gotta use any tricks you can!

[jmottle]

thanks guys. I've added more plants so hopefully this will stave off any large algae outbreaks for now.


Cheers,
Jeff

[tanker]

Your tank looks nice, but I can still see gravel. :)
Get some for-ground plants, dwarf sag, dwarf sword, ect.


Here are some examples of a heavily planted tank. This guy has it going on...very nice tank.

I thought my tank was heavily planted!!. Must get more plants--must get more plants.

[Skippy]

My 100 gallon is "heavily" planted right now I think. Here's a pic:

My 100 gallon tank (http://www.slacking.net/~skippy/100gal.jpg)

You have a decentply planted tank, Given decent conditions it should fill out well.

As always i suggest finding a way to inject some c02 into your mix. I can't emphasize what a difference c02 has made in my tanks.