I have no idea where to begin. My tank is a 55 gal. with play sand as the substrate and my lighting is the light that came with the tank so each bulb (has 2) is only 15w. I only have one filter at the moment which also came with the tank. I am however buying another filter from someone off the classifieds on this site to add as a second filter. Can someone point me in the right direction for what I need to do in order to be able to have real plants and have them thrive?
Wanting to add plants to my tank but....
- Thread starter jlink17
- Start date
There are a couple ways to go... You can stick with plants that will grow well in about .6 watts per gallon, but this limits your choices pretty severely. You can grow anubias, java fern, java moss; maybe a couple others, but they will be hit or miss. If you up your lighting, you also increase the choice you have in plants. At 1.5 watts per gallon, you increase the number of plants you can keep healthy and still stay in a range where ferts/CO2 are not necessary.
Hope this helps a little...
Hope this helps a little...
I can get by with just sand as my substrate too without having to redo that? I have no problem increasing my lighting to 1.5 watts/gallon either. I really don't want to have to deal with CO2 or ferts if possible but I am not against ferts if needed. I would just rather not deal with CO2 if I can get away with it.
The sand substrate is fine but to get anything to grow and not just survive you will first have to upgrade your lighting.
mellowvision
Seafood Lover
upgrading your lighting and starting with low light plants like java fern and anubius is a great way to start. Keep it simple, and give it time.
Theres alot of planta availiable that can tolerate salt and are low maintenance. I have a list somewhere... If you would like, PM me and Im sure I'll be able to send it your way, as we are in the same boat!!!! 
This is sage advice. This is how I started and it saved me a lot of the headaches many people seem to have.
Root tabs probably couldn't hurt, but again this depends on plant choice. Some plants feed heavily from the roots and would beneffit, other plants feed mostly from the water column making tabs less important. At least that's my understanding at the moment. Hopefully someone will correct me if I'm off track.