Would I learn much by propagating my own plants?

If anything you'll save money by only buying a few plants...let things fill in on their own, it looks more natural anyways IMO.

That's what I usually do when I start tanks. I got 3 jungle val for my newest planted tank and after a little over a month, those 3 turned into 10 (maybe more)

You'll definitely learn something. You may learn what to do or you may learn what not to do, but either lesson is valuable.

I have learned that it is far easier to start with a tank full of plants. That said you don't have to buy as many of the expensive plants as you eventually want. You can buy a few and grow more, just fill the space with cheap stems that you take out as you grow more of what you want.

Plants are cheap so I'd just get a tank full to begin with if this is your first time doing a planted tank. Most, if not all first time planters get overrun by algae or their plants stop growing after a few weeks because they forgot something in their equation. I'd start propagation once you're confident you can at least keep a stable environment for your plants. Also, pick fast growers for your first tries so its ok to make mistakes.

If you buy a few and get things right, everything will be good and you will eventually have more plants than you know what to do with. However, should you buy a tank full of plants and get it wrong, you are going to end up with a tank full of dead plants. I bought a few vals and compact swords for my 75, and things were fine at first. The vals were sending out runners and multiplying and the swords grew decently tall and full. Then, everything stopped and they started dying. After a lot of reading, I figured out that I needed ferts and CO2 with that amount of plants in the tank. After an algae bloom or two from the ferts, I eventually got everything under control. Then, I switched from Flourish to dry ferts, and it took another 2 algae blooms to figure out what I was doing wrong. You will always be learning.

Did a water test yesterday and found out that I have 0 nitrate. That had never been a problem before with the 14 loaches and 8 plecos I have in the tank, but it would also make sense since the plants aren't growing quite as quickly right now. So, now I might actually have to start doing nitrate. Never thought that would be the case.

fabsroman said:

If you buy a few and get things right, everything will be good and you will eventually have more plants than you know what to do with. However, should you buy a tank full of plants and get it wrong, you are going to end up with a tank full of dead plants. I bought a few vals and compact swords for my 75, and things were fine at first. The vals were sending out runners and multiplying and the swords grew decently tall and full. Then, everything stopped and they started dying. After a lot of reading, I figured out that I needed ferts and CO2 with that amount of plants in the tank. After an algae bloom or two from the ferts, I eventually got everything under control. Then, I switched from Flourish to dry ferts, and it took another 2 algae blooms to figure out what I was doing wrong. You will always be learning.

Did a water test yesterday and found out that I have 0 nitrate. That had never been a problem before with the 14 loaches and 8 plecos I have in the tank, but it would also make sense since the plants aren't growing quite as quickly right now. So, now I might actually have to start doing nitrate. Never thought that would be the case.

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I 100% agree with that statement!

I agree .
you stand to learn plenty..and when you get it right you will have a tank full of plants.

Fill it if your doing co2, if not enough plants algae could take hold.