to plant or not to plant...

W

Weebis

AC Members
Oct 29, 2009
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that is the question...

so, i am setting up my 75 gallon tank and im not sure if i want to go with live plants or not...i think to start i dont want to, but then once i get a bit more comfortable, i would like to...can i just buy the plant substrate and set up with it as normal even if i dont plan on adding plants for 6 months or so???

right now i have a fine sand on the bottom, about 3 inches deep
 
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well, tbh, i (my wife) just had a baby 5 weeks ago, and would like sumtin that doenst take a lot of time...i know fish only would be pretty eas, but i think i may just try to stick with the sand i have now and see if i can grow a few plants and add more if i want later..im not sure...
 
well just make sure you clean that sand as bacteria can grow in pockets formed by the sand compacting. you can use the plant substrate (like that seachem product) even without plants as it's not very rough for most bottom feeders (if you have any). plants don't take much time unless you get into CO2 and dry ferts. if you want to give it a try, make sure you buy enough plants at once as you need a high enough bio mass to make the attempt as successful as you can. you can pick up some liquid ferts (i.e. Pfertz) fairly cheap and you just need to squirt them in once a day (follow instructions). get low light plants so you just need (2) compact fluorescent lamps (65 or 96 watts each) and you are set. i keep a 100 gallon planted aquarium and i've given up on CO2 as it does take a bit of time to setup and keep regulated. the liquid ferts are well worth the little extra expense.

just my 2 cents.
 
thats not even a question of course you should plant it LOL... JMO of course. sand works great for plants..heres my 75 sand bottom no ferts no co2
10-16-09.jpg

and my 55 same set up
09-18-09006.jpg
 
bushwhacker said:
thats not even a question of course you should plant it LOL... JMO of course. sand works great for plants..heres my 75 sand bottom no ferts no co2

how do you care for your sand? do you have inverts to stir it? do you clean it? vac it during water change? leave it?

lighting isnt a problem at all for...at least it shouldnt be, i have a 4 bulb T-5 tek light..i plan on using only 2 bulbs tho...

are all those plants low light? liek i said im not worried about light, but from what i have read, more light means more of everything else..
Click to expand...
 
You need to stir sand (at least anywhere that there isn't plant roots) each time you do a water change.

Inverts don't do a very good job of stirring sand because they only go where Oxygen is available (and it's the anaerobic pockets you're trying to avoid). People say MTS stir sand... they do, but they're really not THAT usefull and don't go but just below the surface.

Sand is all you need. Rooted plants will appreciate root tabs though.
 
so would you say to stir the whole thing? its 3 inches deep, 4 inches in sum spots...i come from reefing so im trying to forget everything i know from there...in a reef, you cant stir all the sand or you will polute the water...i had a deep sand bed for years and never touched it and didnt have problems...tho i had bunches of snails that did it for me

i may have to rethink this, as if i stir this its going to make a sandstorm...

should i maybe remove sum of the sand?

and another thing, id liek to eventually get sumtin to cover the whole ground, what happens when that happens? i wont be able to stir at all?
 
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You can add a substrate like Eco-Complete to the sand. For an easy to care for low light plant check out Anubias. There are many varieties and they are undemanding. I have quite a few of them in my three tanks and the roots just have to be anchored on top of the substrate or they can be tied to something like driftwood.
 
DO IT! planted tanks.. RULE. Mine started out as a simple tank with not much in it, and now its turning into a hardcore planted tank. Without co2 and ferts they are simple to take care of. Also, the liquid ferts (seachem line) is definately worth it.
 
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