Plant newbie with questions

[nursie]

I've had fish before, and am planning to set my tanks up again. I would like to go planted ths time, and have been reviewing posts here and on plantgeek, and I still have questions, if you folks would be so kind as to help out :) I have admired all of your pics with planted tanks and hope I can get good results.
I would like to start with a 10 gal tank, which I would like to stock with a betta and a few neons or similar small fish, and something for algae control & bottom feeding, but I'm not sure what yet. Any suggestions? I had an oto in a tank with a betta once, and the oto chased the betta :confused: If I had more otos, would they play together and leave the betta alone?

I have a top cover with a fluorecent light, which I believe I can upgrade the bulb to meet needs for lo light plants. I don't want to get into the CO2 stuff either...the posts I see from people that have fish in trouble related to CO2 put me off. From what I can tell, if I look at java moss, Java fern, and anubis plants that these will work in the low light/no injected environment. I have a penguin with a biowheel...should I use it on this tank? I've read that the biowheels decrease CO2 availability in tanks, is there something else I should use?

What should I use for a substrate? Should I use dirt/vermiculite and coarse sand, or is the regular aquarium gravel ok? I saw a post mentioning using staples to attach the moss to driftwood...does that work ok, or does the metal in the staples cause problems?
If you use the dirt, etc, how do you vaccum that? wouldn't you suck dirt up in the vaccum?

Am I right to think that the plants will help provide a better environment for the fish...naturally utilizing their waste and producing O2?

Any help is appreciated!! :bowing: :bowing: :bowing:

[Karnaaj]

My best suggestion would be to reconsider going with a 10g tank if you want to go with plants. Its just too small. Check this website out for some good information Rex Grigg (http://www.rexgrigg.com/) .

[Beeker]

I have a 10 gal. planted tank. I'm just starting too. Plenty of people here are suggesting to check plantgeek and if you are a beginner with plants start with the "very easy" or "easy" category plants like java fern, java moss, dwarf anubias nana, clover, crypt, etc. With lights, you will need 2 wpg (watts per gallon). If you go with the higher levels of difficulty you will need a higher wpg and then something to add CO2 to your tank.

[Blinky]

My best suggestion would be to reconsider going with a 10g tank if you want to go with plants. Its just too small.
Actually, if the plants chosen are appropriate to the size of the tank, a 10g can make a great planted tank IMHO. The incandescent hoods so commonly sold with 10's can be fitted with spiral compact fluorescent bulbs and provide quite a bit of light on an extremely low budget.

Nursie, it sounds like you have a good plan - if you go with 'easy' plants in a low to medium light tank, they should be fine without CO2. The bio-wheel will remove (some) injected CO2, but AFAIK in a tank where there's no injected CO2 it's not a factor. I have plants growing well in a 10g with a Penguin 170.

If you want to use gravel in the tank, you can put a thin layer of mulm (filter gunk) or peat beneath it. My 10g has fine-grade gravel with peat and the plants seem pretty happy. I'm not experienced with using soil in an aquarium, so I can't really offer advice on that. One great thing about a small tank is that if you want to purchase something like Flourite, Eco-complete or another specialized substrate for plants, it won't be too expensive, so maybe that's an option as well.

Otos do like to be kept in groups. I have a group in one tank, and a single oto in my 10g who seems fine on his own (some otos seem to be 'loners', and others are attached at the hip - this guy was off by himself a lot in the big tank, so when I needed to move an oto to the 10g to control the algae, I picked him). If you're keeping only a betta and a few small tetras, three otos wouldn't overload the tank. They'll hang out together and they'll keep your plant leaves sparkling :)

[nursie]

Thanks for the feedback. If the plants outgrow the 10 gal, I can move them up to a 55 gal I'm going to start back up also. I read and bookmarked quite a few articles at the Petgeek site, but most are geared for people stocking bigger tanks and going for all the bells and whistles.

Blinky..do you fertilize your 10 gal tank?

[Karnaaj]

I would agree that a 10g can make for a nice tank however it doesn't make a good tank at all for a beginner. For one thing they are much harder to light because the normal wpg rules don't apply to very small as well as very large tanks. For a more scientific explanation on why check out this page Minimum Light Threshold (http://www.rexgrigg.com/mlt.htm). A 10g tank also severely limits you as far as what kinds of plants you can grow. Finally the water chemistry is harder to manage. I still recommend at least a 20g.

[Blinky]

I do fertilize the 10g, I think it's especially important since I've got Crypts, which are root feeders, and don't use a specialized substrate for plants or root tabs. If you're interested, all my specs (including ferts) are in my signature link :)

[WinterWind]

Java fern, anubias, crypts, apotogen (sp?). And also sword plants. I have a ten gallon aquarium also with low lighting (15 watts), and I've had 2 medium sized swords in my 10 gallon and they've been thriving for more than 2 years already, and are quite nice. In my tank I also have 2 java ferns, and anubias, and a dying val. I've tried vals several times, but they all have not lived, since they need higher lighting.

[Rebgen]

I just dropped in a few live plants in my Eclipse 12 just before finding this forum over a month ago. Fortunatley my ignorance hasn't cost me yet. I have a plain aquarium gravel substrate, around 1 WPG, and an Eclipse biowheel filter. The plants are: anubias (just produced another shoot this week and is growing well), anacharis sp? (floating vine plant....doing great), Japanese varigated grass, and Ludwegia repens which is growing well also.

I was concerned about my biowheel off gassing CO2 also until I was told it didn't matter in a low-light tank, and if I wasn't adding additional CO2 (which I'm not). I don't fertilize since it's a low-light tank also. It seems as if you have a low light tank your plan can be pretty simple without a lot of work. So far mine is doing great. Now, nursie, we've got to get our 55 gals. up and running! ;-)