New to plants - silica sand substrate

TnMark · 12-03-2002, 9:05 PM

I'm in the early stages of cycling a new 135 gallon tank which will be primarily for fish. I will have 390 watts of light and a silica sand substrate. I'm looking to plant an area of about 1/3 of the tank. Any suggestions on plants?

punch · 12-04-2002, 6:49 PM

well, I'm goona jump on this and tell ya what I know.
With the amount of light you got, you may want co2 for your plants. also just sand isn't good IMHO, You should add some latrite or florite for the plants as well. Other than that what ever plants you want. Look at some of the plant webb sites and see what you like. I think corkscrew val would do nice and I don't think there that fussy about co2. Anabis also but you will need a pc. of wood or rock to attach it to. They don't like being planted in the substate it can rot there roots.

The Gipper · 12-04-2002, 6:59 PM

Thats a whole lot of light for a primarily fish tank. You could be looking at a serious algae problem down the road. Most people only use that much light for saltwater reefs or seriously heavily planted tanks, and with that much light on a heavily planted tank, you need to consider CO2, Potassium, nitrates, etc to avoid algae.

Is there any way to cut back the light? Unless you want to go whole hog into a heavily planted tank and all that goes with it, cutting back light might make the most sense. I'm assuming your 135 is the standard 6 footer. Double fluorescent strips(i.e. 4 x 40 watts) would be enough. Then look for plants that don't require lots of light, CO2, and nutrients to do well: java fern, crypt's, hygrophila, etc.