New 30 Gal Planted Setup

C

Chenell

AC Members
Jan 27, 2003
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Denver, Colorado, USA
A friend of mine just gave me his old 30 gal tank along with a filter and heater. I have always wanted to try a live plant setup. I have a 10 gal tank with a few fish I'd like to move into the 30 gal. I am looking for what I need to get this planted tank started right.

This is what I have:

30 gal tank 17H x 36W x 12D
Whisper 30-60 Power Filter
Hydromatic Heater 300 Watts
The light & enclosure are a little beat up if they even work so I may just get a new one
Fish: 3x long-finned danios, 2x bronze corydoras, 1x diamond tetra


What I'd like:

Fairly easy to care for plants
Fish: Paradise Gourami or other Gourami, some schooling fish, some Mollies and other livebearers (NO Guppies).

I'm not a newbie per se; I've had the 10-gallon tank for over 5 years now. I have never tried a live plant setup but love how it looks and it is supposed to stay cycled pretty easily from what I've heard.

I know I am going to need special gravel and lights, but what exactly?

Let me know your input. I will also be reading other posts to get further information.

Thanks!

Chenell
 
The most important thing for a planted tank is the lighting. Since you want an easy setup, you want to get about 30-50 watts of light for the 30g tank. The cheapest way to do this it to get or make a hood with incandescent screw-in sockets and use screw-in compact fluorescent lightbulbs that you can buy at a Walmart or Home Depot. The type of bulb you'll want to look for are usually labeled full spectrum or daylight bulbs, those will be brighter and whiter than the more common soft white or warm white bulbs. With this setup you'll be able to grow low light plants java moss & fern, anacharis, hornwort, anubias, and some crypts.

Plant specific gravel isn't necessary but it can help some plants in the beginning. Many of the low light plants don't even need gravel (java moss&fern, anubias, hornwort for example), though crypts do better with a plant substrate or very small gravel. If you still want a plant substrate some choices are Fluorite, Eco-Complete, Onyx Sand & Gravel, Schultz Aquatic Soil, Soilmaster, and Turface (the stuff they use for baseball and golf).
 
I would also recommend that you stay to a low light set up. The two things you should get for this is a digital timmer and lights. The timmer is just to make things a bit easier and consistent. As for lighting if you don't want to go the DIY route you should look into something like a 2 bulb flourescent fixture for that tank. Two 36" t-8 flourescent lights would put you at 50 watts. Special gravel isn't mandatory. Some plants to like nutrient substrate though so you should research the plants you want before you get too far since trying to add substrate after the fact can be a messy affair.

I would also recommend that you start with java fern attached to driftwood and some crypts. When you start out the trick will be to find the right amount of time to have your lights on. I started my tank at 10 hours per day and I still find that that gives me enough growth while keeping algae at a minimum. You want enough plants in your tank to outcompete the algae while also giving some space to grow.

If your planning on putting your bronze cories in the 30g you should probably go ahead and get a couple more. I would also suggest that a month or so after you get the plants going to get 3 otos or possibly some cherry shrimp.
 
You could try the El Natural setup, easy as and almost maintenance free :dive2: that's about 1" to 1 1/2" top soil & 1" to 1" and a bit plain ol gravel to hold it down.

You may want to check out http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/ and have a look in the El Natural section

I have had one going for awhile now, only do water changes every 4 months or so, and have Panda Cory's breeding in the tank :p: NO ferts, NO algae, in fact they can be boring, nothing to do but sit and look at it ;)
 
A very easy low-light 30 gallon planted tank might have the following:

-30-50 watts of lighting (screw-in CF daylight bulbs or flourescent tubes)
-plain gravel
-driftwood or rocks with some anubias plants &/or java fern attached with fishing line, thread or rubber bands
-planted in the gravel: cryptocoryne plants
-no need for fertilizers other than fish food, perhaps a tiny drop of Flourish Excel Carbon once or twice a week

The filter you use should not create a lot of surface agitation or else your tank will lose C02, which your plants need. You can re-position or slow down your filter current to keep surface agitation to a minimum.

I would recommend cycling the tank first, then adding the plants after. The reason is that the plants will consume the ammonia you're adding (instead of your filter getting the ammonia) and this can complicate/lengthen the cycle.
 
You already have schooling fish - you just don't have enough of them for any schooling to tak place. Up the zebra/longfin danio and diamond populations up to 6 or more and you should see some schooling, as well as a better health from those fishes.

Ms.Bubbles said:
I would recommend cycling the tank first, then adding the plants after. The reason is that the plants will consume the ammonia you're adding (instead of your filter getting the ammonia) and this can complicate/lengthen the cycle.
Click to expand...

Unnisisary, do a silent or "plant" cycle and there won't be any complications or problems.
 
In order to do a silent/plant cycle, you really need to plant quite heavily with a lot of fast-growing stem plants, which usually requires a bit more light. Slow growing low-light plants like anubias, javas and crypts don't really take up enough ammonia/nitrate to compensate for toxin spikes, although they may absorb enough to slow down the nitrite-building stage of the cycle process a bit. In my experience slow-growing plants don't help buffer the toxins of a cycle enough, and that's why I recommend cycling the tank first if a low-light plant tank is the goal.
 
Thanks for the help and all. We decided against doin glive plants all together. I wanted to give it a shot but don't really have the free time to do it right. Instead we got some fake plants that are silk instead of the plastic.

Thanks anyway!
 
awww..... you can still try some anacharis, its super easy and easy to find.
 
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