No fish aquarium garden

[snerfu]

I am kind of new to aquarium plants, although I successfully have several plants flourishing in a 10 gallon tank with some fish. I would like to create a new tank, just for aquarium plants, as I have grown to enjoy them most. I have been asking around locally, and have been told that I must have fish in the tank to keep the whole biological cycle intact.

If possible I would like to create an aquarium garden or some kind of cool transparent pond inside a 10 gallon tank. I imagine I can use some sort of fertilizer to help the plants? Please let me know if all of this is a bad idea. If not please let me know if there is a recommended place for reading on this. I have read a book entitled aquariums for dummies. It had some good advice for fish+plants.

 

[Captain Hook]

I think it's definitely possible. Fish food and the wastes the fish produce provide fertilizer for the plants in the form of ammonia and nitrates. The main "macros" of fertilizers are Nitrogen - Phosphorus - and Potassium. You can add these separately for a fairly low cost. Check out the fert sticky for cheap sources of macros, such as nu-salt, fleet enema, and potassium nitrate.

 

[RTR]

Certainly you can have a plant-only tank. Planted tank folk do so regularly.

However, I will warn you that it is a lot easier to hold balance if you have at least a cleaning crew - some invert, some vertebrate - Amano or Red Cherry shrimp, MTS snails, SAEs &/or oto cats if the tank is not too small (10 is pushing it for SAEs IMHO), or other algae-eating fish and inverts to help graze minor algae.