Planted Aquarium Basics

sleepyskater

sleepyskater

Gotta have my Barbs!
Dec 27, 2008
664
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Chicago, Illinois
Hi, Im fairly new to the whole Planted tank buisness. I'm gunna get a tank in a couple months and was wondering if there was anything I should study up on to help me keep those plants alive, Like:
Any easy beginner plants for a tank?

What do I need to keep my plants nice and healthy?

Can any fish live with the plants in my tank?

If you're wondering, I plan on getting a 29 gallon, and about 6-8 Tiger barbs, mabey a couple panda cories?
Thanks for the help... if you do help me out haha :)
 
First, you'll need light!
Light is the food of plants :]
It all depends on your light amount

Plants that can grow with basic, straight out of the box, low lights are: Anubias, java moss, Java sword(most any swords grow well and suck up a lot of nutrients), Anacharis.

The setup right out of the box is okay for growing these types of plants
I'd suggest keeping it low-light for now.

Look up "low light plants aquarium" on google, you'll find tons of articles.


Some terms to know:
WPG - watts per gallon - read your lightbulb, look for the ___ watts. If it says 32 watts and you have a 29 gallon tank, then you'd have 1.1 watts per gallon. The ideal WPG for growing most plants is around 2.5 WPG, you'd need 72.5 watts of lighting in your tank(I wouldn't tinker with upgrading your lights until you've dabbled your finger in low light setups)

Co2 - basically refers to one of the essential ingredients in growing plants - co2 is added through pressurized systems, or DIY co2. Co2 speeds up the growth and overall look of plants (you wouldn't need this unless you upgraded your lighting)

Ferts - Fertilizers - when you upgrade your tank, fish poop isn't enough for the plants to live on. If you upgrade your lighting, then you'll have to add these to your tank (again, you wouldn't need this unless you upgraded)
 
I would look into any local plant aquarium clubs. Typically they are a great source of information for supplies, plant trades and in some cases fauna. It maybe possible to see results of what others are doing first hand. You will definitely find some of that here as well try to find what others are doing 29 gallon tanks and how they resemble your setup.

A beautiful color fish for planted tanks are German Rams. Be careful with barbs and some tetras they can destroy plants. So if you have your heart set on a particular fish make sure you find compatible plants.
 
Thanks much! :)
I was looking at Java moss and was wondering if it could settle on the substrate? Cause my overal layout of my tank would be An asian sculpture, bamboo on both sides, java moss under the the sculpture, and Amazon swords
Would this be fine?
 
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