Starting Over

[MrsGreenthumb]

I used to love fishkeeping and aquaria, but somehow gotten away from it in the last few years. Oh I still have a few comets in my garden pond. But that's just not the same as having a tank inside.Yesterday I was in my store room and was looking at my old 55 gallon and thought why not set it up again. I filled it up outside and it still holds water. I still have most of the nessicary stuff; filter/s, test kits, heaters pumps, etc... I took down my books and thats all it took for me to remember how much I enjoyed the hobby. This time I'd like to try live plants, and will need help deciding what I want/need, from the substrate up. Hope ya'll are ready for lots of questions. BTW how long do pH chemicals stay good?

Thanx in advance for the help,

Mrs. :thm: Greenthumb

 

[Roan Art]

If you are thinking plants from the get-go, you might want to start your postings in the Plants Forum here. Many good people there that don't venture out into the other forums.

Roan

 

[lucas68]

The only advice I can give on plants is lighting. I had a standard florescent bulb and the plants started dieing. I switched to a “Flora-GLO” bulb and the plants are doing great.

 

[kveeti]

Welcome to Aquaria Central! I'd invest in new test kits; I wouldn't rely on ones a few years old to be accurate. It's also better not to use pH chemicals so I wouldn't worry if those are good or not.

 

[hurricanejedi]

Look into getting 2W/gallon or more to have a good plant setup. If you go higher than 2W/g then you might want to think about whether you want to do co2 injection or do a low tech tank where you keep low light plants without the co2.