# Newbie Guide to the Planted Tank



## d_scherrer (19 Feb 2012)

I felt compelled to post this about my experience of getting a newly planted tank up and running with no prior plant experience; Fish experience aplenty, just not with a planted tank.

Thank you to Don Matakis  @  http://www.freshwateraquariumplants.com/ for a lot of help.

The tank size is a 76-gallon bowfront, and my water is very, very, very hard 30+, and I have achieved some great results with just my regular hard water.  

Just Planted.















I’ll skip to the good stuff -  What did I learn thru trial and error, a near genocide of all my existing fish, and a recovery that is really starting to look like some of those really awesome pictures you see, except I don’t have the professional touch, but the plants are awesome.   

Oh, fish, yea, 4 plecos (all plant safe, make sure the plecos you decide to get are plant safe, they’ll all remain smallish), 2 corys, 8 ottos or so (lost count), 2 koli loaches, 1 clown loach, 3 japano amano shrimp, 38 tetras of various color, and one beta.  This is what I have flourishing in the tank now, some of you observant few will see different fish in the just planted photos.

Plants:
Java fern, Anubias, Eusteralis Stellata, Melon sword, Crypt Lutea, Crypt Wendtii Tropica, Cabombaa Carolina, Ludwigia, Bacopa Monnieri, Wisteria, Rotala, Hygro Kompakt, Dwarf Saggitaria, Dwarf Aquarium Lily and 2 Banana plants.

I purchased all plants except the bananas from http://www.freshwateraquariumplants.com/, Don Matakis is very knowledgeable and took the time to help me get things right, thanks Don.  Not to mention the plants where awesome the day I received them; healthy and big.

Please realize the success I’ve had is with hard water, if you have soft water, you may need to try something different.  But you can still give it a shot.


Stuff you need to have:

Good filtration.  I have a fluval 405 and it works GREAT.  I have a surface skimmer and I pull from the bottom as well with a kind of home made splitter, its easy to do, and helps contain plant debris, use a foam sleeve on your bottom supply, this will help keep the fluval filter canister from loading up with heavy waste like plant leaves and such.  Yes, I still pic out the dead stuff, but no matter what, you’ll never get it all out, realistically anyway.

My trays are setup with the following:
Bottom tray, biomax, 
Next tray, Ammonia and phosphate scrubber pads with peat moss on top of that, and then more regular filter media over that.
Third tray, more biomax.
Top tray, filter media and then one half with phosphate reducer and the other half with purigen, more filter sponge over that.  Both are seachem products and I have had great luck with both.

CO2 injection.  For this you’ll need a CO2 tank and a GOOD regulator.  I do not recommend a made in china knock off, buy a good brand and save yourself a hassle.  You don’t need a solenoid, you’ll never turn it off, too establish the right CO2 levels it will run constantly.
You’ll also need a good co2 diffuser.  DO NOT waste your time on one of those cool glass ceramic thingy’s.  Purchase the inline diffuser (size based on tank and filter size).  You can get these off ebay for like 20 bucks, or green leaf aquarium for like 40, I’ve tried them both and I’ll say this, not much difference, slightly better diffusion with $40 model, but, hey let the arguing begin, I’m just telling you what I found.
I mounted the diffuser in the tank, I don’t trust any brand not to leak, even a little.  I have it mounted just before the spray bar.  Best bang for the buck.

Milwaukee Regulator with bubble counter gone, leaked anyway.





Bubble counter.  This can be external, and the ones that come with the regulators are junk, ALWAYS leak.  Get a bigger one that hangs on the side of your tank, it looks awesome and it works well.

Love this bubble counter.





Good lighting.  You really only need around 1 to 2 watts per gallon at most for lighting, at least with the setup that I have.  I purchased a coralife with the lunar lights, really looks cool.  Piece of info, the lunar lights don’t grow algae.  A timer is an absolute must, you don’t need anything expensive or fancy, just make sure it has enough power rating for your light.

Substrate heater.  I really struggled with putting this item on the have to have list, but you know what, having this heater in place has to many pros than cons, just make sure you get it set up right the first time.  Take your time and place the substrate carefully.  This device helps circulate those nutrients through your plants root system.

Speaking of substrate, make sure your substrate will match your expectations for the kind of plants you expect to grow.  Smaller the substrate, the smaller the plant type you’ll be able to grow.  I have rather large pea gravel and I learned that I was unable to grow the smallest ground cover plants like pogo, but my other medium and large plants thrive.

Nutrient fertilizer, both your macros and micros.  
I purchased my fertilizer from http://www.aquariumfertilizer.com
You’re going to need both micros and macros, depending on what’s in your water you’ll need different nutrients.  There will targets to hit and I am not going to discuss that here, the estimative index is what you need to know.  An inexpensive digital scale will really help here.
One thing I learned though, hard water sometimes may have high phosphates, try to not use anything with phosphates in it at least at first and until your plants look like the may need it.

A Ph monitor is nice, but not a must, but it certainly helps get your co2 adjusted right.  I have a CO2 monitor too that works with the indicating liquid, and that works ok, but for 100 bucks I bough a pinpoint ph monitor, and it has worked flawlessly for 8 months now.  An ammonia monitor is good too.  Those are real cheap and you can get ones now that hang in the tank and last ALL YEAR.

PH meter.





Imagination, setup your plants in a way that makes sense, ‘nough said.


Things you don’t need.  

Lots of test kits.  Cheap kits suck and never work right, and the expensive ones aren’t flawless either.  But, sometimes having a small kit will help you determine what’s going on in your tank, and give you baseline as well.  I would look to get a ph, hardness, and an nitrate/nitrite test, and that’s about it.

Lots of pumps circulating the water.  I started out with the recommended amount of water flow and it was way too much for the bowfront setup.  All I use now is the spray bar on my filter.  No hydro pumps or the like.  
This is what your looking for flow in my experience – If all your plants, even in the back, are swaying even ever so slightly, then you’ll be ok.  Keep the spray bar level if you can and try not to disturb the surface too much, the skimmer is going to do that for you.  My spray bar is mounted just below the water line and angles slighting from deep to shallow so the CO2 disperses throughout the spray bar.  The water outputs are almost parallel with the surface.

If your not getting much flow from your filter than it is better to go with several small circulating pumps that one or two large ones.  Same principal applies here with flow too, watch your fish as well, if they are getting blasted about like a dog against a fire hose, then you’re kick’n too much water.

Carbon in your filter.  NO, NO, NO.  Phosphates are in the carbon too.  ‘nough said.

Air pump.  Nope, that’s what your plants are going to supply, oxygen.  No need for it.

Lots of chemicals for algae control.  Throw them out, they’ll always make matters worse, trust me.  Besides, there’s a little known solution that works better.  See lesson 1 below.

So with that out of the way, here we go:

Lesson 1:

Getting a tank to grow especially without algae growing like a weed takes time, effort, the right mix of nutrients, a little bit of luck, and a secret weapon.

It took me nearly 6 months to get my tank to the point where I don’t even have to scrub the glass; the algae is held at bay by the snails, plecos, shrimp (yes, japano amano shrimp), ottos, loachs, and corys.  All together they number about 12 or so, and they are your best defense against algae, trust me.

It’s also important to get the right mix of nutrients for your tank, this isn’t really a guessing game, its more making sure your mixtures are correct and you are administering the right nutrients.  Guess what, your plants can tell you a lot about what’s lacking, pay attention and watch the for the signs of sickness and nutrient deficiencies, I am not discussing that here, there is lots of info about that around.  

Secret weapon, well, ever heard of paraguard. 
It helps with fish illnesses and such, but when it comes to getting that pesky algae under control, well, look no further.  Can’t tell you why, but it works like magic.  Use carefully and under one condition, you know that you have all other variables reeled in and under control.  That means light is good and the right duration, the nutrients are good according to the EI and you’re about ready to pull your hair out.  I used this a few times at first and watched the algae literally disappear in about a week.  That is to say some will always remain, but once you get the algae under control, your little algae eating army should be able to keep it under control.  No more scrubbing the glass.

Lesson 2:

Make changes to your CO2 flow level slowly and methodically.  Make one adjustment a day and watch your ph level and co2 monitor.  Now of course if your fish are gasping for air, time to turn that puppy way down.  Start out with 1 to 2 bubbles per second.  Getting this adjusted just right is an ongoing procedure to be honest, but it will take you a month maybe to get the levels wrangled in, after that it’s just real fine adjustments to adjust to your plant growth.  A CO2 controller I guess would help here, but I don’t have one, and they are not cheap, typically, and this will require you to get an electric solenoid for your CO2.

Lesson 3:

Add fish slowly and methodically.  I had a major issue with this, after adding what I thought was an acceptable amount of fish my co2 went nuts and my ammonia spiked and I had what one might call a holocaust in my tank.  This is a big one.  You have real plants now in your tank, you do have some buffer, I found that adding as many as 10 to 12 small tetras at once was no big deal, but I would not exceed that, and always do this after your filter has run for at least a week or so and you are sure levels are stable in your tank.  I am still expanding my fish population a little at a time.  Typically I would wait 1 to 2 weeks between adding fish.
With real plants though, your fish will flourish, the color in them will be so much more brilliant than with any plastic planted tank, or the pet store for that matter.

Lesson 4:

You’ll need to trim your plants about once a month or so, so be ready and have the right tools.  ‘Nough said.  Follow the guidelines for the specific plants as far as trimming goes and all will go fine.  Replant cuttings if you like, or throw them out, or give them to friends, your choice.

Lesson 5:

Having an established tank means that your levels of CO2, nutrients, and wastes are all steady.  Crazy swings in anything is your enemy here.  Stability is key, especially with ph.  Once your tank is established the battle is truly over, set the autopilot on and watch your little ecosystem churn away.


Lesson 6:

This isn’t so hard.  Hey, actually looking back it was a little frustrating.  But with some patience, some careful observation and educated responses to what ails your tank, victory will be yours, even with liquid rock for water.

8 months later.








Its hard to see in the picture but the anubias is 'flowering' for the second time.








Well that’s it, I hope this helps a few of you.
Good luck.


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## sussex_cichlids (19 Feb 2012)

Hi d_scherrer

Plants look nice and helthy displays looks very wild 

clown loach like to be in goups of 4 or more will make the one you got a lot happyer


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## d_scherrer (19 Feb 2012)

Thank you, you are right, I plan to add a few more when more come into the local pet store, unfortunately around here those are seasonal and I missed the window the last time to get some.  Thank you for the advice.  Wild setup for sure, this is my first and I just wanted to see if I could do it, and yes I can.  The fish seem to love the setup so I am just going to leave it.  Believe it or not, these pictures where right after I trimmed it up, removed nearly a full grocery bag full of cuttings, sadly, to the trash.


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## iamjohnny75 (8 May 2012)

I have found your article very useful and informative. I am about to start growing plants in the aquarium and I have very little experience of doing so. I currently keep Tanganyikan fish and the water chemistry is not ideal for plants. I am in the process of re-homing all of my fish to concentrate on getting to grips with the basics of aquatic plant cultivation and care. Initially I intend to keep a couple of 60l tanks, 1 for carpeting plants and another for attaching plants to various hardscaping materials. I realise this might not be the most exiting approach but I feel it will be the most functional approach for now. I have gained a lot from this article and I'm sure I'll refer to it again. Thanks.


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## deepak267 (12 May 2012)

useful articles


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## MisterB (15 May 2012)

interesting read, thanks for posting.

im interested in checking out your bubble counter, and was woundering where you got it from?

thanks


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## pdev (26 Jul 2012)

I found this really interesting
Thanks


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## d_scherrer (30 Jul 2012)

Thank you for your comments.  Please see below for the updated pics, this is now almost a year in.  Some plants flourished, some plants have failed, but it still is going real well.  I figure it must be the gravel size that is affecting the plants that succeed.  At any rate, the bubble counter was purchased on ebay, believe it or not.  

I've found one new useful ingredient, I've purchased same real peat and I mix 1 ball with one bag of the dry peat pellets you can get from fluvial.  The result will be a mess but sandwich this mix in between a medium sponge and a high media filter on top.  It will reduce you ph noticeably at first so be ready for it, but after the ph rebounds it will remain stable longer and the water will remain very healthy.  I've gone 4 to 6 weeks now between changes with NO affects.  The fluvial is now running with the following setup.

First tray - Old biorocks (about a year old now)
Second tray - medium sponge, peat mixture, fine media on top
third tray - new bio rocks - 'bout a month old
final tray, fine phosphate removing sponge, one side with phosphate remover in sack (Seachem) - other side with a sack of purigen - also Seachem- with a regular fine media sponge on top.

Also new in the setup, which I am quite proud of, is the new skimmer.  Made up of a skimmer device I found on ebay, some pvc fittings, and a little engineering I have selectable flow skimmer that works wonders for gathering the debris for you.  Also, I haven't had to siphon the bottom, so far so good.

All I can say now with the plant growth and the trimmings I have had to do is - WOW - this is a truly rewarding process and amazing to see the plants grow with such furver and to see how healthy the fish are in the environment.

Good luck!!! and thank you for looking!


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## pancho (16 Dec 2012)

Good info thank you ! Will have to have a proper read later


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## Arana (16 Dec 2012)

I'm afraid a lot of your advice goes against what some of the more experienced scapers on here would reccomend   
Matrix calling Clive, Matrix calling Clive, come in Clive


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