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Benefits of heavily planting a new set up.

Martin Osmond

Member
Joined
18 Dec 2012
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117
Hi I keep reading about planting heavily from the beginning in a new set up especially with stems. Can someone please explain to me the benefits of this? Also I plan to plant almost entirely with tropica 1-2 grow and as these are smaller than normal potted plants am I going to run into any problems using these?

Cheers
 
Hi Martin good idea to heavily plant your tank from the get go for sure!Benefits are that you will be creating a healthy tank from the start,with a good plant mass you will have less of a chance of having a problem with algae which is a right pain and a common problem in the new tank.Important to have enough fast growing plants to start with eg.Hygrophila polysperma,Ludwiga repens,Hydrocotyle leucocephala etc.These plants can be removed and replaced with other more desired plants if wished when the aquarium has become established.The fast growers strip the nutrients from the water giving algae less chance and also create a better environment for fish/inverts.All in all you can say it helps to plant heavily from the start then it's down to other factors(Co2,flow,light,etc...).Cheers mark
 
Thanks, so what about using 1-2grow plants for the majority of my planting? As they are small I will have less plant mass so may struggle more with algae?
 
The use of macrophytes as water purifiers is well documented, so apart from adding instant interest, planting heavily from the outset will help to reduce ammonia and other chemical compounds to non-toxic levels.

Getting your lighting right will help control algae. Since you're using Tropic plants this may be of help Lys over akvariet (in particualr - How many hours per day?) along with this Algebekæmpelsehttp://www.tropica.com/en/tropica-abc.aspx
 
The use of macrophytes as water purifiers is well documented, so apart from adding instant interest, planting heavily from the outset will help to reduce ammonia and other chemical compounds to non-toxic levels.

Getting your lighting right will help control algae. Since you're using Tropic plants this may be of help Lys over akvariet (in particualr - How many hours per day?) along with this Algebekæmpelsehttp://www.tropica.com/en/tropica-abc.aspx


Thanks for the reply and the links. So a high mass of plants doesn't help control algae but will help with ammonia and other chemicals compounds? So apart from this and the obvious visual aspect there is no other benefits? I think what I'm trying to find out is that will I have any issues planting entirely with tropica 1-2 grow plants apart from microsorium pteropus? I plan to plant heavy just with small plants!

My set up is the following
Juwel rio 125 with standard 2 x 28w t5 light unit. No reflectors
Jbl cristalprofi e 1501
ADA Amazonia substrate
Fe c02 set up with up atomizer
EI starter kit

Cheers
 
The lighting statement about w/l from Tropica (and other older articles) is for T8s and 40-50cm high tanks. Adding more light than 0.5w T8 (that can grow any plant and keeps the algae at bay in an CO2/LC enriched tank) is necessary for making some stem plants grow a bit bushy/blushy/horizontally. T5s is another story, based on my experience you they are ~1/4 more powerful so you need less light than using a T8 unit.

IMHO plant your tank with the plants you like, doesn't matter what species/quantity you choose do a lot of water changes to dilute the ammonia, keep the light low (intensity or period if you can't cut one of the bulbs), CO2 as high as possible (not harming the critters). Stock the tank with fish after a month, let the tank mature and plants grow roots (I usually add some bacteria during the first week of stocking to stay on the safe side).

Cheers,
Mike
 
So a high mass of plants doesn't help control algae but will help with ammonia and other chemicals compounds? So apart from this and the obvious visual aspect there is no other benefits?
Hi Martin,
one other benefit worth bearing in mind to planting heavily from the outset in a high tech tank using ammonia leaching soils, is that whilst your fishless cycling, you can pump huge amounts of c02 gas into the water which helps the plants transition and establishes good plant growth above and below substrate levels which in turn will help the overall quality of the water for when you do add livestock. Healthy growing plants keep substrates aerated, full of beneficial bacteria and help maintain good water quality....all of which, if you get in place before the fish, makes life better for them :)
Cheerio,
Ady.
 
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