first time planted

[chinmaster]

greetings,

i have been keeping for fish for a few years and have an african cichlid tank running very nicely at the moment,
however i have been thinking a lot about doing a planted tank and have a few questions,
1. is filtration important? i dont plan on having to many fish.
2. what substtrate should i use?
3. im thinking of adding some tree branches also is there any tree type that is a no no as im thinking of getting some from the local woods =0

thanks in advance

 

[LondonDragon]

Welcome to the forum 🙂

1. Flow is important, if you going high tech (high light, CO2, ferts) then around 10 times turnover of the tank volume is recommended. You can either do it by filtration alone or a combination of filtration and circulation pumps (ie Koralias).

2. A fertiline substrate like ADA, Oliver Knott, Colombo Florabase, will give you a higher margin for error and give you a good head start, but you can use even just normal gravel as long you have a good balance between flow, CO2, lights and ferts.

3. Not sure about this one, will let someone else with experience in the field answer it, some wood do rot in the tank.

 

[chinmaster]

thanks for the quick reply =0

ill bear that in mind i will prob start with the filter that came with the tank at first and see from there it does 450l an hour the tank is 80l an hour

 

[chinmaster]

any ideas on the wood anybody?

 

[Gfish]

Hi,
I don't want to send you off to other forums but I have seen this discussed elsewhere and basically, there are so many to choose from!
It must be dead. It must be hard. It's best if bark is gone or easily removed. And so long as you soak it long enough for it to sink and it stays hard its worth using. If its small enough, then boiling it helps speed up the process and gets rid of any undesirables.
There may be guys with more to add to this, and im sure there's one or two to avoid, but stick with what I've said above and you should be fine. I recently stuck a piece of Hazel into a wheelie bin full of water, and this weekend I will be giving it a scrub in hot water and attaching a few plants to it, then into the tank it goes 🙂

I think pretty much all of the fruit trees are suitable wood, and oak is great! Tanks size will be the factor for many pieces you'll see. If you're like me, you'll be close to removing brace bars on the top of your tank to get the biggest piece of tree in there you can 😀

I have a feeling beech is the one to avoid. Speak of what wood takes your fancy and see if anyone has tried it.

Best of luck 🙂

Gavin

 

[chinmaster]

thanks gavin funilly enough thats my name too !!
ill post a few pics to show my progress.

thanks again very friendly informative forum