Planning my first planted tank...

[LancsRick]

Evening all!

I'm really glad to have discovered this site, there's more information here than I will ever read! That's partly why I'm now confused...

Having initially had the thought of "I'll find out how to setup a proper planted tank", I now realise that I need to decide what SORT of planted tank I want to set up. All the information appears to be here, I just don't know which route to go down in all honesty, and was hoping to either get some advice, or pointers to resource so I can read up on the pros and cons of various options...

So what have I got to work with / what are my aims?

- Trigon 350 with T5s and 1000 pump.
- Intending to populate with freshwater tropicals
- Will be including Plec/loaches to minimise the need to clean!
- Low maintenance
- Avoid the need for CO2 injection (does this put me in the "Natural" camp?)

I'm not looking to "rapid start" the tank, I'll aim to leave it for a month or so, possibly adding some guppies a bit earlier to speed up the cycling depending on what my reading leads me to believe by that point!

Anyways, cheers in advance for any advice, and I look forwards to hanging around here a bit more!

Cheers.

 

[awtong]

Have a look in the low tech sub forum and have a look at the soil substrate tanks.

Andy

 

[Viv]

I don't know enough to give you the sort of advice you're after but from what I've learned having no CO2 makes you low tech. I don't think on its own it makes you 'Natural' or anything. I think these are more styles of scaping - might be wrong though!
When I first decided to have a go at a planted tank I looked around at a lot of plants to see what I liked and would survive in my (hard) water. This helped me to choose going with liquid carbon/CO2 as quite a few of the plants I liked benefited from having this added. I don't know if thats any help If you definitely want to avoid adding any carbon then you're looking at low tech.

Other than that, spend some time looking through the Gallery and the Journals forums. It might help you decide which style you like best and give you some ideas for how to proceed?

Viv

 

[darren636]

get a bottle of biomature and cycle your tank that way. Do not use fish to do it for you. That behaviour is unacceptable. Otherwise good luck and enjoy the process of starting it is great fun choosing stuff

 

[LancsRick]

Thanks guys. Don't worry, I have no intention of using fish to cycle the tank, although once safe for guppies I may put some in first as I understand they can tolerate less favourable conditions more easily and assist in cycling. If that's wrong then I won't!

The thing that put me off artificially adding CO2 was the added expense of a tank, or effort of screwing around with reactors etc.

Right, time to get some evening reading in!

 

[Kristoph91]

Get reading mate on lighting, ferts, correct fishless cycling etc. UKAPS is a great resource Use it wisely
Start looking up Low Tech plants, Java ferns, Anubias, Moss etc.
Make a plants list of what you'd like, and what you could use as a good substrate for them.
Advice on plecs.. I don't know how much you know about them, but in my experience.. Any bought from an "average" LFS grow too large, unless they are bristlenose (which have a reputation for uprooting) or pitbulls etc.

Enjoy reading the journals on here, they're really useful and interesting!

Most of all, enjoy setting up your new tank.. And DO NOT forget to make a journal for all to read. People will help you out on it no end here.

Regards

 

[Antipofish]

Thanks guys. Don't worry, I have no intention of using fish to cycle the tank, although once safe for guppies I may put some in first as I understand they can tolerate less favourable conditions more easily and assist in cycling. If that's wrong then I won't!

The thing that put me off artificially adding CO2 was the added expense of a tank, or effort of screwing around with reactors etc.

Right, time to get some evening reading in!

This is no longer true of guppies mate. They are so inbred that they are not the hardy fish they used to be. And either way, using fish to "assist" in cycling is not really on. If you can get some bio media from a friend that will kick start your filter. I used Sera bio filter start and Sera bio nitrivec and my tank was matured in about 10 days. I am sure you can wait in order to add fish

 

[LancsRick]

I'll avoid then, thanks. "Stolen" media was how I set up my last tank many many many years ago but unfortunately I have no "fishy" friends any more. A bit of patience and natural cycling won't do me any harm!

The bit I'm dreading the most is the aquascaping - although I adore how the planted tanks look, I'd be the first to admit that I lack an eye for design!! I'm browsing Journals and Gallery entries non stop at the moment, slowly getting a feel for what I do and don't like.

Thanks for all the encouragement guys. If you guys need any computer help then I'll be able to return the favour .