Basic guide to planted tanks

[mike515]

just as a note. Lighting is possibly the most important tool for a planted tank. You can throw as much CO2 and fertilizers into the water as you like. Without DECENT lighting the plants aint gonna look as good as they should. Best bulbs on the market at the moment are made by a German company called Dennerle (they are one of the best plant tank equipment manufacturers around). Either T8s or T5s are fine to use, metal halides being an option as well, just no real point as decent T5s will get the same results

[Bexie]

my parents have got a 5 x 2 x 2 tank that we planted, i helped aquascape it and we put 3 different types of plants in it what we could get from ripples waterlife.

we want to completely re-do the tank with new plants, they want to have some really nice small plants at the front with some decent nice plants at the back the tank has got 2 external cannister filters, with 4 lights in it. 2 purple and 2 white. not sure on what they are. think they are t5?!?!?!

the tanks occupants are;

silver shark
15 lemon tetra
10 black neon tetra
5 - 10 red line tetra
royal plec
albino plec
2 sucking loaches
1 angel fish
4 peppered cory's
4 bronze cories

they want to add a few more fish to the mix aswell. any suggestions?

thanks

[mike515]

Originally Posted by Bexie

my parents have got a 5 x 2 x 2 tank that we planted, i helped aquascape it and we put 3 different types of plants in it what we could get from ripples waterlife.

we want to completely re-do the tank with new plants, they want to have some really nice small plants at the front with some decent nice plants at the back the tank has got 2 external cannister filters, with 4 lights in it. 2 purple and 2 white. not sure on what they are. think they are t5?!?!?!

the tanks occupants are;

silver shark
15 lemon tetra
10 black neon tetra
5 - 10 red line tetra
royal plec
albino plec
2 sucking loaches
1 angel fish
4 peppered cory's
4 bronze cories

they want to add a few more fish to the mix aswell. any suggestions?

thanks

T5 tubes are 5/8 of an inch in diameter. T8s are 8/8 of an inch (so an inch lol).

fish wise, other tetras, barbs should be alright with that mix (depending on the temperament of your angel). More corys. Just small/medium sized community fish. That silver shark needs company, but that size tank is too small for a shoal of silvers so ideally re home him to a big tank with more silver sharks in it.

[Bexie]

Originally Posted by mike515

T5 tubes are 5/8 of an inch in diameter. T8s are 8/8 of an inch (so an inch lol).

fish wise, other tetras, barbs should be alright with that mix (depending on the temperament of your angel). More corys. Just small/medium sized community fish. That silver shark needs company, but that size tank is too small for a shoal of silvers so ideally re home him to a big tank with more silver sharks in it.

the angel has a decent temperament to be honest, it isnt a very big one. they have owned the shark for about 2 years, dont know anybody who has got a shoal of silver sharks to rehome him to????

what plants would you reccomend? the lights i think are t8.

any kind of other fish you would reccomend? me personally id stick some oscars in there and take all the other fish out, but they dont want to do that lol

[mike515]

dwarf cichlids would be ok in there.


The angel could be targeted by barbs, but with a dominant borderline aggressive angel, you often find that the barbs will try their luck get pushed back and no further hassle happens.


You basically looking at basic community fish, so tetras, some barbs, live bearers, small catfish, dwarf cichlids, smaller loachs, gouramis and so on.

You need to work out what sort of fish you want (size, colour, behaviour etc) and then work from there to pick the right species for you

[strictly_scales]

My best tip is substrate, and clean up crew.

I had a team in my 80 litre CO2 system. Crew:

3x Amano Shrimp
2x Sucking Loach
1x Rainbow Shark
1x Apple Snail

No algae... at all. Net result- plants fluorished

The other occupants played their part too...

[ianb]

[Rachael Grace]

Well we just planted our 95l tank last week have got another 95l tank that we have transfered all our fish into while all the plants take root, the only fish we have in atm are some silver clouds.

Now I know a lot of you will scream that you need to cycle the tank but this is how we did it we ran both filters in the one tank with all the fish in for 4 weeks then split the water between the two tanks and topped up just as you would for a 50% water change. We put the newer filter into the tank we were planting and the older one into the tank with all the fish.

We used an all in one fertiliser and topped it with gravel(just cause it looked nicer ) We opted for hardy plants and still have a few to add as the shop didnt have everything we wanted. We are using a canister co2 system (aquagro ) we are also dosing with flourish comprehensive supplement and flourish excel oganic carbon every 2 days.

We are finding that we are doing well with all our plants that were potted all the bunched plants are not doing so well. So would always advise to buy the more expensive to start with as in the long run it will save you money.

Now we dont intend to add any more fish than the clouds for at least two months and then we will follow the same rules as a new tank and add slowly.

I am interested in finding out about the different lights as ours is due for renewal and would like to see what everyone recommends currently its just the normal floresent that comes already installed.

We will be adding mollies, siamese fighting fish apple snail ramshorn snail clown loach, clown plecs. Our mollies are breeding like wildfire atm so we currently have two tanks just for them as well as the few in the main tank. Lets just say its a mollie nursery in our house so if anyone is close and looking for some interesting colours give us a shout especially if you have some tropical shrimp to swap or balloon mollies. Also may be on the lookout for an extra clown loach in the near future

Also to add when we have finished the planted project we will plant up the second tank but hoping to try something a bit more challenging and difficult to breed so watch this space.

[dyzan8]

Intersting read - good posts. Never had much success with my potted plants. Might take another go!

[goldie1212]

Originally Posted by Rachael Grace

Well we just planted our 95l tank last week have got another 95l tank that we have transfered all our fish into while all the plants take root, the only fish we have in atm are some silver clouds.

Now I know a lot of you will scream that you need to cycle the tank but this is how we did it we ran both filters in the one tank with all the fish in for 4 weeks then split the water between the two tanks and topped up just as you would for a 50% water change. We put the newer filter into the tank we were planting and the older one into the tank with all the fish.

We used an all in one fertiliser and topped it with gravel(just cause it looked nicer ) We opted for hardy plants and still have a few to add as the shop didnt have everything we wanted. We are using a canister co2 system (aquagro ) we are also dosing with flourish comprehensive supplement and flourish excel oganic carbon every 2 days.

We are finding that we are doing well with all our plants that were potted all the bunched plants are not doing so well. So would always advise to buy the more expensive to start with as in the long run it will save you money.

Now we dont intend to add any more fish than the clouds for at least two months and then we will follow the same rules as a new tank and add slowly.

I am interested in finding out about the different lights as ours is due for renewal and would like to see what everyone recommends currently its just the normal floresent that comes already installed.

We will be adding mollies, siamese fighting fish apple snail ramshorn snail clown loach, clown plecs. Our mollies are breeding like wildfire atm so we currently have two tanks just for them as well as the few in the main tank. Lets just say its a mollie nursery in our house so if anyone is close and looking for some interesting colours give us a shout especially if you have some tropical shrimp to swap or balloon mollies. Also may be on the lookout for an extra clown loach in the near future

Also to add when we have finished the planted project we will plant up the second tank but hoping to try something a bit more challenging and difficult to breed so watch this space.

do you have the clown loach in the 95l tank? they grow large to around a foot long. sorry if i have mis-read and they are in a bigger tank