Freshwater planted tank anyone?

[MCooper]

Have an extra 29 gallon setup I wanna put in my actual office and was thinking a cool planted tank. Anyone know anything about them or freshwater in general?

 

[DracoKat]

I have a simple 9 gal planted with a betta and pair of pea puffers. I have easy to keep plants with Finnex Fugeray Planted+ light. I used EcoComplete substrate and stuck some flourish tabs in it. My filter only has a sponge and Purigan.

I dose with Flurish Excel every other day or so- I gave up with C02 dosing.

Ever since I added a pair of pea-puffers, algae has gotten out of control. I never realized how messy the puffers are!

 

[MaiReef]

Planted tanks take as much work as basic reef IMO. Just like a reef, Good lighting is very important. Beyond that fertitlizer and CO2 is necessary for certain plants and growth. Proper substrate is important as well. There are some good planted forums out there. I haven't done it in years, but my brother has about 8 planted tanks that are maxed without CO2. Quite beautiful, but a bunch of work. Also, heavily planted tanks don't really seem to cycle so there's that.

 

[MCooper]

Thanks guys!

 

[erinmegan85]

We have our planted 90 gallon and I have some wisteria in my 5 gallon betta tank. Betta tank is doing good. The 90 kind of looks like poo right now because the BF kept trying to do all this stuff to get things to grow. Needless to say we're still learning :)

 

[Waters]

Here is my current 65G planted tank....other than not needing to mix up saltwater, they both require about the same amount of maintenance. This tank uses forced CO2, high lighting, and daily micro and macro dosing.

 

[ReeferBob]

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/

 

[Frop]

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/

That forum doesn't hold a candle in website design to this one. ;p

I've had a planted tank for about 10months but adaquit lighting alone isn't enough to grow anything for my tank. I use to add a little bit of seachem flourish and excel.

I just got the rest of the stuff in the photo and my dads old CO2 kit. I want to see if I can grow some dwarf baby tears as of last Friday.

The plants need a lot of nuetrients. Excel, iron should be added daily. Potassium every other day. Flourish is once or twice a week. Flourish advance I think was daily too. Basically 1-5ml per bottle at a time for this 20gal. My tank is a little messy. Usually CO2 in the day and bubbles at night. Don't use straight RO/DI water unless you remineralize it.

 

[djrice69]

My old setup

 

[SBlisters]

Have an extra 29 gallon setup I wanna put in my actual office and was thinking a cool planted tank. Anyone know anything about them or freshwater in general?

I've had my heavily planted tank for years with neocaridina shrimp. I have to do almost nothing to it- superbly easy. Lucky for me too, as this salt water hobby is taking so much of my attention/energy!

It's all about what type of plants / aesthetic you all more going for. Gorgeous aquascaping can require a lot of maintenence. The more fish, the more maintenance.

If you go with hardy plants that don't need extra CO2 added, shrimp and something like a pleco, the system basically keeps itself.

 

[ThunderGoose]

My 120 planted tank gets by with very little effort. Our tap water is soft so I add calcium for the shrimp when I do water changes and about once a year I put fertilizer tabs in the substrate. The biggest maintenance is twice weekly pulling out valisnaria that Is over growing. I'm actually pulling the Val out this weekend and replacing it with shorter plants.

This tank set up is 7 years old. I don't have Picts on this computer, I'll try to post one later.

 

[ThunderGoose]

Not the best picture...Sorry for the haze - light reflected onto the glass from multiple windows.

 

[brandon429]

Mine is a bowl of about three gallons water its a bog. Cherry shrimp in water portion


Plants outgrew the top a little

 

[taintstick]

What kind of water do you guys use? RO, RODI, tap..

 

[ThunderGoose]

Tap (dechlorinated, of course). I do 25 - 30% water change every week or two. I have an adapter for my bathroom faucet so I can just use my python knock-off. I also have a small pump I used to get the siphon started and I run the hose from the tank out the window into the garden.

 

[Frop]

What kind of water do you guys use? RO, RODI, tap..

If you use any 0 TDS water you'd need to to remineralize it. The plants need the minerals. Our saltmix for saltwater remineralizes the water also with major and minor trace elements. However if you didn't dose anything the water would be void. Missing minerals can cause discoloration, holes in the leaves, stunted growth, weak structure, and who know what else.

I use RODI water. Plus the supplements.

 

[SBlisters]

What kind of water do you guys use? RO, RODI, tap..

I also just use tap, but with a water conditioner (dechlorinator).

 

[Waters]

I also just use tap with a water conditioner. I could have used my RO/DI unit but it seemed counterproductive to me since I would just need to add back all the minerals that I was removing.

 

[taintstick]

How about using water from the water mill? Ppm readings are around 20-27. Would that be good to use?
I'm asking because this is the only social media I use haha. I tried doing a planted tank but had no growth success so I took the stuff back to LFS and tore it down. Seeing the photos here, I want to get back to it haha

 

[ThunderGoose]

What do you mean by water mill? It really depends on what's in the water. I've been thinking of checking my RO "waste" water stream as an option.

I found that lighting and substrate were the two biggest things to get right. Then you can pick plants that do well under your conditions. You LFS probably doesn't have a plant person. Check Aquarium Plants. com. They have lots of good information on their site (although it can be a bit tricky to find the information).