# New to planted tanks, please help



## fishkeeper01 (Oct 2, 2012)

So I have a 10g tank that I would like to make a planted tank out of and get some experience because planted tanks look really nice. I also thought I should start of slow and use a small tank and do a low tech jus to ease into it. I have a good amount of questions on how to go about doing this.

1) As far as low tech tanks, would jungle val, java fern, anubias, and staurogyne repens be good plants?
2) What should I do as far as fertilizers, should I try miracle grow organic potting mix capped with a substrate? Or just use root tabs and liquid ferts. Also will I need co2 fertilization as well?
3) What substrate is better, sand out flourite?
4) Lighting, this is probably the most confusing topic for me, what kind of lighting do I need? I don't understand this number of watts per gallon thing? P.S. Wat are good brands?

Sorry for all the questions, thanks for the help.


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## frenchie1001 (Jun 23, 2013)

1) yes. (not sure on S.repens
2) either EI dosing, or the seachem range is the most common, with substrate choice depending on what you want to achieve
3) depending.
4) i have no idea haha, no help in this area, i have beams works on my 14gal because im cheap but i have no idea what abetter choice would be.


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

Read the first post here: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=184368 This may help you understand how to select appropriate lighting. There are several ways you can go with substrate, fertilizing and CO2. If you keep the lighting low enough you don't need to bother with CO2, even though it is beneficial with any light level. I think the easiest way to get started is to use Flourite or Eco Complete, with substrate fertilizing, and low light. Once you get your feet wet, and do a lot of reading in this forum, you will decide for yourself how to expand your experience.


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## fishkeeper01 (Oct 2, 2012)

That's another question idk what El dosing is. And hoppy what your suggesting I'd to just use flourite, and then put your tabs in the substrate right? Also as far as seachem products go which laid gets to I use?


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## Seedreemer (Sep 28, 2008)

As far as lighting I've always bought full spectrum florescent at places like Home Depot or Lowes. You can get "plant" lights or just use "daylight/6500k" lights. You won't have much of a choice in watts per gallon there as each length only comes in one measurement. Does that make sense? Depending on your hood you can possibly put in two bulbs to increase your lighting but based on my experience (I've never done a 10g only larger) you'll still be in the low light category.


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

EI dosing is described in http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=21944 I suggested using Flourite because it is easier to use than soil, whether mineralized or not. Flourite is a good substrate, but doesn't contain any usable nutrients for the plants, so adding substrate fertilizer tablets or capsules is a good idea with it, and easy to do. There are different colors of Flourite available, but I personally like the black best, and the "dark" second best.


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## fishkeeper01 (Oct 2, 2012)

So instead of going to a lfs I can just go to like home depot to get the same thing? Also I still am confused on the whole lighting thing.


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## Luminescent (Sep 13, 2013)

fishkeeper01 said:


> So instead of going to a lfs I can just go to like home depot to get the same thing? Also I still am confused on the whole lighting thing.


Let's make it real easy here. 

Get 2 bags of Eco Complete and 1 Bag of Fluorite. You can get them from Amazon.com or at your fish store if it is a good one.

Put those in your empty tank. Mix them around. Add a couple inches of water.

Go to your fish store and get a fluorescent light fixture for your tank (if you don't already have one). Buy a 'Gro Lux' plant bulb (tube) for it. Tell the fish store people you need a plant light- they will show you where they are. 

Buy Flourish 'Trace' and 'Excel'. Buy some root tabs. Seachem also makes Flourish root tabs. Just use those according to directions except for the 'Excel. Only use half as much as it says on the bottle.
Buy some bacteria for cycling. Follow those directions.

Get a nice piece of driftwood, rocks and some Anubias Nana, Java Fern and Valisneria along with some fishing line. You can tie the Anubias and Java Fern on the Driftwood and rocks if you want. Plant the Val in the substrate. Spray the plants with water while you are doing all of the tying on. 

Fill your tank the rest of the way and turn on your heater and filter. Don't let it get to hot - 73-74 to start with while the tank cycles. Don't put any fish in until it has. The driftwood may want to float for a while. Let it. No use fighting mother nature. Just make sure your plants stay under. If they don't, stick a rock on it to weigh it down.

Run your light 4 hours in the morning - turn them off for 3 hours in the afternoon - then run it again 4 hours in the evening.

Take a pretty picture of your set up and post it for us


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## TECKSPEED (Jan 2, 2013)

Get miracle grow organic potting soil from walmart and cap that with your choosing of substrate. You want about 1 inch of dirt and one inch of a cap. This is not expensive to do and works great I've got a dirted tank and don't need root tabs at all, also you can get some red clay and make little balls and push them into the dirt for an iron supplement (good for root feeders) if you need to know how to dirt the 10 gallon PM me and I'll help out. Trust me dirt is the way to go makes plant growing a lot easier in my opinion. Your going to need to do water changes with this once a day or two to get all the cloudiness out of the water, then PLANT HEAVILY, VERY VERY VERY HEAVY, this will help keep your ammonia and nitrate swings down and help compete against algae right off the bat. 

As for lighting a standard plant bulb may due but look for something in the 6700k range it can be 6500k as well but that will do, now I do recommend greatly a finnex fugeray yes they may be pricy but we'll worth it, it's a one time purchase and it will give all the light you need. 

As for plants definitely stick to the basics for now java fern, java moss, Amazon swords, Ludwigia repens, moneywort, jungle val. 

As far as dosing you can dose seachem excel and some trace elements and be fine

Shoot me a PM and I can help you out, also there are other members on here that can give you better plants than a local fish store just put a post in the wtb section.

-- Kyle

Sent from my LG-E980 using Tapatalk 4


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## fishkeeper01 (Oct 2, 2012)

So I'd the staurogyne repens too advance, because I have a friend rise gonna give me some.


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## laurenjane (Sep 1, 2013)

Luminescent.. I love you! I'm trying to set up a ten gallon too, and your comment has definitely helped me out a lot. I've read all the info, but seeing it all laid out step by step is so helpful for a newbie.


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## Django (Jun 13, 2012)

I've been researching setting up my 10 gallon tank with Miracle Grow Organic Potting Mix (MGOPM) and some kind of black sand as a cap. I think that MGOPM has both macro and micronutrients in it. I would get the Potting Mix rather than the Potting Soil, from posts I've read.

I am using the cheapest way to light a 10g: two 10 watt spiral Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFL) with "brooder" dome reflectors which have regular light bulb receptacles, on top of a glass tank top. You may have to raise them up with something for more height. If you want to play with light more you can use 13 watt bulbs and raise around 6" from the top of the tank.

I am going to make the change within a week or two because my plants are suffering - I think I have a Phosphorus or Nitrogen deficiency, although my NO3 is around 20 or 30 ppm. I'm planning to find the black sand first and then pick up the MGOPM, maybe do the job the following weekend. When the plants have perked up and things are looking better I'll post a pretty pic.


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## fishkeeper01 (Oct 2, 2012)

Also what should I use as far as filtration fires? And could I use staurogyne repens in the tank


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## Luminescent (Sep 13, 2013)

laurenjane said:


> Luminescent.. I love you! I'm trying to set up a ten gallon too, and your comment has definitely helped me out a lot. I've read all the info, but seeing it all laid out step by step is so helpful for a newbie.


I am glad it helped! I have helped a lot of people take care of tanks over the years.


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## frenchie1001 (Jun 23, 2013)

I wouldn't use dirt first up, get a bit of experience first.


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## Luminescent (Sep 13, 2013)

frenchie1001 said:


> I wouldn't use dirt first up, get a bit of experience first.


Yep. That was my suggestion, basically.


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## fishkeeper01 (Oct 2, 2012)

Would staurogyne repens be ok in a low tech tank?


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## laurenjane (Sep 1, 2013)

Yep, I can second that dirt comment... mine has been disasterous! Trying to cycle a tank, learning to grow plants, messing with the substrate and disturbing it can create havoc for a newbie. I'm about to get rid of mine and replace it with eco complete. Wish I'd done that the first time.

Luminescent, my son asked for a castle in his tank.. so I'm doing a mini version of your awesome tank. By version I mean it won't even resemble it but I'm doing the castle on the hill thing with rocks below, I'll probably kill the plants in mine though! haha Still your tank has inspired my scape coming up. x I did find a rock at the beach covered in moss and managed not to kill the moss!!


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