Wednesday, May 4, 2011

setting up planted tank 101.

Fish tank: sometime having a smaller fish can be harder than keeping a big one. In larger tanks condition are much more stable due to the larger amount of water. Amonia and ph changing substance have less of an effect on your fish due to being much more diluted. Having a larger tank also allow noobies to not make the mistake of over stocking.


Water: Your water use must fit the need of the specific fish and plants living there. Some common fishes, such as neon tetra, require low ph from around 6.0. However most plants and fishes can adapt to be living at neutral ph 7.0, however behaviors and color come out best when the conditions are right.

Remember that tap water is different around the world, where live the tap water comes out really hard (high Gh) and can be as high as 8.5 Ph! Remember that you can have high ph with with both soft and hard water, soft and hard water just means that it has a lot of calcium and magnesium ions and the Ph is actualy raise by increasing Kh (carbonate hardness).

Whatever the case, it is always best to use RO water, or mineralize RO water with around neutral Ph. This also get rid of the Chlorine and Chloramine making if safe for plants and fish. However if you have to really use tap water, you should buy a water condition like seachem prime.


Filter: Bigger is always better, for planted tank external filter are always better because they cause less surface tension which reduce the amount of c02 being lost. As always when buying filters, make sure the GPH rate is 5-6 times your tank size. For example a 30 g tank would nee about 150 GPH (gallon per hour).


go big or go home


Substrate: If you are building a regular tank, gravel or anything that is inert are fine. In planted tank however, substrate need nutrients for the plants to grow so a rich substrate are needed. Some substrate like ADA aquasoil are very good for growing plants, however they can be pretty pricey. If you don't have the cash, opt for cheaper substrate like fluorite. If you're really poor than you can grab some Walmart special kitty litter, its almost the same thing as fluorite, be careful of the chemicals in some of them and their Ph changing properties. Some people like me like to add a thin layer of organic soil and cap it off with sand or fluorite. Remember that same can get very anaerobic (due to lack of circulation) and can release harmful smelly gas.


black subtrate make the best contrast.


Lighting: The general rule is that you need 2-3 WPH to grow plants, anything with more than 3WPH can be considered high light. Remember that smaller tanks and larger tank dont really obey this rule (less and greater than 20-30g tanks), with larger thank needing less WPG and smaller needing more. However the distance of light toward your plant are also important because light intensity can be much lower even in inches. Remember that not all plants can be growing in low lighting. If you want you can build your own lights for much cheaper at home depot or walmart, fluorescent technology has allow cheaper lighting for most people.


C02: c02 are very important when growing planted tank, if your having anything more than 2WPG you probably want to start using c02. Planted tanks with c02 grow much faster and healthier. There are two type of c02 use for planted tank, diy yeast c02 and Compress c02. DIY can be cost effective in smaller tanks but start becoming useless in larger tank. Compress c02 are much better, much more consistent and more cost effective in the long run.

to learn more about c02 please go to
http://www.plantedtank.net/articles/Pressurized-CO2/19/

for diy c02

http://www.plantedtank.net/articles/DIY-Yeast-CO2/7/

Disclaimer: none of these pics are mine unless stated so.

33 comments:

  1. Thanks for the in-depth walkthrough of the needed materials, I've been toying around with the idea of creating a planted tank but both time and money have been short lately hopefully the summer will change that.

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  2. My plants often die in my tank.
    So I'll keep following your blog and maybe succeed one time

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  3. I tried doing that last summer and failed. Thanks for the walkthrough

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  4. Nice info man, ill definitly use some of that !

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  5. really cool. i want mine to look just like the one in the picture. so beautiful!

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  6. took me a while, but worth it, thanks

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  7. It's great to have all this information, it'll sure come very handy

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  8. Very informative. Good use of references and nice, clean images to go along with the post.

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  9. This post was excellent. The pictures got me hooked and the info was excellent as well. Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to more of the same.

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  10. Jesus....that looks so cool

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  11. i learned about having the right water the hard way..

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  12. You ever hear about jellyfish art? It's expensive but I think it's the ultimate chick magnet.

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  13. There's a lot of great info here dude, I'm still very interested in having a go at this. I'm definitely going to follow you to see what else you're up to.

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  14. this construction is a really nice share :D thanks for this

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  15. Hey man, I purchased my Grandparents a small style aquarium and I used all the recommendations in this for the setup... Except I used a way smaller/cheaper filter.

    We don't have any fish yet (I think we're headed over to the local Pet store for cheap ones)

    Any recommendations for long-lasting fish? Any fish that are particularly cool looking?

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  16. how much money did you spend for the aquarium?

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  17. Really glad you broke the lighting systems down. Didn't even know where to start before!

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  18. Looks expensive, hence looks really good.

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  19. Very informative and well written guide you have here

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  20. @ m_usicreview : you can still grow plants without c02 and a good filter, a hang on box filter would work given that it is strong enough for the tank.
    Some plants grow fast no mater what, Hygrophila sp. and luwidgia sp. comes to mind.

    a good newbie fish would be anytype of rainbowfish, guppies, and goldfish. Alot of the common pet fish liek neon tetra can live in your tank fine but will not be happy unless the temperature and ph is right.

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  21. never grown plants in a tank before, i always grow out in the yard, i feel natural is the best way

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  22. that tank looks sick. i never knew you could grow them in tanks :S.
    defiently following

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  23. Totally love plants. glad i found this blog to follow.

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  24. awesome, i wanna do this, but i dont think i could afford it haha

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  25. Fishtanks can be some of the most beautiful things, and you're certainly doing it right.

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  26. Do you have any projections about what a 3 foot cubed tank would cost, but I would like to make it out of light sensitive glass?

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  27. fish tank are almost expensive as the cost of the glass, there is no real point in making your own unless you are building a 100g plus. In that case its not as difficult as you think.

    in any case its still cheaper to find one on craiglist.

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  28. Can't wait for your next post :D

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  29. your tank looks awesome bro. keep on posting

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