davedude77

Hello all, thanks for this great website. I'm new to being an aquarist and I'm planning on buying a 38g tank very soon. I want to also add live plants to my tank. I would think that it would be easier to add the plant substrate under the gravel and add the plants because I've read that adding plants after the tank is full is quite the task. So what's my question?

Using the no-fish method of cycling; should I add the substrate and plants to my tank during the cycling process? Wouldn't this hurt the plants? Should I only add the substrate for now? Will this ruin the substrate? If I shouldn't add the substrate, how do you get the substrate under the gravel after the cycle is done? I don't want to disturb the gravel as it's a place the Nitrospira tend to grow (from what I've read). As you may see, I'm a little confused. OK, I'm a lot confused.

Thanks in advance everyone for the help.

Dave

David C

It is fine to add the substrate and plants during the cycle, it won't harm them. It is by far the easiest to put the substrate in before adding the water, and depending on if you use eco-complete or not, it will actually speed the cycle up some because the water that comes with it is bacteria rich.

Blub

Before you get all about plant substrates, what sort of planted tank do you want? A low maintainence, slow growing (with much less plant choice) low tech, or high maintainence, fast growing high tech with the choice of whatever aquatic plants you can lay your hands on.

To answer your question: you put the plant substrate under the gravel when you set up the tank, then either plant whilst the tank is dry or plant when the tank is full. I prefer to plant in a filled tank because getting my arm wet is no concern!

Here are some links:

www.Tropica.com - Great site with a good database. Top plant supplier!
www.PlantGeek.com - Lots of people round here like the plant database and it is very good!
http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.u...section=plants - PFK's plant section
www.AquascapingWorld.com - Great and fairly new planted tank site
www.ThePlantedTank.org - What it says on the tin. Amazing planted tank forum and site!
www.GuitarFish.org - Cool blog with not just planted tanks!
www.AquaticEden.com - Great Planted tank blog; I learned a lot about aquascaping on that site!
www.AquariumPoetry.blogspot.com - Rarely updated but very good blog/site!
www.FishLore.com - The worlds ultimate fish site!

Red1313

Maybe don't plant the tank when it's completely full or you'll have a flood (lol). However it's by far easier to plant when the tank is a little over halfway full. that way you can have a better idea of how all the plants will look when you do finally fill it up all the way.
Good Luck!

davedude77

Thanks for the plant tips everyone. To clarify what my intents are, I'm looking for a low maintainence, low light, slow growing type setup with a bunch of small unagressive fish. Basically something to watch with a drink on those stressfull days. As I've said I'm new to Aquariums but would really like some real plants in my first of possibly many tanks. I think it looks better with live plants. Maybe after I've gotten my hands wet. Har, har, har . I would try something a little more complex.

Thanks for the links HH. I like the plantgeek site in that they allow me to look at low light plants specifically. I haven't checked out the others much yet.

Here's an update to my setup. My friend from work is going to give me his old 55g tank. Anything I should worry about other than leaks? ie Can deseases live in an empty tank? Don't think so but I'll ask. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, both in the plant area and in the used tank area. By the way, he doesn't have any equipment (filters, pumps, lights, etc.) so at least there's no issues from there.

Thanks again everyone.

Shawnie

I dont have any plant experience but washing the tank out with either 1 part bleach to 19 parts water then use some prime or another dechlorinator to dechlorinate after, or vinegar and hot hot water, will take care of cleaning....make sure you get pics along the way of befores and after!

David C

If you want some really easy plants to grow, stick with java moss and java fern. There are several types of java ferns that look pretty cool and they all grow in the conditions you are describing i.e. low light. There are several other easy plants to grow, check out http://www.plantgeek.net/plantguide_cat.php?category=2 and you can look up the plants based off of difficulty. Low light is 0-2wpg... medium is 2-4wpg. wpg= watts per gallon.

Blub

Here is a list of low light plants: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/577300-post129.html

hooflady

If you have live plants, you also have to be selective of which fish you choose. Some will just eat the live plants (my bala shark sure did!) and some can get sick from them. Also, be VERY careful when you purchase live plants as they can carry SNAILS! Oh the dreaded snails! They are a parasite that can quickly overtake the tank and are really hard to get rid of if your fish are already in there with them. Good luck!

ER9

thats what i said. beleive me you will change your mind once you get your feet wet. once you get the hang of it and see how beautifull the higher light tanks are you will wish you had one.

i would suggest considering a setup with 2 watts per gallon of light. that is the threshhold of low and high tech. meaning you can keep it simply and have a relatively low maintenance tank with a very nice plant selection, or add some co2 and have a few harder to maintain varieties.

i think at that light level you have way more options and i think its actually easier to maintain a planted tank than one with less light than that. anything over 2 watts per gallon of light though and you will need to get into CO2 supplementation, which actually seems way more complicated than it is.

good luck