Originally Posted by MagpieTear

Well, if you're starting from scratch, don't go crazy from the getgo. Start slow and work from there.

I'd suggest reading through this board and over at plantgeek before setting up the tank, just absorb as much knowledge as you can. Look at the pics members have posted to see what you like and don't like. Jim, SirDark and others have good threads on setting up their planted tanks

At least in the beginning, CO2 will be overkill and an expense you could be using on other things. Dose with Flourish Excel to give the plants their carbon until you see if planted is for you. Lighting is the one thing you shouldn't scrimp on in the beginning. The stock light fixture that comes with most hoods is pathetic and underpowered for all but the most basic low light setups... Skip the plastic hood and fixture, get a glass top and a better light setup. Again, Plantgeek has innumerable threads discussing which lights are good and which are sub-par quality. Hope this helps. Big thing is be paitient, and figure out (roughly) what you want before you start.

Originally Posted by HatchetHaven

What tech do you want? Low or High? You don't know what I mean? OK. Lets start slow. If you want to have a slow going, easy to maintain tank (With a very limited plant choice) go low tech, if you want to have lots of high maintainence plants etc., go high tech. Before you start - do some research. What sort of aquascape do you want? That will decide what equip you need. I'll help you through this, it's very complex!

So, I reccomend this: Give it a few months - and in that time, research like crazy, decide what aquascape you want to do, and what plants you want to use. Rushing into a planted tank is the last thing you want to do.

Here are a 'few' links:

www.PlantedTank.net
www.Tropica.com
www.PlantGeek.com
www.Aquatic-Eden.com
www.TheAquaTools.com
www.AquascapingWorld.com
www.GuitarFish.org

What fish you have depends on your scape. A large school is always a good place to start. Fish can really add to an aquascape, for instance, if the tank in this link: http://www.aquascapingworld.com/foru...iro-manso.html had been stocked with Betta, the tank would look much smaller than it actually is. Get me? So, look for small schooling fish like Ember tetras (at 0.80" each they are probably the smallest fsh available in the hobby!) and get about 15 of them. Then, a few Nerite snails and a few Otos would finish the animal stock.

Originally Posted by Alasse

You can have a stunning low tech (low cost) planted tank, you just need to research. On another forum i am a member of there are a few members doing this and i must say they have quite a range of plants and they are doing well.

Just remember the higher the light, the higher the chance you will need to add CO2 (and unless its DIY, that can be a very expensive item to purchase)

Personally i think you should go a low tech tank first up until you feel comfortable with caring for plants

Originally Posted by peacemaker92

Thanks Hatchet! Good advices. Really sounds expensive and a lot of money to spend.

Originally Posted by HatchetHaven

Well, you can set up a low tech Nano like that fairly cheaply, and you will NEVER EVER use the word fish tank again. (When you find the sentance "That's one neat fish tank you have there" offensive and would much rather hear "Nice scape" you are in trouble!)

Originally Posted by COBettaCouple

I'd look at the plants that you like and determine how many WPG of lighting you want to run with. Then get plants for that lighting range and research the CO2 for those plants, you want to feed the plants, but not the algae.