OT-looking to start FW planted tank

[lorawalters13]

Hey all! I've been wanting to start a FW planted tank for awhile now. I have zero experience and was wondering if I could get some suggestions. I have a 16g bowfront and a 96w CF that should fit it. Will this be sufficient? Can anyone reccomend easy starter plants that will thrive under this light?

TIA!

 

[scarson61]

thats plenty of light, I would go with the 6500k bulb for plants, google amano tanks to see some beautiful planted tanks. I have a couple of his books and it use a natural approach for algae control like shrimp and the tiny sucker mouth catfish (can't remember the name Oto something) but anyway java fern and java moss are two nearly indestructable plants. Do look out for plants sold for aquariums that are everyday houseplants they seem to do that a lot and they will just slowly die in aquariums.

 

[Rendos]

otocinclus

 

[alkamar]

I have a fresh water setup that is ultra-low maintenance. I have had it going for a few years now. It is a 10 gallon tank with only a single 15w t8 bulb. The lighting depends on what kind of plants you want. I went with low light plants. I planted Java Ferns, Red Wendtii Crypt, Flame Moss, Anubias var. Nana, and Anubias Nana 'Petite'. These are all thriving and growing under this low light. I have to thin them out every now and then. I have Java Fern and Flame Moss that I can give you if you are interested. I don't do anything special to them, but the otocinclus is very good advice, as I have two that keep all the leaves clear of algae including the glass. I also have many many cherry shrimp that are also cleaning the tank. I really don't have to scrap or clean algae in this tank at all. Since I have so many plants in it, nitrates get consumed so fast you can go a while without a water change. I don't do any additives or anything special besides a water change each month.

It is possible we may get rid of this tank pretty soon. It is in the kids room and they aren't always responsible with feeding.

 

[lorawalters13]

Thanks for the help guys! What about substrate? I found some "eco-complete" stuff that is supposed to be the only thing you need. Any thoughts?

 

[scarson61]

any fine gravel (for roots) or I often use sand and gravel and it seemed to work good. (once the diotom bloom is over)

 

[alkamar]

Message me if you are still interested in a planted freshwater setup. I have hearty plants mounted to driftwood, and others that mount slightly into the substrate. We could just make a trade. I may be getting rid of fish and all. If my brother wants the setup, then I'll still have plants for you. I'll try to find out for sure by tomorrow. I have some substrate that mixes with regular gravel or whatever you want to make it even better for plants, also.
I'll get the details for you.

 

[Plantbrain]

That's too much light.

Try something more manageable, like about 2w/gal, say a pair of 13W or a T5 24W etc.

There is no aquatic plant I know of that cannot be grown at 40micromols of light effectively and to a nice aquascaped degree.

In other words, if you want plants to grow well, look at nutrients(water column and the sediment) and CO2 gas enrichment.

Non CO2 methods also work:

No water changes for years, only top off, no test, not much work, feed fish, dose a little to the water column once every week, trim plants up once a month or thereabouts etc.

Pretty low key.

More involvement and more growth and more species selections can be had using CO2.

More light = more CO2 demand = more nutrient demand, so the work and dosing goes up correspondingly as soon as you add more light.
More light is not better.

Figure out specifically what your goal is then you can select a specific management method to get there.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[Plantbrain]

This is a higher light CO2 system(one of them I did for a client):

At 12x4x4 ft, it's a lot of work.

Regards,
Tom Barr