Help out of my depth!

[rangerover]

hi

I hope you can help, i'm about to place an order with plantedtanks.co.uk as I am about to set up my fluval roma 125 (a little bit small, but thats the biggest that would fit!

I've currently selected - I dont' want heavy planted tank, just a few to make it look and feel natural... I want low maintance (eg. no co2 (may be later) - i have t8 lighting and will be using tetra plant substrate...

1 x Echinodorus Paniculatus Emerse
1 x Vesicularia Dubyana / Java Moss
- Choose your format On Driftwood
4 x Vallisneria Asiatica
3 x Cryptocoryne species / Water Trumpets / Crypt Beckettii
4 x Echinodorous Tenellus / pygmy chain sword / mudbabies
- Upgrade your plant Bunched
2 x Hygrophila Difformis / Water Wisteria
- Upgrade your plant Bunched

what doe you think?

 

[Themuleous]

Only one of those I'd been a bit envious of is the E.tennellus, which does much better under good lighting. The rest should be fine on almost any tank

Sam

 

[rangerover]

Thanks Sam

I replaced it with Sagittaria Subulata / Dwarf Sag x4 ... what do you think of the number of plants i'm planning on purchasing - too much / too little / about right?

Thanks!

 

[rangerover]

Slight update...

I've gone and set up the tank using low tech plants as recommended by plantedtanks.co.uk. I've used tetra plant substrate, covered with dorset pea gravel...

Should I be adding something like C02 or liquid carbo or something? I'm manually switching the lights on and off (generally for 8 hours or so (max 12) - will be getting a timer tomorrow / this weekend...

Look forward to your replies. H

 

[ceg4048]

According to your original post, you stated:

...I want low maintance (eg. no co2)...

If this is the case then the answer to the question:

Should I be adding something like C02 or liquid carbo or something?

is..No.

Cheers,

 

[rangerover]

thanks ceg,

just checking as didn't want me plants to frizzle awayjust coz i didnt add a little liquid or something? just to confirm again, apart from regular pruning (as and when needed), and regular water checks and changes there is nothing "special" in need to do with regards to the plants?

THANKS!

 

[ceg4048]

Well, regular water checks have nothing to do with plant keeping. Plants can frizzle for all kinds of reasons, even if liquids are added. Plants can frizzle due to excessive lighting, poor flow, poor nutrition as well as poor CO2.

I would say that there is something special to do. That special thing is to keep reading so that you learn how to deal with problems if they arise. You need to learn more about water chemistry, learn about individual plants and their needs, learn about lighting, learn about substrates, learn about CO2, learn about nutrients, learn about algae.

So you should go to those particular forum sections and just start reading. THAT is the most special thing you can do.

Start by clicking on this thread=>Setting up a 'higher' tech planted tank
That thread is for CO2 injected tanks but there is a lot of useful information that you ought to know about regardless and which are applicable to non injected tanks.

Cheers,

 

[rangerover]

Thanks Cegg, very useful link and food for though as well... learnt a fair bit reading that! I was planning on doing 15% water changes - and now the article suggest 50% wow every other day for the intial period.

I've bookmarked the link so that i can refer to it. thanks again