# Ideas?



## Brian (Mar 14, 2006)

I am looking to setup a planted tank, no idea what to put in it.

I was planning on a salt tank but I don't have the cash for that now 

So does anyone have any ideas what would be a nice tank? 35 gal. and a 20gal and a 10gal that all need ideas for 

Thanks.


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## Brian (Mar 14, 2006)

Is that your tank?

Its nice if it is, and why delete a post with a picture like that? 

What kind of plants are in there, and what is that grassy stuff called?


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

Start with a 10g and graduate your way up to a bigger tank if you like.
As for the cost, although it might not be as expensive as a salt water tank, but it's not as cheap as you think.
If you want to really just dip your hand in to test the water. Try a 5G waterhome unit. It comes complete with filter and PC light. You'll have to work with small plants, but it's a very good starter planted tank.
Optionally, you can get a nano cube. here
And start with a planted tank.

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## jrs (Mar 18, 2006)

I would suggest not going nano. The larger the tank, with in reason, the easier to control your water parameters and the less chance of major algae issues. I think that the ideal starter tank is a 3' 35g tank. 

As Pablo said, if you go significantly larger than that the amount of maintenance increases dramatically.

A high tech 3' planted tank will run about $300-$500. A low tech tank (low light and DIY CO2) may run around $100 - $150 as a fresh startup.


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## Brian (Mar 14, 2006)

I posted this thread, not as to a mechanical tank setup but plant/inhabitant recommendations


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## WaterWorld (May 7, 2006)

If you want some good ideas try AGA International Aquascaping Contest. You can see what others have done with their tanks from small to X-large in respect to plants/inhabitants. Planted tanks are worth while if you have the *time and patience* for it. On this site you will see a lot of beautiful set ups and hopefully it may inspire you. Keep us posted on what you decide on.


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## mr.sandman (Mar 22, 2007)

What I would suggest for you is a Iwagumi style tank. It is a great style for beginners or experts.
Iwa - Rock
Gumi - Group/Formation
You can have a carpet of HC surrounding the rocks and really look nice.
You don't really need to have an expensive Co2 system, you can just make a DIY one.


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## Brian (Mar 14, 2006)

, I was already planning on making a DIY CO2 system.

Thanks for the AGA suggestion and I'm not sure what "HC surrounding the rocks" mean.


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## jrs (Mar 18, 2006)

He is referring to HC 'cuba' which is a beautiful ground cover plant. I believe the scape he is referring to looks like this:










An alternative to the 'cuba' is using glosso instead


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## mr.sandman (Mar 22, 2007)

*Brian*-What I mean is you can just use HC as your foreground and later on it will grow into a carpet throughout the tank and surrounding the rock formation like the pic above.


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

That is impossible to do with DYI CO2. Actually, even if you have all the expensive tools. It's still an advance setup.
But the basics to a planted tank, is the plants comes first, then the fish are added to complement the plants. This will keep your tank healthy and algae free. You may need to change fish a few times to find the ones you are looking for. 
Fish size is another factor. Big tanks shouldn't have small fish and small tank shouldn't have big fish in them. Although the one shown above didn't following this rule. But then, it's done by a proffesionaly aquascaper. So it's exceptional.
If you pick a fish, think of what it will be like when the fish is fully grown rather than what it currently looks like.
Fish that digs are out of the question, so stay away from these.
Fish load are usually sparse and few. Lots of fish usually result in algae problems.
Fish that breeds out of control is also another issue. You'll need another tank to solve this problem.
Make sure your tank stays snails free in possible. Once you have it, it's almost impossible to get rid of them.
Does that help?

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## Brian (Mar 14, 2006)

I think I might start with some grassy type plants, amazon swords, java fern and probably anubias nana, riccia and some others.

For fish, I am thinking neon tetras or some sort of rasbora and some shrimp.


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## biofish (Jan 4, 2007)

Zebrapl3co said:


> Big tanks shouldn't have small fish


Why not? What's wrong with having small fish in a big tank?


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## jrs (Mar 18, 2006)

Zebrapl3co said:


> That is impossible to do with DYI CO2. Actually, even if you have all the expensive tools. It's still an advance setup.


Yes that is true. Everyone likes the ground cover plants like HC, glosso, and dwarf hairgrass but they can be tricky to keep algae free.

I do disagree about the snails though. I have MTS and pond snails in all of my tanks. They are great for keeping the substrate loose and eating dead plant material. Clown loaches keep there population in control. If not a 5 minute squishing session once every two weeks also does the trick.


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## mr.sandman (Mar 22, 2007)

It is possible to do it because my friend have a carpet of HC with DIY Co2 and his lighting not a lot. All you got to do is to keep up with the proper dosing of ferts and water changes.


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## wally (Oct 30, 2006)

*hey*

Brian kind of sounds like a planted discus tank to me lol


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## Cypher (Apr 15, 2006)

Hi Brian,

I just read this thread and thought I'd chime in with my 2 cents worth...

Just as a general rule, you might want to keep the VARIETY of plants down to a maximum of 5, if possible even less. If you have much More varieties of plants than that, any set up starts to look really messy and disorganized, especially when life events occur and you end up neglecting the setup for a little while.

Stick to complimentary plants. If you're getting eleocharis (hair grass) you do not want to go plant a patch of val. nana (another foreground plant) in the same tank. You're gonna end up with what looks like an aquatic version of a lawn heavily infested with crab grass. Broad leafed plants nicely contrasts and compliments fine leaved plants. Imagine a lush lawn of hair grass and 1 nice tiger-lotus/lily red in color to contrast with that.

Lastly make sure your future tank inhabitants will get along with your chosen plants. For example, I learned the expensive and hard way that most loaches and Hemianthus callitrichoides ''Cuba'' do not go well at all LOL. Man they tore in to all of my Hemi 'Cuba'. What a friggin waste. Only after I replaced the plants the 3rd time did I catch my little buggers in the act. They seem to think there are snails hidding in there or something and constantly bite off/ uproot the little plants! I've not kept Glosso with loaches so I couldn't say.

Just a few opinions on your current listed selection of plants:

riccia: no matter how well you tie that stuff down, it will grow and bits and pieces of it will break off either due to current or fish activity and eventually start clogging your filter intake.

amazon swords and java fern: far too similar; both leaves are lanceolate and the same shade of green for the most part.

But I can see some nice dark green anubias nana on rocks/driftwood contrasting well with some short, light green hair like foreground plants such as eleocharis or Echinodorus tenellus.

Later.

J.



Brian said:


> I think I might start with some grassy type plants, amazon swords, java fern and probably anubias nana, riccia and some others.
> 
> For fish, I am thinking neon tetras or some sort of rasbora and some shrimp.


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

jrs said:


> I do disagree about the snails though. I have MTS and pond snails in all of my tanks. They are great for keeping the substrate loose and eating dead plant material. Clown loaches keep there population in control. If not a 5 minute squishing session once every two weeks also does the trick.


Actually, MTS is a big problem with planted tanks. While you do benifit with them keeping the substrate loose. 
1) They are also the reason why you'll have a lot of problems growing hair grass, glosso and cuba (HC). The snails keep unrooting them.
2) They tend to keep your substrate level. So you can't really scape your tank as they will undo your scaping.

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