# Best plants to start with



## deuces (Oct 11, 2010)

Ok, will have my 35 gallon tank up and running finally this week. Just wondering about types of plants to start off with first:

Do you folks plant a bunch of fast growing plants first until the aquarium is stable then replace them with others?

Or should i plant what i think the tank should look like when finalized? 

I have a 35 gallon tank, T5HO 2x39w, eco-complete substrate. Will take some media from another aquarium to kick start the cycling. Thanks!


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## waj8 (Jun 30, 2010)

What plan do you have to supply carbon and fertilizer?


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

waj8 said:


> What plan do you have to supply carbon and fertilizer?


+1. With the amount of light you have over that aquarium, you will definitely need some source of carbon and fertilizers (both macro and micronutrients).


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## penpal (Feb 20, 2009)

Just get the plants you wanna have for your scape, plants don't mind if the tank is cycling. As long as you have a grasp of dosing ferts and providing co2 the plants will be ok. Diy co2 would work, I used 4 2l bottles before in my 36 with 96w t5ho. Dry ferts are the best way to go, as they are much cheaper then liquid ferts, 1lb of dry ferts would last you over a year. You can purchase dry ferts at any hydroponic shops.


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## deuces (Oct 11, 2010)

Yup I'm planning on DIY Co2 and seeing how that goes. I've only grown simple low light plants in past so this is all new to me. May take me a bit to get the routine down  Fertilizer I've only used the liquid ones before like Kents. Are there any dangers in using the dry ferts?

It was suggested to try leaving just one bulb on in the beginning if worried about too much light.

Any suggestions welcomed! Learning as a I go thanks!


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## waj8 (Jun 30, 2010)

I suggest you deal with the CO2 first. Get a dropchecker and get the CO2 functioning properly before you add plants. Once thats going pick some plants out by reading Tropica.com. You can pick almost any plant you want.


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## penpal (Feb 20, 2009)

Dry ferts are a lot more concentrated then liquid ferts, more cost effective, hence why lots of people on these boards use dry ferts. There are two ways to dose dry ferts, one is to get a digital scale and weight it and just dump it in. The other way is to premix it and use it like liquid ferts except your mix will be a lot more concentrated then the ones you buy off the shelf. I only dose KN03 and KH2PO4, those two would give you enough of all three macro nutrients (N-P-K), for micro I just use flourish comprehensive.

Great little program I use to figure out how much to dose.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=TXHJPROE
not sure if we're allowed to post megaupload links or not, if not I delete it then.

Here is a guide on dry ferts
http://www.barrreport.com/showthread.php/2819-EI-light-for-those-less-techy-folks


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## BettaBeats (Jan 14, 2010)

I use liquid ferts because I could get them easily, I use the Seachem line of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium. The problem with these ferts is that it's hard to get an accurate measurement. They are so diluted that the bottle says something along the lines of 'use this formula to estimate where you want your fertilizers.' but then it also says something like.. 'adding more will exponentially increase the amount of fertilizer' so even the maker notes that yes, you're dosing nutrients, but you don't really have a pinpoint measurement of what youre dosing.


Some stem plants would be good to start. I picked up some limnophilia aquatica and sessiflora and I like them because a) they grow fairly fast so I know I'm doing something right, b) the new growth will show in colours if i am not dosing enough by being pale or yellow, and c) I can propogate them by cutting the stem so I have practically unlimited amounts of plant as long as it continues to grow.


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## TBemba (Jan 11, 2010)

Amazon swords vals, or Crypts 

all of them can grow in low light and no need to add ferts to your tank.

I have Amazons all over even in tanks without lights or heaters they are sprouting all over the place. They do grow huge and have completely over taken my 90 gallon tank at 2 ft tall.


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## deuces (Oct 11, 2010)

Ok will make sure to try and balance out with some fast growing stem plants. I think i want to try the higher light requiring plants as I should be able to meet the lighting requirements.

As for the drop checker, do you have to replace the indicator solution inside every so often? I guess the drop checker is just a faster way of measuring C02 then doing the PH / KH lookup?


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## penpal (Feb 20, 2009)

Ya, you have to change the solution once in a while, I leave mine for a few weeks. I'm sure many people do it more often.


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## waj8 (Jun 30, 2010)

A dropchecker is a little better than using the tables as you are eliminating one source of error. Unfortunately, it has it's limitations as well. I don't think any method of checking CO2 is very accurate. That is one reason why a dropchecker is nice. Green=good. It keeps it simple. I like that idea a lot better than saying 30 ppm CO2. There is the implication there that CO2 can be measured very accurately. It's more like 30 ppm plus or minus 10 ppm.


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