# hey all!



## ttrance (Nov 29, 2011)

hey all im new and wanted to say hello and mention my setup (recently made some changes)

I have about a 30 gallon tank. In it I just got 2 small cabomba plants which I love and want more plants now.... Onto the fish!

6x bloodfins
4x xray tetras
4x rosboras
3x guppies
1x angel fish
1x gold gouryami
1x redfin shark (really tiny right now)
1x catfish (really tiny)
3x plecos (2 really tiny)
1x mystery snail
1x zebra snail (super boring)
1x amano shrimp

Its a nice enviroment in there. I do regular water changes, vacuums etc. I give them a nice amount of food. Temp is around 74-80 depending on what i am doing. When I add new aquarium salt once in a while after water changes I raise the temp for a couple days.

Tell me what you guys think! I think I want to exchange all my plants for live plants. But from what I'm reading it will be a problem of CO2 so I need some type of bubbler?

thanks!

and I live around bathurst and lawrence where is a great place to go? I think Big Al's by steeles is the closest place


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## acropora1981 (Aug 21, 2010)

ttrance said:


> hey all im new and wanted to say hello and mention my setup (recently made some changes)
> 
> I have about a 30 gallon tank. In it I just got 2 small cabomba plants which I love and want more plants now.... Onto the fish!
> 
> ...


Welcome!

You don't NEED CO2 for all plants. You can do a low tech tank with very happy live plants as long as you have enough light (but not too much - a single fluorescent is sufficient) and a good fertilizer like Tropica Plant grow. Then it is just a matter of picking low light plants like anubias, java fern, java moss, crypt's, etc. I run a lot of my clients tanks as low tech low light plant tanks, no problem.


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## poobar (Feb 20, 2011)

CO2 isn't needed but can easily be done and very cheap with a DIY version.

Basicall, you need the exchanger ($9 from a locak shop) then attach via a pipe to a pop bottle and put warm water and yeast into the bottle.
Yeast ferments, creating CO2. Simple and cheap.

It's worth experimenting before buyone the expensive kits.


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## ccmerlot (Jul 4, 2011)

I'm new to this, but all my plants are doing quite well (too well, they need trimming) with no CO2 at all. And fairly low light too.
(The indestructables i have are : Java fern, java moss, valeria, anubia, crypts.)
I noticed you put "boring" after your zebra snail. Is it a nerites? If so, then it will do a great job at cleaning the glass, as mine do. When i first started my little Fluval Edge, i had to use a magnet to clean the tank every couple of weeks. Since the addition of the nerites, almost a year ago, i haven't had to clean the glass at all. Love 'em.
c ya
c


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

ccmerlot said:


> I'm new to this, but all my plants are doing quite well (too well, they need trimming) with no CO2 at all. And fairly low light too.


Unfortunately, "doing well" means different things to different people. If you just want a tank to have some live plants for the look and for the fish to feel more comfortable, then a low light, no CO2 setup will do just fine.

However, if you want to use your live plants as a nutrient export so that you don't have to do water changes every week, or be able to keep more fish, then a low light, no CO2 setup is not going to help you much.

This is why when you google "live aquarium plants", you will see all kinds of claims, ranging from "plants absorb negligeable amounts of nitrates" to "you can set up a new tank with plants and never see an ammonia or nitrite spike". In a way, they're all right.


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