Freshwater Aquarium Ideas..

Well my reef is stable and how I want it, and i know many, if not all of you, have dabbled in freshwater a time or two..I have a little 5 gallon eclipse set up for the feeder shrimp I fed my lionfish and it makes me want to start up a small freshwater tank (10 gallon). I would just use the eclipse but I absolutely hate the hexagon shape and it's scratched to hell and back. I just ordered the rapids mini canister filter (which seems too good to be true..25 bucks!) and am going to pick up the tank and lighting today..I would really like to have a few plants in there..would i need CO2? I've done plants before in a 55 and they never really grew..just existed (probably because I was 12 and knew absolutely nothing). I don't mean a full fledged planted tank..just two or three. What about substrate? Will gravel do? Any suggestions appreciated!

Thanks,
Ivan

 

nope you dont need co2. it only becomes necessary once you have more than 4 wpg(i know i said more but it can be pretty difficult with 4). the reason they have co2 is it spurs the plant growth over nusiance algae.

planted tanks have a balancing game of nutrients(fertz), co2, and light. but i wont bother explaining it as most is common sense and the rest is only necessary with some hi tech setups.

for a simple planted tank you want 2-3 wpg. a plant substrate isnt required though it will help the growth of root feeders( but you can use root tabs in gravel as well), since this is a simple one i would advise against plant substrate as it contains alot of nutrients.

your bulb should be less then 10,000k.

once your plants are established i would recommend a small dosing schedule of fertz.

 

Okay well I just got back from the LFS..got a tank..lights..heater..substrate..the guy (who is more of a friend than a fish store owner now haha) helped me out quite a bit..i got "eco-complete planted aquarium substrate." The guy claimed that it already has all the bacteria and I can add stuff immediately......i don't believe him..Still going to see if there is a cycle..he said that he uses it in his 20 gallon planted..i may have changed my mind about the 2-3 plant range..we'll see...knowing me..it'll be packed in a couple months..he showed me some small co2 devises that were relatively cheap..may give those a try later on down the road..I also replaced the "stock" bulb with a coralife nutri-grow plant lamp.

 

eco complete, will probably cycle your tank much like liverock. speeds it up but you will still have a cycle.

well a good substrate is important if you changed your mind. so its probably a good thing then.

2008 AGA Aquascaping Contest
look through that site it is a planted tank contest, that people participate in all over the world.

this is a good blog
Aquatic Eden - Freshwater Planted Aquarium Blog


i dont know what light you got but remember wattage is just as important here as in a reef.
also i would recommend not going crazy with fertz until you get some plants in the system, as i made this mistake before and well i dont have to tell you what high light and high nutrients get you with no plants.