FW Planted Tank - Research?

[goodfortune]

In addition to my first SW tank, which I am cycling now, I would like to try my hand at a freshwater planted tank, when my SW tank is under control and funds allow.

I am thinking of setting up a tank with either a South American-Amazon or a Papua-New Guinea/Rainbow Fish (?) theme.

If you are aware of, or can recommend any books, websites, or other sources of information that I can use to figure out what I would need to set one up properly, please let me know. Thanks!


Parameters under consideration (feel free to tell me if I am leaving anything out):
Minimum tank size
Lighting requirements
Substrates, type and thickness
Filtration requirements
Water Source (Tap or RO/DI)
CO2 reactor
Fertilizers?

[icebear]

www.plantgeek.net

[salt creepette]

i love the idea of rainbowfish themed plant tank! I just added a pair of the red rainbowfish to my tank and I LOVE them. they do great in groups and apparently spawn frequently (although I havent observed that yet). I had my freshwater tank set up for a long time with an undergravel filter, but recently I yanked it out and added florabase substrate (by seachem) and purchased some low to medium light-needy plants. I am about to purchase a pc light (coralife makes the ones I like) but for now i have two Normal Output tubes on the tank (36 watts) and the plants are doing fine. I dont plan on doing carbon dioxide unless I absolutely cant get away with doing it.

Minimum tank size: none
Lighting requirements: rule of thumb: 3 watts per gallon
Substrates, type and thickness: florabase or ecocomplete or pea gravel mixed 1/2 and 1/2 with flourite (by seachem). at least 3 inches deep
Filtration requirements. canister maybe or hang on? with that much substrate, and with a light fish load, you may not need additional biological filtration, but I prefer to be able to filter particulate matter if needed and run carbon if needed.
Water Source (Tap or RO/DI) soft, buffered to 7.0
CO2 reactor: not if I can help it
Fertilizers? only if you dont go with one of the above named substrates. not being an official planted tank guru, someone correct me if I am wrong.

[dwall174]

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums....php?forumid=3
http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/

http://aquaticconcepts.thekrib.com/

http://faq.thekrib.com/plant.html

Here's a couple good web sites on planted tanks!

[ruhspolostar]

Is it possible to be a salt water guru and have almost everything go in your favor and the suck at FW....

I cant get any FW tanks together for longer than 3 months w/ out them crashing

[Red Salinity]

I have an amazon sword theme aricans and I love it. I found sterilized play sand from home depot is the cheapest and most effective substrate. Fertilizing is important but I found the sticks that go into the substrate work great. They distribute fertilizer for a year and that is much nicer than pourinng it in. Good lighting and water flow is important but not nearly as technical as reefs. I personally have minimul co2 injection because my tank is very established but it does help a lot. Try going on the web for home made plans to create a reactor out of a 2 litre bottle. If you like rainbows I have a couple because they are great with africans. You can have both species which can provide more color options.

[Stang69]

Looks like they have the bases covered for ya hehehh




Good luck and we wanna see some pics


Jeff

[Deborah]

Doug covered most of the web sites that I visit but I also like www.plantedtank.net.

[dwall174]

Thanks Deborah that's one more for the list!