New to planted tanks

[Guest FLIP]

I want my 20g to be a planted tank and I saw a video on youtube on how to set up a 55g planted tank and he used soil and sand. It seemed to do well very quickly I was wondering if I can make a super nice planted tank like these ones:

http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http...l%3Den%26sa%3DN

How much gravel should I use or should I use sand and would I need any special things like CO2 despensors?

Right now I have maybe and inch or so of blue gravel on the bottom and aquaclear (i think) 200 power fliter a 200 watt heater and a crappy air pump I need to replace. Oh and I saw this one tank a while back with flowers coming out of the tank in the back can I do that? How do you do vaccum the gravel with so many plants?

[Osprey]

You actually don't gravel-vac when you use soil; it removes nutrients that you want to have for the plants. If you want high-light plants, then yes, you will need CO2 injection alongside an intensive fertilization schedule. On the other hand, if you have lower-light plants, you can get away without CO2 injection (although Flourish Excel still makes a nice supplement) and a lower fert level (dosing trace and checking that nitrates stay around 20 is still a good idea). Choose your substrate carefully, keeping in mind that many fish (loaches and cories, among others) much prefer a soft sand substrate so that they can dig without injuring themselves. What's good for plants isn't always good for fish.

Check out Rex Grigg's no-nonsense guide for some good tips on both low and high tech tanks.

Edited June 28, 2007 by Osprey

[happeboy]

Just want to add a little.

Rex and others on ThePlantedTank.net do have a lot of info but go overboard with what they think you need. Often they see a tank with less then 4 watts per gallon as wast of time. They take everything to the max possible. But it is possible to have a very nice tank without going to the extremes they do.

Just take what they say with a grain of salt. Talk to others too. Here in Edmonton see Henry at Natures Corner Store he is awesome wont sell you extras you don't need or push you.

[werner]

I was wondering if I can make a super nice planted tank like these ones?

Those are high tech, high maintenance, high investment tanks. It sounds like you're looking for something more along the lines of a "Natural Planted Tank". These have little or no maintenance besides pruning and water changes. See the link here.

How much gravel should I use or should I use sand?

You need at least 2-3" of inert gravel for plant roots. Anything in a 1-3mm size is good, and preferably in a natural color. If the gravel is too large, the plants won't root well, and if it's too small, the gravel compacts too easily. I'd suggest avoiding soil for now- too many possible issues.

Oh and I saw this one tank a while back with flowers coming out of the tank in the back can I do that?

Don't prune your stem plants. They will often flower when growing emersed. An open top tank helps.

How do you do vaccum the gravel with so many plants?

You don't.