# Newbie



## logan22 (Sep 6, 2010)

Hello all i have alot of questions about planted tanks...well for one its much more comfortable for your fish..as it resembles a real native habitat, also looks much more beautiful. Iam very interested in doing a planted tank but i have no idea what plants i need for my fish let alone what i need to get started...i have a substrate sand in my tank...dont know if plants will root in this kind of enviornment...also do the fish eat the plants? also what kind of lighting do i need?? please help


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## plantedinvertz (Apr 21, 2010)

It depends on what kinda fish you have.

Flourescent Lighting is recomended


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## eternity302 (Apr 22, 2010)

There's tons of info in the planted section in regards everything what you're asking about!

Definitely depends on your tank size? Lighting you're running? types of fish you have?
Sand substrate isn't the best substrate for plants, you can go from just plain siple gravel to something like ADA substrate which can cost quite a bit more!
Some fish eats plants, but not all, as for lighting, i'm sure our darklord has something great in regards to lighting in the planted section all sticky for ya~


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## logan22 (Sep 6, 2010)

Well first off.. i have a 90 gallon tank.. with substrate sand if you will, i have tiger barbs odessa barbs,Gourami's, gupppies, and zebra danios, red tail shark. what kind of plants could i get thats easy for beginners? i also have drift wood do plants root to that?....is co2 manditory....because its expensive


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## monkE (Aug 4, 2010)

I've got all of those fish with the exception of the odessa barbs, and i have no problem at all with the fish eating plants, the red tail might be an issue because he's a loach but I think you should be fine.

Definately read these sticky threads
http://www.bcaquaria.com/forum/plants-algae-ferts-ei-co2-lighting-13/intro-ei-estimated-index-82/
http://www.bcaquaria.com/forum/plants-algae-ferts-ei-co2-lighting-13/basic-guide-lighting-13/
http://www.bcaquaria.com/forum/plants-algae-ferts-ei-co2-lighting-13/basic-guide-carbon-dioxide-81/

Cryptocoryne is a good plant family to start with. And Wisteria is a good stem plant that i've had alot of luck with

As for your sand, i've read that it is not great for plants, but that doesn't mean it wont work. You can buy root tabs that you insert into the soil to diffuse nutrients into it if you don't use a proper plant substrate.

The plants will get their nutrients not only from the substrate, but from the water column as well. You will have to dose fertilizers into you tank as well as a source of CO2

The easiest thing to use for these is the Seachem products. This is how I started out and it worked great.

SeaChem makes a couple products that you will need to start:
Flourish Comprehensive - A supplement for macro element fertilization (at least thats what it says on the jug) 
and Flourish Excel - organic carbon that provides the CO2 for your plants 
Flourish also makes more specific fertilizers when you get into high maintenance plants (iron, potassium, phosphorus) as well as the root tabs that i mentioned earlier

The third part you will need is proper lighting. now this depends completely on the type of plants you will be keeping but as a good starting point try to get around 1 1/2 - 2 WPG (Watts per gallon) for your 90 gallon tank you want your lighting system to produce 135 - 180 watts (add up all the bulb wattages to see total Watts)

Hope this helps


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