# Maintenance--Planted Aquarium Question?



## CatsRocks (Aug 12, 2013)

I've been thinking about starting a planted aquarium recently, and I want to make sure I know everything about planted aquariums.:-D


So, are planted aquariums hard to maintain? Are they harder to maintain than unplanted tanks? How often would I need to do a water change? And how often would I have to trim the plants?

Are filters recommended for planted aquariums? Or are they fine without one?

What kind of lights should I use, and how long would I need to leave the lights on?

After I add the plants, soil, hardscape, water,... into it, can I put my fish directly into the tank? Or would I have to "cycle" the tank first?

And, can you give me a list of things I need to purchase to create a planted aquarium?


Sorry for all the questions 


Thanks!:-D:-D:-D


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## ApochSaint (Apr 19, 2015)

how big would the tank be? The bigger the easier it is to maintain. I personally would say go 10g or higher if you really wanna get a nice set up. 

for lights it depends on what you want to grow. If you have low to med light plants you can either use HO Fluorescent bulbs and do alright for a relatively cheap light option. or you could get "the stingray" which is a higher end light that is perfect.

If you want high light plants I would recommend the Finnex Planted+. this thing is pretty friggin strong. you will however need a [email protected] set up if you want it to be optimal.

for any set up it would be beneficial to get root tabs to ensure good growth from any plant you put in the tank. 

Trimming plants is entirely dependent on what you choose as a set up and also which plants. some plants can go years without trims and some go a couple months. 

Water changes again...depend on the tank size. YOU WILL WANT A FILTER. no filter planted set ups are possible but not for someone new. I recommend (for a 10g filtered tank) about a 20% change every week. 

for cycling...it IS possible to add fish immediately afterwards using a cycle starter. Seachem has one. basically you dose the tank for like the first week everyday with this stuff and it cycles the tank...up to you. I would say do it normally and wait before you add fish. 


For a list: this depends on your budget. Ill give you the set up I think you should do.

Light: Finnex StingRAY LED

Tank: this is up to you. Any will do assuming it has a good size.

Filter: this is again...budget dependent. If the budget is large get a Canister filter. if youre more limited you could get something like This or like This...HOneslty the member Russelthe****zu will probably be able to tell you the best filter to use. 

Soil and Fertilizer: ECO complete substrate with Seachem root tabs. 

Plants: low to med light stuff. so Anubias, Java anything, Duckweed, Amazon Swords maybe. 



all in all there are members here who could give you better advice. But that is my 2cents


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## CatsRocks (Aug 12, 2013)

ApochSaint said:


> how big would the tank be? The bigger the easier it is to maintain. I personally would say go 10g or higher if you really wanna get a nice set up.
> 
> for lights it depends on what you want to grow. If you have low to med light plants you can either use HO Fluorescent bulbs and do alright for a relatively cheap light option. or you could get "the stingray" which is a higher end light that is perfect.
> 
> ...




Thank you so much for the advice! I guess I'll just start with simpler stuff.
:-D


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## Strawberry12 (Mar 6, 2015)

i'll answer to the best of my ability with my experience- 

So, are planted aquariums hard to maintain? In my experience they're a pain in the booty to set up, but once they get going, they're very easy.

Are they harder to maintain than unplanted tanks? I'd say not harder, just different, I guess. 

How often would I need to do a water change? This depends on the size of the tank and your stocking levels. Same as with a non-planted tank, you can use a test kit to determine this. In my 10 gallon planted, cycled tank I do a 25-30% water change every 1.5 weeks, I have determined this by my testing, your mileage may vary. 

And how often would I have to trim the plants? When you can't see your fish anymore  A couple of my plants like myrio, I have to cut probably every couple weeks, but some of them I haven't touched in months. 

Are filters recommended for planted aquariums? Or are they fine without one? I run a sponge filter in mine. I also believe the air circulation is good for the plants as well. 

What kind of lights should I use, and how long would I need to leave the lights on?
I bought a cheap Aquaeon hood that fits regular lightbulbs, and put in two 13w 6500k CFL bulbs. What bulbs/light you use depends on tank size and what sort of light you want. mine would be considered low/medium light. Leave it on 8-10 hours a day, any more and you run the risk of algae. 
After I add the plants, soil, hardscape, water,... into it, can I put my fish directly into the tank? Or would I have to "cycle" the tank first? This is up to personal opinion, I do fish-in cycles with mine following the 2-sentence cycling tutorial in the betta care section of this website. 

And, can you give me a list of things I need to purchase to create a planted aquarium?

My list for my low tech, simple tank. 

tank (duh)
light
miracle gro organic potting soil
sand (I use cheap play sand from Home Depot), can't beat $3 for 50 lbs. 
hardscape such as driftwood or rocks
plants
Seachem Flourish Comprehensive, I dose this twice a week



have you read the sticky that OldFishLady wrote that's at the top of this section? It really helped me out. Oh and don't be surprised if you get super frustrated and want to throw things out a window at the beginning, it'll work itself out, I promise


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## CatsRocks (Aug 12, 2013)

Strawberry12 said:


> i'll answer to the best of my ability with my experience-
> 
> So, are planted aquariums hard to maintain? In my experience they're a pain in the booty to set up, but once they get going, they're very easy.
> 
> ...






I guess I would have to check out that sticky. Haha okay I guess I would have to be much more patient than I normally am. 
Thank you so much for helping me! :-D:-D:-D


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## Strawberry12 (Mar 6, 2015)

haha i'm the same way, don't worry  One mistake I made was not wetting the dirt before I put the sand on top/adding water. it was like a giant dirt cloud that settled on top of my pretty sand! Took ages to clean, and that tank still looks a bit more "swampy" than i'd like. 

Another thing I learned- I spent hours sifting the dirt to get the big pieces out and make it a nice fine grain for my first tank. For my second tank I just said screw it and threw it in, only picking out a huge stick or two. i've noticed no difference


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## CatsRocks (Aug 12, 2013)

Strawberry12 said:


> haha i'm the same way, don't worry  One mistake I made was not wetting the dirt before I put the sand on top/adding water. it was like a giant dirt cloud that settled on top of my pretty sand! Took ages to clean, and that tank still looks a bit more "swampy" than i'd like.
> 
> Another thing I learned- I spent hours sifting the dirt to get the big pieces out and make it a nice fine grain for my first tank. For my second tank I just said screw it and threw it in, only picking out a huge stick or two. i've noticed no difference




Phew! Thanks for telling me this, otherwise my tank would've probably looked even more swampier than yours haha

Lol I guess I'll just throw the whole bag in! Thanks for your advice!

Btw, are bettas okay with shrimps as tankmates (What kind of shrimps?)? Or would they just eat them? I've been thinking about getting shrimps since they seem really cute, but I worried my betta might eat them since he's always chewing and trying to eat everything that looks edible. 

Thanks!

:grin::grin::grin:


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## CatsRocks (Aug 12, 2013)

Also, I've been wondering, how do you attach the moss to the driftwood? Do you attach it with a string? What kind of string? Do petstores sell them? 

And how do you put the plants in the soil? Would i have to buy a special type of aquascaping tweezers(is that what they're called haha)

And how do you prevent the water from becoming cloudy after adding the water?

Lol sorry for all these questions


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

On the thing of the dirt, do NOT exceed 1 inch of dirt!!! Or around that at least, your soil will compact over time and you'll end up with sulfur bubbles coming up from the soil and that can gas your fish which equals death usually. Of course, if you just make sure it's about an inch or so, this won't happen. Definitely sift out the bigger sticks, that's what the gas get's trapped under over time.

For mosses, you can use fishing line, threads, or even acrylic yarn if you want, but I stick with threads and fishing lines. Nothing special required. Petstores do not sell them.

I've always used the plant tongs/tweezers and so yes, you do have to get those. You can push it under with your finger after the tank has been set up for a while and the sand compacts. At first, the sand will be much too light and you'll just get soil everywhere basically, you're not going to throw all your soil around if you do that, just some is all. So while the tweezers will be easier, you don't necessarily need them right off the bat, just be very careful is all. 

When I'm filling up a tank, wet the soil, build up to what you want and then layer sand on top. Don't wet the soil so much that the water is above the soil layer, just enough to be moist. Then layer the sand on top, if you have too much water then the soil will bubble and float over the sand layer when you drop it in. After the sand is in, you can wet that as well. Then I use paper towels, some people use gallon ziploc bags or plates. You can lay them out and pour the water on top. I like the paper towels because they float up with the water and buffer it from hitting the sand.

When I do a water change on an NPT, I take out what water I want and when I refil, I actually use the petco or Petsmart cups and sink them. Then I pour the water into the cup, aim it best I can and it won't disturb the substrate as long as the cup is completely submerged. Takes a bit of practice sometimes, but it's pretty easy. Or, again, you can use the ziploc bag and pour on that.


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## CatsRocks (Aug 12, 2013)

The thing about the dirt. I'm still kind of confused on what an aquarium is usually built on. Like do people usually use dirt as the bottom layer and sand as the top layer? 
And what are those small balls that people use in their aquariums in place of dirt? They look kinda like dirt compacted into spheres. What's the difference between that and dirt? 

Am I supposed to put any special kind of fertiliser in the soil? Or should I just stick to using root tabs? 

Sorry if any of this is confusing. I am just so confused!

But thanks for the advice @lilnaugrim. It was really helpful. :-D


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Yes, soil first and then usually sand, you can use other things like FloraMax, or Gravel even, sand is just usually the best at keeping the soil down is all. That's Eco-Complete that you're thinking of. It's not soil at all, just clay balls.

The thing about "enhanced" substrates like FloraMax, Eco-Complete, Fluorite, those are all just crushed or balled clay with some minerals. They don't contain the same nutrients as soil does. So, you can certainly get away without having soil at all, you just need to supplement the plants with Root tabs which are fertilizers squished into a disk or ball thingy, you put that in whatever substrate you have and you're good to go. Those enhanced substrates are inert just like gravel and sand are; they don't hold nutrients like soil does. So the only time you don't have to substitute root tabs is when you have soil. So you can go either way; soil and no root tabs, or no soil and root tabs 

Oh and forgot, the sand on top of the soil can be over an inch, you just can't go over 3 inches of substrate total; it will become anaerobic and that's when you get the sulfur bubbles. So as long as you do like 1 inch of soil and 1-2 inches of sand/gravel/whatever, you're good to go.

You don't need soil to have a fully planted tank though, not sure if that was clear to you or not ^_^


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## CatsRocks (Aug 12, 2013)

Ohhhhhhh I get it now. So I could use those clay balls, but I would need to buy root tabs. Or I could just use regular dirt and skip the root tabs. Ohhhhh....okay

So last 2 questions, I'm so sorry. Lol.

Can I use regular dirt found in flower stores or potting stores or should I just stick with the the soil aquariums sell? Which one is more nutritious?

When I plant the plants, how deep would I need to push them into the soil and sand.(If I had dirt at the bottom and sand on top)?... I would need to push past the sand on top and down into the dirt right?
(sounds like a stupid question i know but I just want to make sure I know everything )


Thanks for all the tips you've given me so far! :-D :-D :-D

P.S. That thing about the sulfur bubbles is so scary! I'll make sure to keep my dirt to 1 inch and my sand to 1~2 inches.


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## ApochSaint (Apr 19, 2015)

Glad to see people getting you answers.!


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## CatsRocks (Aug 12, 2013)

Thank you! And thanks to everyone who replied! Yall were really helpful.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Nah, never any stupid questions!! The more you know, the easier it will be to set up your next tank so ask away!!

There are certain types of soils that you can't use, you can't use ones with chemical fertilizers in it but I haven't looked too deeply into which ones they are. Most of us use Miracle Gro Organic Potting Soil since it is tried and true. Recently I did BamaPlant's Mineralized Top Soil  and I love it. I've used it in my 10, 3, and 4 gallon tanks so far and love it more than Miracle Gro. MGOPS tends to compact very easy and while it's easier to get, the mineralized top soil minimizes chances for anaerobic soil and as it says, it really does limit the algae growth that you normally get with the MGOPS. And for 5 bucks? Can't really beat that since most bags of MGOPS is around 8 bucks. 

As far as planting the plants, some plants can't be buried too deeply like Sword plants. For Swords you need to leave the crown out of the substrate, that's the part that the leaves grow out from at the base. But the roots can be buried. You don't need to push them right into the soil, the roots will eventually find their way to it on their own. Just push them in enough that they'll stay down is all


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## CatsRocks (Aug 12, 2013)

Ohhhhh I think I'm starting to understand how everything works now 

Sorry for bothering you with my questions lol. 

Thank you for everything! And hopefully with your tips, my planted aquarium will turn out perfect! haha. :-D


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Not at all! This is why I'm on the RT ;-) it's my job to answer your questions and I love doing it!


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