To plant or not to plant

[Bigfishes]

Hi everyone. I could use some help deciding if I should convert a fish only tank to a fish/plant tank. I have been reading through the posts and have found a wide variety of approaches, and think I might be able to grow low light plants, but after a phone conversation with a plant supplier, I'm not sure. First a little background, I have a 200 gal with gravel/crushed shell substrate, a couple pieces of driftwood, and some petrified wood. I currently have <1 watt/gal, and plan on boosting that to about 2 watts/gal. My pH is 7.4-7.6, my KH is 6. I was told by the supplier, that there was no way I could grow plants without changing substrate, and boosting my light to at least 3.5 - 4 watts/gal. Is this a lost cause without spending a lot of money to reconfigure the tank? Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.



Greg

[yikesjason]

The substrate is not a great one for plants, but here are plants that don't rely on a good substrate like ferns and anubias that you can tie on wood or rocks. But it doesn't have to be very expensive to change to a good substrate. Check out mineralized soil.

For lights, you would probably need to upgrade them. What is your tank's dimensions? The wpg rule not a very good measure of the amount of light you need, but you don't need as much as you were told.

[exv152]

...I have a 200 gal with gravel/crushed shell substrate, a couple pieces of driftwood, and some petrified wood.

You could probably do some fast-growing stem plants very easily with that substrate, or even plants that attach to driftwood and rocks, such as anubias or java ferns, moss etc would work.



I currently have <1 watt/gal, and plan on boosting that to about 2 watts/gal.

That would help a lot, and is probably the only thing you really need to upgrade. But it also gives you a wider selection of plants to choose from.



My pH is 7.4-7.6, my KH is 6. I was told by the supplier, that there was no way I could grow plants without changing substrate, and boosting my light to at least 3.5 - 4 watts/gal. Is this a lost cause without spending a lot of money to reconfigure the tank? Any advice is appreciated.

If you can balance lighting, nutrients and CO2, you can do a planted tank. The most important ingredient is the lighting, if you increase the lighting, then you need to increase the other two. If you keep the lighting low (1.5-2 wpg) then your need will be reduced for ferts and CO2.

[Bigfishes]

Thanks Jason. My tank dimensions are 84" wide x 24" deep x 24" tall. I saw a post of your 90 gal planted tank. Very nice! I'd love to do something like that. Do you think results like that are possible without CO2? Also I noticed you are using T-5 HOs. How do you like them? Anyone know anything about a lighting manufacturer called Aquatic Life?

[Bigfishes]

Thanks Eric. What do you think the max. lighting wattage without adding CO2 would be? The plant supplier also told me not to even bother trying plants with a pH above 7. Is that right? Aren't there some plants that will grow well in a moderately higher pH?

[yikesjason]

Thank you for the complement for my tank. I enjoy it a lot.

You can do a lot without co2. It changes the plants you can use and reduces the light and fertilizers you would need. You won't get much red in your plants, but that is not bad. CO2 makes growing plants much easier, and also it is easier to control algae that will pop up.

Do you have a canopy on your tank? Retrofitting t5ho would probably be the best solution if you do. I would estimate that 6 x 54w t5ho bulbs staggered over the tank would give you a good starting point for lights. You can wire it so the lights can be run in pairs so you have a good range in lighting abilities. If you do go with co2, 8x54w would probably be better. Or you could mix 4' and 3' bulbs so you don't have the overlap in the center.

I wouldn't put too much stock in what this plant vendor is telling you. For good advice, check out one of the planted tank forums. There are a lot of people there who could advise you much better than I have.

Keep the questions going and keep reading. There is a lot you can do with plants, and personally, I will never have a tank (except a hospital tank) without plants in it.

[Bigfishes]

Thanks again Jason! It really helps having people like you point the way through the maze of information that's out there. Keep up the good work with the plants!

[blkrob]

Thought I add a little to the information you already received. You can change some of your substrate to soilmaster select or aqua turf. They're not exspensive. Just add some root tabs.

Once you add co2 and increased lighting you're going to have to worry about algea blooms, plant trimming and maybe oxygen at night.

I would recommend you check out www.theplantedtank.net Also a great place to pick up some plants a buyers price.

Good luck,

Robert

[yikesjason]

it is plantedtank.net, but yeah, that is one of the two big planted forums.

[exv152]

Thanks Eric. What do you think the max. lighting wattage without adding CO2 would be? The plant supplier also told me not to even bother trying plants with a pH above 7. Is that right? Aren't there some plants that will grow well in a moderately higher pH?

Probably somewhere around 2 wpg, give and take as all lights/bulbs are a bit different, but most plants do well in pH between 5-8. I think it may have less to do with the type of plant, and more to do with the reduced nutrient adsorbtion at higher pH.

[Bigfishes]

Thanks Eric. I picked up a coulpe T-5 HO fixtures and this bumped me up to just over 1.6 watts/gal. I may end up getting 2 more and swap out my remaining T-12s which would put me close to 2 watts/gal.

[Yassmeena]

Hey there,

I have a couple thoughts...

1 - I think adding plants to your tank would be very nice and rewarding, and also beleive you do not have to go all out (i.e. 4wpg, CO2, ect...) to acheive it!

2 - Critical step: First you should identify what kind of plants you want or could be happy with. I have found that amazon swords, anubias, crinum thaianums, crinum calamstriums and crypts are truly beautiful and can thrive in 2 wpg and regular nutrient dosing (no CO2, no high wattage). If you want more demanding plants, then yes you need to do some major upgrading. So first decide what you want before you try to figure out what you need to buy/do... :)

3 - Either way you should probably change your substrate. A lot of ppl, including myself, have had good results using pool filter sand with root tabs. Looks nice, has no adverse effects on your water/fish and plants grow very well in the sand!

4 - Ditto on seeking advice from the planted tank forum! It's a great place, but so is this section of planted discus. :)

HTH :D

Yasmin

[Bigfishes]

Thanks Yasmin. I'm definitely starting with low demand plants. I figure if I have success, and want to raise the bar, I can always upgrade the equipment later on.