Your First Planted Tank
Where do you begin? Substrate, lighting, CO2, fertilizers...it all seems a bit overwhelming at first. Let's break it down into small sections with a few simple "rules" that will help you have a happy and successful planted tank.
Substrate:
DO:
For the beginner, the best choice is one of the commercial substrate products such as Seachem Flourite, Onyx Sand, or Eco-Complete. If those are too expensive you can use plain silica sand that is of a coarse texture. Avoid sand with bits of shell and fine sand. Use enough sand to have a depth of 3 -5 inches. It can be very helpful to include a hand full of ground peat to the bottom 1/3 of your substrate.
DON'T
Use plain epoxy coated gravel or large gravel such as river rock. While it's possible to have success using these substrates, it does complicate planting and the plant roots can't extract nutrients from these inert substrate. Note that sand is inert too, but adding the peat helps and of course sand is an excellent planting medium.
Lighting:
DO:
Start slowly. Pick lighting that will give your 1-2 watts per gallon. This usually equates to one or two normal output linear fluorescent lamps. Resist the temptation to add a high amount of PC lighting over your first planted tank.
DON'T:
Placing lots of PC or bright lighting over your first planted tank is usually a recipe for an algae disaster. Start slowly and find the balance needed to grow plants under low light conditions. When you achieve a degree of success you can then add CO2 and upgrade your lighting.
CO2:
Adding CO2 injection can be beneficial at any amount of lighting, but it becomes critical at above 2 watts per gallon. Ignoring the plants need for CO2 under medium to high light is without question the number one cause of having algae problems and frustrations. I consider lighting to be the proverbial cart and CO2 to be the horse. Never place the cart before the horse. Too much light and too little CO2 causes algae, pure and simple. It is best to begin CO2 injection under low light and tune you injection system until you can consistently maintain 20-30ppm of CO2 throughout the lighting period. Then you can increase lighting and the benefit of growing plants faster and not be limited in plant species choices.
Fertilizers:
Adding fertilizers for the beginner is often very under or over used. Under low light conditions without CO2 injection and a moderate amount of fish, you shouldn't need anything more than a weekly dose of Seachem Flourish. Avoid the heavy iron cheaper brands of liquid fertilizer. Adding too much iron under low light conditions often results in hair/thread algae problems. The fish and fish food will provide most of what's needed for your plants. As you gain experience and upgrade to CO2 injection and higher lighting, then fertilizing becomes critical and I've covered those issues in another section.
SUMMARY:
For your first planted tank, if you are following this advice, you'll need to limit your plant choice to plants that perform best under low light non-CO2 injection environments. A fellow hobbyist and webmaster at PlantGeek has an excellent Plant Guide. Here is a link to the "Low" light plant section for detailed information on plant choices for low light conditions. Low Light Plants
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