new 20 gal aquarium

Question
QUESTION: Ok... i have just started a new 20 gal aquarium, and ive decided that it will be mainly a plant-aquarium.

So my questions are:

How long must i cycle the tank before i add any plant life what so ever?

Is over filtrating the tank "bad" for the plants? ( i have 2  filters for 30 gallons running on the 20 gal tank...)

how long before i have to buy a CO2 system?

any hints and tips to help

Thank you so much :-)

Jat
ANSWER: Hey welcome to the planted world, if you have not read as much as you can about planted tanks, i'd suggest that you start now :)  But i'll give ya a little help on getting there. What you must first off want to think about is if your going to have a low lite tank or hi lite tank, different plants need different light requirements. Because your going for a mainly planted tank i'm going to say your wanting a hi light tank. First off i'd start with getting a good lighting system, your going to want to go for around 2.5 watts per gallon which would be about 50 watts you need for lighting. This will be very important for many of the plants you'll be housing.

Secondly your going to want a good substrate such as red sea flora base, flourite, eco-complete, ada soil, these provide nutrients in the substrate and give your plants roots the nutrients they need.

How long are you going to have to cycle: Because your asking this question i'm guessing this is the first tank that your starting. Basically in a cycle your fish will produce waste which create ammonia > ammonia create nitrite which is less toxic then ammonia and breaks ammonia down  > less toxic than ammonia is nitrate which breaks nitrite down.... when you are doing your testing and you find nitrate in your water and your ammonia has gone down to 0 that' when you know your cycle will be over. What i suggest is just sticking a couple hardy fish in there such as barbs or mollies that can build up the ammonia and let them do through the spikes... your fish will probalby die but this is by far the easiest way to build up your cycle. After about 4-6 weeks your cycle should be complete. (read more about cycle just google it).

You can add plants at any time if you have all the requirements they need (lighting, substrate, co2, fertz)

It's not bad to run two filters, you just dont want too much a current to uproot your plants and mess up your substrate. I suggest a canister filter for a planted tank, these will hold the beneficial bacteria that you want. I suggest a eheim filter or a fluval to get you started. Canister filters are definately the way to go, you'll eventually upgrade to one one day anyways.

When you stick your plants in that's when you would ideally want co2, you can substitute co2 with flourish excell for the time being until your plants are setup.

My tips would be to experiment with newbie plants first off : java moss, vals, java fern. Those are the least likely to die on you in the beggingin.

Your going to want to add alot of stem plants aswell to suckup any nutrients that are in the water, if you dont algae will become a problem.

There is alot more to planted tanks than most people think.
Then your goin to have to do fertilization, plants must have food or else they would die. I suggest you research EI mothod (estimated index) it tells you a sure proof way to fertilize your plants for cheap and most of all a fool proof way to keep them healthy.

Planted tanks take alot of work, you will fail, but learning from your mistakes is best. I suggest you sign up to www.fishforums.net and read all the articles in the planted tank section. That will be your bible.

Good luck my friend.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: This is actually my third tank... its just my first one with plants, so i wanted to know if The cycle had to be complete before adding the plants.

About the subtrate: I currently have about 3/4 inch of Shulz (sp?) aquatic plant soil  under about an inch of gravel-like subtrate... will this work?

And I plan to buy a canister filter sooner or later, they power hang-on filters cause too much surface disturbance-my guess is it'll lose alot of the co2 that the plants need...

Answer
The plants can usually be added during the cycle or after, for your purposes i would probably wait until the cycle is over, then you can figure out fertz and lighting and such.


And your gravel setup should be fine, i'v never heard of it before nor used it. I used red sea flora base, it's a claylike matter and i dont need to put gravel overtop. I hate the look of gravel so i never use it.. But yes your 3/4 inch should work..the directions should have stated how much you need.

And yes a canister filter would be a Very good first purchase, got for fluval or eheim (i used eheim , expensive but worth the money in my opinion).

And yes your right you dont want too much surface agrivation when it comes to co2. I have my eheim hooked up to a spray bar that's under the water which does not distrub surface at all.

When you start getting into co2 you'll get exposed to ph drop checkers (which tell you how little or how much co2 you have in your water, so that will let you know your co2 amount instead of doing it the old school way of measuring ph and kh and getting a co2 ratio). Now we just have ph drop checks which give us a color visual indiation.

Good luck.