Things needed for a planted tank

[mnemenoi]

Indeed, high tech tanks can be quite daunting to a person new to planted tanks. The amount of work/knowledge are on par with delicate reef tanks. I would work with a low tech tank first and get my feet wet before diving into the deep end. There are very few plants that can not be grown in a low tech tank, so your limits are not actually that bad. There are books worth of information online that explain most of the basics, but for a feeder fish tank it would be counter productive in my opinion. CO2 will actually lower the Ph, thus moving the water chemistry away from the preffered higher alkaline water liveberers prefer. Low tech tanks do quite the opposite, maintaining the Ph at the prefered level. Depending on what you are hoping to achieve with this layout/scape/foliage would determine if Co2 injection is necessary. If you were wanting to develop a carpet of HC, dose ferts weekly and trim weekly then I might agree high tech might be a viable option, but with that amount of work I would be hard pressed to see it for a feeder fish tank.

[mistahoo]

Re: Things needed for a planted tank

There's other ways of getting a carpet using other plants. I love the look of riccia as a carpet, but it takes some work because it's not actually a carpeting plant. CO2 can be tricky to get the dosage right at first. That alone could kill off all your feeder fish. My 5gal is a low light/low tech/low maintenance and it looks great imo. Didn't cost much to start up and everything is thriving along with the livestock.

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