I have a 10 gallon planted tank which I operate opposite from every advice
that you have heard.

Here are some rules that I break:
-Don't use under gravel airstone setups with plants, the roots don't like
it: I do and it works great. I believe the system actually pulls fish waste
and uneaten food toward the roots which they find nourishment from

- Don't use power heads with plants, they don't like water that moves too
much: I use a dual-riser under gravel setup with low powered powerheads. The
water is always fresh with oxygen, and last I checked plants out in the wild
grow in moving water.

-Use soil or flourite: I just use fine stone and the roots are nicely
dispersed in them.

-Use CO2 for growth: I use lower lighting so I don't have to monkey with
CO2. The plants grow, but slowly which is fine by me. I keep the tank away
from the window so I don't get any algae. The water always smells fresh when
I do water changes. It's not what you would call a show quality tank but
it's nice and it's low maintenance.

Oh, yes the fish - just assorted kinds of gold fish, colorful but low
maintenance. Thinking of trying shrimp.


"Eric Schreiber" wrote in message
...
JuanMa wrote:

My LFS told me that to have a planted tank I need to have the bottom of
the
tank with potting soil and gravel on top.

If you follow their advice, you're going to have an unholy mess on
your hands. There are several brands of aquarium gravel specifically
for planted tanks, most well-know being Flourite from SeaChem. These
gravels are much easier to work with than potting soil would be.

The tank will have two 36W PC lights, maybe a power head and a HOB
filter.

That's a lot of light for a ten gallon tank. That's not a bad thing,
but you're going to have to battle algae until you get the CO2 and
fertilizer balance worked out.


--
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