On 11 Dec 2005 06:13:09 -0800, wrote:

I am going to set up a plant tank ... or at least a tank with as many
plants as possible. I would like to keep a few fish in it to produce
some nitrates for the plants. What fish are plant friendly? (I was
thinking about some neon terta, a beta, and maybe some of the aquatic
frogs ... not sure what the real name for them are, but they are small
and spend 100% of their time under water. I also would like to know
what scavenger I can get for the bottom that will get the extra/hidden
fish food at the bottom of the tank.)


Cory cats, any of the corydorous species should be good.


For the substrate, is fluorite necessary? Or what ratio of
gravel/fluorite will I need? I intend on doing this in a 10-gallon
aquarium. Is an undergravel filter good or bad when the tank is heavily
stocked with plants? Will a 40-watt soft white light due for green
plants, or will it require a fluorescent light (I can get a clip-on
desk lamp for $6, or I can get a fluorescent hood for $30. I want to
know if I can get away with the desk lamp.)?

flourite is not necessary, it can be useful but you can grow good
plants without it. It just saves you some problems with fertilizer.

40 Watt incandescent light is not much, and may cause too much
heating, but if you have it and want to try to start with it, go
ahead. Look for what are called low light plants. anubias comes to
mind, there are others. More light means more plants that you can
grow. the 40 W incandescent is about the same as 10 watts
fluorescent, or one watt per gallon in a 10 G tank. what the people
you reference are talking about is a lot more light.

Undergravel filter is not good for plants, some can grow with one of
those, but it's beter not to have one of them. with good plant growth
and low fish load, no filtration would be best.

Any info at all will help greatly. I am trying to learn as much as
possible before actually setting this tank up. I would like to learn
about water supplements, substrate, lighting, filtration, what plant
species are neat, and other general info.

I was thinking about getting the 30 gallon plant pack from
liveaquaria.com:
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...fm?pCatId=2146 . I
have other tanks I can put plants in so if there are too many plants
that is not a big deal. A general opinion of the variety would be
appreciated.

I would expect about half of those plants to die in my tanks. the
anubias are good, quite hardy, low light demands, slow growing.
anacharis likes more light, I grow it outdoors. A good plant, by the
way. Cryptocornes can be a problem, they have wahat is called
Cryptocorne melt, where the whole plant dies back to the roots and
takes out all the rest of the plants in the tank. I haven't been able
to keep water sprite going for years, no idea why.

do you have hard or soft water, that can make a difference.

do you have access to a library? Look for a book be diana waldstad,
"Ecology of a planted aquarium." I hope I gopt the title right.

(I am a college student so money is certainly a consideration ... I do
have money, but would like to spend as little as possible to set this
up successfully)

Thanks
Ed K.