# New to plants keeping



## Akacic (Sep 29, 2013)

Hi, been in the hobby now for a couple of years but have just bought my first live plant. I am hoping someone can give me advice on general plant keeping and tips that could help me please.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

What light do you have? Wattage, spectrum? What tank size?


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## Akacic (Sep 29, 2013)

I have a 125ltr tank, two standard light bulbs, as for wattage im not to sure


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

Akacic said:


> I have a 125ltr tank, two standard light bulbs, as for wattage im not to sure


Standard light bulbs like incadescent?
Wattage should be listed on the bulb(the end if they are flourescent).
Incadescent bulbs will not do much but add heat to your tank.
Wattage is not as important as the spectrum(tempature in Kelvin{K}).
If the K is not listed on the bulb than odds are it is not in the proper range for plants.
Somewhere between 5000K and 10,000k usaully 6500k is best for plants.
If your fixture is flourescent then even a lowes or homedepot should have plant/aquarium bulb.If you fixture is incadescent then the "spiral compacts" actually do work.


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## Akacic (Sep 29, 2013)

I have 2 aqua-glo 24" 20w t8's. In a 125ltr (27.5 gallons)


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## LittleFishJoe (Jun 29, 2014)

That plant should do fine. It may change a little the first few weeks(looking like its going to die) but that just the plant adjusting. Once u start seeing new leaves growing your in the clear. Dont gravel vac by the plant cause you'll just suck up its food


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## Arthur7 (Feb 22, 2013)

For 125 l tank me 2x 20 watt fluorescent tube would be too little.
But for simple plants, it might last.


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## Dolphielov (Dec 18, 2013)

What substrate should I use? Right now I have some kind of bio-active sand.


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

Many planted keepers do fine with sand.Pool filter(PFS) or any of the blasting sands work great.You can save a bunch of money(for fish or plants) on these sands!
TroyVSC has a great thread on sands(it's in his signature)!http://www.aquariumforum.com/f2/cheap-black-sand-comparison-spectraquartz-ceramaquartz-41856.html


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## nfrog (Aug 2, 2014)

Hi
Ive been doing plants for 8 months I made a LED fixture with 15 standard LED lamps I use the walsted method for substrate and an under gravel filter, no ferts, no Co2. So far my plants grow so fast that they need trimming every 2 weeks. I think the whole key is light and there are some calculations out there for how deep your water is vs how many lumins. From what I've seen 4 grow tubes the length of your tank, as high a wattage as you can get for the fixture usually does fine. It might cost a bit in the beginning but LED's last a long time and use little power. Try the planted tank forum, go to my tanks and browse around, if you type in nfrog you can see my tank 3 months ago. If you will notice all the successful tanks are very bright. If that's the look you want go for it. Also on planted tank forum read about alge, its not a big deal.


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## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

In general, plants need fertilizers, fresh water, and light to survive. Ideally they like injected CO2 and higher light as well, but I've grown plants from bulbs in standard gravel substrate with a T8 fixture, root fertilizer tabs, and a liquid plant fert. They didn't grow very fast, but they grew nonetheless.


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