# planted tanks



## 07candyr6 (Jul 21, 2009)

so I was talking to my buddy of how I want to do my tank with live plants and he said he used to have live plants and he said you had to do weekly water changes. is this true???


----------



## JIM (May 27, 2009)

*Could you give us a little more info on your tank?? Size lighting, filtration, etc. Its generally a good idea to do weekly water changes, especially where fish are being kept in the tank. Is this the case?? if so what fish are you planning to have? size at maturity?? how many??*


----------



## 07candyr6 (Jul 21, 2009)

well its a 55gal. with T5 lighting with some 6500k bulbs not sure on the filter yet, and there will be perch in the tank maybe 7 with all different sizes.


----------



## James0816 (Jun 19, 2009)

Even planted tanks need to have pwc. In heavily planted tanks with light stock, the frequency can be cut back...but not all together....However....some have done this before with heavy tanks...no changes just top offs.

With your stocking...you should be doing at least 25%/wk.


----------



## Oldman (May 25, 2009)

If you use what is called estimative index with your plants, then you do need to do a large water change every week. The way EI is done, you overfeed your plants constantly but once a week you reset everything to reasonable levels with that large water change. People who do that with high lights and pressurized CO2 get very good plant growth. I do not use that method so I don't need the big weekly water changes. I use much less fertilizer in my high tech tank and just get decent plant growth instead of spectacular plant growth. The CO2 is not run at the same high concentration either but is run at a high enough level to do some good for the plants without threatening the fish's health. I guess that I am a low tech person at heart but feel the need to at least try out some of the high tech techniques. 
Most of my planted tanks are either plain gravel with just enough fertilizer and lights to keep the plants alive, or are set up as NPTs with a planting soil substrate and bright light but no added fertilizers and no added CO2. Those grow plants almost as well as the high tech tank and have the benefit of seldom needing a water change.


----------



## James0816 (Jun 19, 2009)

Oldman said:


> If you use what is called estimative index with your plants, then you do need to do a large water change every week. The way EI is done, you overfeed your plants constantly but once a week you reset everything to reasonable levels with that large water change.


EI dosing is rather nice I must say. The plant growth was two fold once I got the hang of it. Like Oldman said though....you should look at doing larger wc's if using this method.


----------

