# First Planted tank



## FredericoAlves (Jan 5, 2013)

Hello everyone.

A friend of mine gave me a really small tank he found in his garage, its only about 5 gallons. I thought it would be great to try some new experiments, i've seen on youtube guys that can make a beautiful aquascape out of a small tank like this but i've never tried a planted tank before. My questions are, what are the best plants to start with? What products do I have to put in the substrate? How much plants can I put in there? Do they grow a lot or stay more or less the same for long time? Can I put some moss (i've seen baeutiful aquascapes with moss)? What about filtration, is it the normal filtration sistem that I use in my other fish tanks? Heater, what is the best temperature for ploants? Water parameters, same as the fish tanks? And also, co2, do I need a co2 provider or can I put some fish to create co2 for the plants? And light, do I need some kind of special ilumination sistem?

Thanks for reading, if you can answer the questions thats great!


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## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

FredericoAlves said:


> 1. What are the best plants to start with?
> 2. What products do I have to put in the substrate?
> 3. How much plants can I put in there?
> 4. Do they grow a lot or stay more or less the same for long time?
> ...


Fred, welcome to the hobby. Let's get started with your questions...

1. Low-light low-maintenance plants that would be good for a 5 gallon are anubias nana, willow hygro, crypt, tiger lotus, and Marimo moss. I would suggest java moss, but it tends to invade and doesn't grow as uniformly as, say, baby tears or subwassertang that the aquascapers use in their beautiful iwagumi setups.

2. I would put in a different kind of substrate; I've always used and had great success with Fluorite, but others use Eco-Complete, ADA Aquasoil, Floramax, or another plant-specific substrate. Also, look into root fertilizer tabs for your stem plants that feed more heavily from their root systems. There's several brands out there like SeaChem, Jungle, etc. Susankat on here uses Jobe's Root Sticks.

3. You can put as many as you want! They provide great cover for the smaller and more timid creatures you can have in a tank like dwarf shrimp, dwarf rasboras, Thai micro crabs, etc.

4. Depending on how well-fed they are, plants grow like weeds. In my old high-tech setups with injected CO2, high-powered lighting and dry chemical fertilization I was ripping out handfuls of plant growth each week. Now, with medium-low lighting, no ferts and no CO2, I'm doing some trimming about once a month, if that.

5. You can, but it depends on your lighting and the use of CO2. Ground cover like riccia fluitens, subwassertang, dwarf baby tears, etc. require a LOT of light, because so little actually reaches the substrate. I've had moderate success in a low-tech setup with some dwarf sag, as well, and Marimo moss is always a safe bet. It's sold in balls but you can easily cut the balls up and anchor it to places you want it to grow.

6. Filtration is a tricky issue with a 5 gallon. The intent of a power filter in a nano tank is to increase the volume of water in the system, reducing the effects of a screw-up in water chemistry. Hence, a small canister filter like the Eheim 2215 series or the ZooMed 501/511 series would be ideal for both filtration and increasing the volume of water in the system. If you REALLY want to go overboard, consider building a 10 or 20 gallon sump and hiding it inside the tank stand.

7. Best temperature for plants is the same as for fish; 70-80 degrees F.

8. Not at all. With plants you want to control the levels of micro and macro nutrients in the water. These are things like nitrate, phosphate, bicarbonate, carbon dioxide, iron, etc. Most people use dry chemical fertilizers (GreenLeafAquariums) and have great success. Be careful with these, as you need to test regularly to make sure you're not ODing your tank on nutrients, as it might cause an algae outbreak or kill your creatures (I lost almost 100 red cherry shrimp to a phosphate overdose).

9. CO2 is another tricky subject. With a 5 gallon tank, I would suggest a DIY yeast fermentation CO2 system using sugar and yeast to generate CO2. You could go pressurized, but that's expensive. The idea of a CO2 system is to boost CO2 levels ABOVE what is natural, so your plants are on steroids, so to speak. Even with only medium-intensity lighting, CO2 makes a huge difference. Here's a great thread James0816 wrote up on a DIY CO2 system:
http://www.aquariumforum.com/f34/diy-co2-made-easy-5049.html

10. Again, another tricky subject. T5HO and/or LED is the way to go for bigger tanks, but with a 5 gallon you could get away with a simple CFL bulb. Finnex FugeRay II's are great, relatively affordable LED fixtures for small planted tanks. You'll need a 16" fixture, whatever you do. Here's a link:
Amazon.com: Finnex FugeRay Aquarium LED Light Plus Moonlights, 16-Inch: Pet Supplies

There you go! Hope my thoughts/opinions help!  Be sure to ask as you get more questions...


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## FredericoAlves (Jan 5, 2013)

Thanks a lot gizmo! I think this weekend I'll start with the preparation of the substrate, if I get more questions I'll come here to ask! Thanks very much again my friend


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