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Old 07-10-2013, 07:39 AM
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neoh neoh is offline
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are you trying to pull off the same tank?

the whole setup is in that thread.

If your planning on just doing something different, I would recommend eco complete substrate, which has your nutrients. He uses silica sand, which is inert but requires manual dosing of nutrients (kno3, k2so4, P04, etc.) dosing carbon instead of co2 injection (overkill for that size of tank) or a diy co2 would work. It's not that difficult to do, either. You can dose flourish excel, it should work and last a long time.

If your looking for a grass like substance, if you have the right lighting, you can consider a dwarf hair grass, dwarf val or blyxa japonica. Another carpeting plant is HC or glosso stigma.

Lighting should be about 3-4w/g - so a 15w bulb would work. You can pick up a daylight bulb from Loews or home depot, as long as it has 6500k it should do the trick. I picked up a light from Loews for $8 that has the right spectrum, just grab a gooseneck clip light and that will be good enough.

You don't really need much flow, planted tanks and fish alike don't need flow, your basic filtration system would add enough. Flow in a planted tank is needed to distribute nutrients around the tank.

I would ask local forms or find local people who have planted tanks - or your LFS. You can actually buy that Fissidens moss on eBay for pretty cheap.

Planted tanks are all about light and CO2. So, start there. A lot of plants don't require as much CO2 as others. It's just about researching the ones you want to have and figure out where to go from there.
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