Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i am brand new to aquariums and would like my first tank to be planted. i have been doing loads of research for weeks. i have decided to start an aquarium without live plants just to get a little experience with some hardy fish. my question is. is it possible to set something up and ADD live plants at a later time? also what is a good substrate to use if you plan on doing that. any advice? i heard internal filters like my whisper 30 are not good for planted tanks. is it ok to use until i buy an external canister filter and just replace it? or will i loose too much bacteria if i do that?

Yes, it is ok to set up your fish tank without plants at first and add them later. I haven't had live plants (I don't think they are worth my effort, but that is my own personal opinion), but I did a little research to see what a good substrate would be, and I found EcoComplete. It has essential nutrients in it to help plants flourish. I did check to see if it is safe for fish (because if you add your fish first and the plants later I didn't know if the EcoComplete would harm the fish if the plants aren't taking up the nutrients). It says that it is safe for fish - that it does increase the pH slightly at first, but then it would go down after a while. It also says that if the plants aren't taking up the nutrients that algae blooms are sure to happen. I'm not sure about your filter question, we'll have to wait to see what others say about that, but I can say that you could probably just set the new filter in the tank so the bacteria can start to live in the new filter. That way it shouldn't interrupt the cycle.

Hope this helps.
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Phishie
Site Coordinator

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

I've had a planted tank set up for a few years now. I often have just fish and some java moss in it because I become lax with caring properly for the plants, lol. You could use something like laterite under gravel (make sure it's small size gravel for when you decide to go with plants). If you plan to use the same tank for plants later just make sure it's a fairly fine grain rock if you go this route. You could also go with Flourite or the EcoComplete. Just cycle the tank like regular adding fish slowly. I use a Marineland Emperor 400 on a 50 gallon and don't have much problems with plants when I'm really working with the tank.

I've been keeping planted tanks for several years now, but I tend to stick to hardier plants. If you do that, you may well find keeping plants is actually really easy. I do use internal filtration, and I find I don't have a problem unless the filtration causes a strong current. It depends what plants you have, some are much more sensitive than others. With respect to substrate, I use plain gravel. I have found that rooted plants don't like under gravel filtration, and I avoid using that in tanks that are going to have rooted plants.

With respect to species, Java fern is the easiest plant I've found. Water sprite (Ceratopteris, either species) is really easy to grow, especially floating. It also grows really fast. Java moss is also pretty good, although it seems to have taken a dislike to my most recent tanks. Hygrophila polysperma is also good.

Best of luck with your new tank.