Bert H

There are certain things that newbies are often told when they first set up a new tank: make sure you plant heavily; use fast growing stem plants; keep your CO2 levels high; do not use too much light, etc. I thought I would try to tie some of these things together and give a basic ‘how-to’ which might be helpful to folks.

To prepare your substrate for planting, look at this thread: http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/f...ilmaster+setup for MatPat’s pics on how to set up your substrate. It is an excellent step-by-step guide. He shows how he did it using Soilmaster, but the same methodology can be used for a variety of different substrates.

Positioning your hardscape, such as wood or rocks is strictly a matter of taste, so I will leave that up to your imagination. Some basic things to consider are the rule of thirds, and the golden ratio. We have an excellent article by Birgit and Wolfgang in the apc library: http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/f...t=golden+ratio dealing with aquacaping principles. Carlos has an excellent article on the golden ratio in the apc library as well: http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/f...den-ratio.html . Keep in mind that a lot of what you plant now will be removed in a couple of months, so don’t worry too much about your aquascape at this point in time.

Here’s a list of some fast growing stem plants to consider when setting up the tank initially, and a link to them in the plantfinder:
Ceratophyllum demersum: http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/f...=Ceratophyllum
Rotala rotundafolia: http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/f...us&spec=Rotala
Bacopa caroliniana: http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/f...us&spec=Bacopa
Bacopa australis: http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/f...us&spec=Bacopa
Myriophyllum mattogrossense: http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/f...c=Myriophyllum
Hygrophila difformis: http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/f...pec=Hygrophila

The stems should be planted so that there is a distance of two leaves’ width between the stems you plant. Such that the leaves from one stem just barely touch the leaves of the neighboring stem. Except for C. demersum, all the rest of these plants can be planted in the substrate. C. demersum has no roots and it will have to be weighted down, wedged against something or left to float in the tank. Sometimes it is difficult to keep stems in the substrate without them floating up on you. I find it helpful to keep the leaves in the bottom part of the stem which you actually plant. This helps to keep the stems in the substrate.

Part II to follow - will deal with the initial planting, lighting and first ferts.