garrett97

New to planted tank. I have a 55 gallon tank with 18 buenos aires tetras, 4 serpae tetras, 1 female betta, and 2 cory cats which I will be turning into a planted tank.

I purchased (3) Myriophyllum heterophyllum red bunch, (3) micro sword potted, (3) anacharis bunch and (2) anubias hastifolia potted which I received 1/14/11. They are sitting in a 10 gallon tank with two single 15 watt tank strips. My 55 gallon tank has a 32watts lighting strip.

I ordered a T5 48" lighting system 260 watt with timer which will arrive on Wednesday. I guess you can say I'm impulsive for ordering plants and the lighting system without doing much research.

About a year ago I purchased a number of plants that eventually died. I didn't know why they died but upon doing some research found out buenos aires tetras are hardy eaters and love live plants, so I left it alone and never attempted live plants. Recently I decided to turn my tank into a planted tank, so I went ahead and ordered the plants without doing much research, I then found out that my current lighting 32 watts will not be enough and my plants will die again, so I started doing some research and found a lighting system which would give me the wpg I needed, but in reading, it looks like I might have more lighting then I need and now because for the overage wattage I will now need to add CO2 which I ordered in liquid form (hopefully it works if not I guess I'll have to build one of the systems I've read about with the yeast and soda bottle). I posted a picture of what my tank looks like now with it's artificial plants, it doesn't look bad, but I like the look of live plants.

Wish me luck in my new endeavor, any feed back would be appreciated.

Forgot to mention that my substrate is 2 1/2" natural gravel, river jewels. Can I plant directly into this gravel? I have no sand or soil under my gravel.

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davemonkey

The light you bought will give very high light. You'd need pressurized CO2 and lots of ferts to keep up with it. But, you can raise the fixture up some to lessen the intensity. That will allow you to get away with DIY CO2 or other. Also, if you fixture has multiple switches, you can select a couple bulbs that will only come on for a short 'burst' in the afternoon or something.

With plain gravel, you'll be needing some nutrition for the plants. Marco nutrients (N, P, K) and micros as well. There are liquids you can purchase, or dry ferts. The dry come out cheaper in the long run, the liquids are ready to dose, so they are easier to work with. Do your homework on fertilizing. There are a couple good stickies in the Fertilizing subforum you should check out.

Read "The Basics" sticky and click on the article that niko linked to. It will give you a TON of insight on the light/nutrition balance.

garrett97

Do I get rid of the charcoal in my filter. I have charcoal in my sponge filter as well as ammonia remover filter insert. Should my filter only contain the sponge filter. Will removing all media be harmful to my fish?