[gnatster]

I’ve done the research, read 1000’s of posts on various forums, babble fished so much German and Japanese my browser is confused, sought out and joined a local aquatic plant assoc, asked for hardware advice (actually listened too) and now I’m ready to go. Pieces and parts have been ordered and I figure in the next 2 – 3 weeks initial setup will be complete.

That all leads to…

How many plants do I need??

Figuring on fast growing stem plants.

Tank: 120 Gal 48*24*24
Lighting: 4.1WPG MH
CO2 System: Yes, pressurized.
Substrate: Eco-Complete 80%, Tahitian Moon Sand 20%

Experience: 30+ years in hobby, 4+ years working in lfs, 8 years commercial tank maint, 3 years into ichthyology degree (never finished). This is my first FW Planted tank.



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gnatster

 

[gnatster]

Its hard to give a number, but start putting them into the tank

I realize it's difficult to say "You need X # of bunches of Y".

Stem plants about 1.5 inches apart

Given a foot print of 48*24 that works out to 16 rows of 32, 512 individual stems. Thats end to end, corner to corner. 30 rows of 14 leaves some space round the edges and is only (lol) 420 stems.

You didn't mention nutrients, but with 4.1 W/G, I would go with 10 ppm NO3, 2 ppm PO4, and 2 ppm Fe, all twice per week, with a 50% weekly water change to ultimately limit the nutrients to an absolute maximum.

Thread drift....

My understanding, and please correct me if incorrect, is that for the first 2-3 weeks I should not add nutrients.

I have been following the thread on clean up crew's, and intend on raiding the lfs's in the area, have some decent ones round these parts, for shrimp and otto's during the first week of operation.

Thanks

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gnatster