New to live plant tanks, and need advice.

Can someone send me a link to the correct Miracle Gro soil to purchase. Everything I see is a "mix" and has fertilizers added. Even the yellow bag "organic" says enriched with fertilizer.

I have a 20 gallon tank I would like to plant. I have never planted a tank before. Honestly, I just bought a 5 gallon last month (November) and it's the first tank we have ever owned. My f.i.l. gave us his old 20 gallon (which is disgusting and needs to be cleaned) but I thought I would like to plant it. My Mr. has told me he will buy me a 55 gallon, I have one already picked out, But honestly, I just want to wait and see what I can do in this 20 gallon first before going all in and trying to do it in the 55.

I would love to put a huge one down in my reading room, the space is 89 inches long, but I can't seem to find an aquarium that would fit that length. 40ish seems to be the standard length? Anyway - thats off topic...

First things first:

This 20 gallon is DISGUSTING. Apparently, the fish died and the fil never dumped it. He just let it evaporate out. It seriously looks like someone has smeared the inside of it with light brown mud. The gravel is even still in it and all caked together and STUCK to the bottom of the tank.

Any suggestions on cleaning it would be amazing. I was thinking of trying a hot water, vinegar, bleach combo but the bleach has me worried. Will that harm future fish?

Next thing (after cleaning) is the soil. If you could link me to say lowes or walmart for the soil - that would be great. We do not have a Fish store or pet store here. Petsmart is over an hour away.

Anyway, any help appreciated.

Thanks.

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Comment by FISHHEADSIV on December 21, 2011 at 1:15am: CLR or vineger works great; spray it and let it soak for a while. you can use a very small amount of bleach but the other stuff is better, as far as soil goes. look into foxfarm ocean soil. you can get it at most hydroponic or gardening supply stores.

look for NPK or nitrogen phosphorus potassium, the less of those in the water the better. plants need a good substrate but the enhanced stuff can sometimes be a little too strong. look for numbers near 1.0 or under percentage. you should see some numbers in their due to the organic richness of the soil.

one thing you can do to boost plant growth is get some clay (non toxic red molding/potteryclay) and toss some dime size bits in the soil before capping it with sand / gravel.

dont feel you need to rush with tanks, a good tank takes lots of time and practice, even amano (plant god) killed alot of fish and plants before he became famous. alot of the tanks you see in the showrooms or contests have had alot of attention and time given to their success.

id start out with some easy going plants that dont require much to survive, amazon swords, anubias java fern, saggiteria. they do well in your tanks and dont require much to thrive.

keep in mind after you plant these plants it will make a mess when you try to move them so def consider spacing and growth and what their light needs are, (anubias low light) (sword-low/med light) so putting an anubia under a sword gives you the advantage of shielding intense lighting off the plant. just take your time look at what plants you want and their comparability to your tank parameters.

ok now before you go into fish there is something to consider. when your start a tank for the first time I would wait 2-3 weeks of it running with no fish so the water can cycle. in this course of time the water will spike in ammonia and NITRITE levels. so getting a master test kit will save you alot of guess work. if not you can always have your LFS(local fish store) test your water for you. make sure if they use strip tests that the strips are not over a year old because as inaccurate as those strips are, they are even more so if they are old.

when you notice the spike then slowly level off and your water is back to normal you can begin to introduce fish 1-2 at a time. the spike is from beneficial bacteria's building up in your system. they eat waste (ammonia/nitrite) and convert into nitrate which in small doses is harmless.

one way to speed up the process as at the start of your tank drop in a good pinch of fish food to rot and feed your bacteria or use water from an already established tank or even better run a filter from a set up healthy tank on your new tank. this will colonize your tank with beneficial bac's

ok now back to fish. adding them slowly lets your tank handle their waste and slowly grow, as you slowly add more fish the bacs will multiply and grow to meet the needs of the tank, if you add too many fish at once then your tank will crash because there wont be anything to handle the waste.

when it comes to fish look at what kind of fish are attractive to you and what conditions they live in aka their "biotope" some fish like african cichlids will prefer no plants in very hard water vs angels like soft water and love plants. they too are a chiclid. most common is tetras, they are hardy and come in a variation of colors. neons are common but more often than not kind sickly from constant inbreeding bloodlines, dont be afraid to try an uncommon fish like rasbora or minnow. find what fish you like and see how they do with plants and other fish.

Lighting- 5000-6500k for plants you want to pick up a timer from homedept or where ever is closer to you, trust me it makes all the difference i get packs of two analog timers for 5bucks and its not a head ach to constantly turn lights on/off. i set mine anywhere from 6hrs to 8 to

Comment by BunnyCates on December 21, 2011 at 1:29am: wow, lots of info. Thank you both so much. I really appreciate it!

Comment by BunnyCates on December 21, 2011 at 1:37am: Thank you for the welcome! Im enjoying the site, everyone seems so nice. Im sure the real personalities will come out sooner or later. ha!

Is dirt better or sand? The dirt tanks I've seen on youtube - the water seems clearer. I don't want green water. Some looks very green and kind of gross. Clean and natural is what I am going for. If that makes any sense. I'll decide what fish later, I just want a pretty tank first, and to understand how to maintain it - THEN I will worry about the fish.

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