First Planted Tank!

Hey!

So, I have a 5 Gallon African Dwarf Frog Tank and a 10 Gallon Tropical Community Tank and I wanted to start converting my Community into a planted tank until I stumbled across Dustin's videos. Now I want to try a planted tank with dirt.

Here's what I have so far:

15 Gallon Tank 24x12x12 (got it as a kit at Petco for 40 bucks) which included:

50 watt heater

Whisper PF10

and a hood with a Marineland Natural Daylight F15T8 18' bulb in it

My dad is a bonsai/gardener expert so he has a lot of good dirt (without fertilizers) and gravel I can use.

I was planning on keeping this a Tiger Barb only tank.

I also ordered a piece of Malaysian Driftwood off of Amazon for like 9 bucks and I have an extra air pump and air stone.

I've seen you guys give awesome comments and advice to noobies like me and I was wondering what kind of suggestions yall had for me, including which type of plants I should start off with and preferably ones that wont cost me too much and that are hardy.

Thanks!!!

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Permalink Reply by Ian on January 22, 2012 at 8:56pm

Some plants that would be easy to keep would be anubias, java moss, java fern, green caboma, cryptocoryne, and Marino moss ball. I hope this helps

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Permalink Reply by Ryan Medric on January 22, 2012 at 10:30pm

thanks man! which of these will i be able to find at petco?

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Permalink Reply by Ian on January 22, 2012 at 11:29pm

It depends on the store, but most Petcos have most of the plants. If you can't find any, you can always order online. Good luck! :D

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Permalink Reply by Chris B on January 26, 2012 at 9:24pm

If you need to find an other store go on yellow pages and type in pet stores and put in your zip. That is how i found a really cool aquarium store and i'm going to get needle nose gar for my planted aquarium tomorrow.

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Permalink Reply by Ryan Medric on January 26, 2012 at 10:06pm

thanks bro ill give that a try

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Permalink Reply by Anthony Q on January 27, 2012 at 4:07am

Sounds like you have nice plan set out for yourself. Anubias and java fern would be great for your tank. Just watch out I have tiger barbs in my tank and they love to nip at my plants from time to time lol.

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Permalink Reply by Dakota Malone on January 27, 2012 at 3:36pm

idk about petco, but i know petsmart carries, anubias, java fern, wisteria, and amazon swords which are all super easy plants

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Permalink Reply by Cathy on February 2, 2012 at 7:40pm

I am going through a mess with my tank right now because of buying sick fish at a chain store and it's put all my plants in danger. My best advice to you is to order plants online from a reputable vendor. Dustin does the killer planted tank combo. If you do get them from a chain store, if you go to Petsmart, they have pre-packaged plants that are in little plastic containers. I bought Anubias Nanas from them and also Amazon Swords. They're very healthy, weren't subjected to their nasty water and sick fish, and have nice roots/rhyzomes respectively. These were the first two types of plants I ever had in a planted tank (going back almost 10 years now) and I did it with no knowledge, experience, or special equipment. I just shoved them in the gravel and watched them take off. Banana Plants are mega easy too. Good luck.