Help with planted tank?

I'm not sure what plants you have. Each plant species has a preferred amount of lighting. For example, I have elodea densa in my aquarium, also known as anarchis. The plant flourishes with 3 watts per gallon, and grew fantastically with no CO2 in an overstocked, salted tank of mine in gravel substrate. Now, this doesn't mean that all plants are that easy. I bought vallisneria too at the same time as the anarchis. While the anarchis was busy propagating in my tank, the vallisneria was yellowing and dying. So each plant has its own preferred conditions, and what is good for one plant may kill another.

What you should do really depends on what types of plant you have and what conditions they prefer. pH, watts per gallon, substrate type (sand, loam, gravel, potting soil) and salt content are all things you should research BEFORE buying plants.

Personally, my favorite light bulbs are the Hagen Flora-Glo. http://www.hagen.com/uk/aquatic/sub_category_psubt... They have both a full spectrum and special peaks in the part of the light spectrum that plants like. Not every local fish store sells them, but they can be bought online.

Full spectrum lights are a close second to the Hagen flora-glo lights, and work well, too.

And the substrate you want to buy at your local pet store. It's really expensive to ship soil and rocks because they're so heavy. Certain plants like certain substrates, but sand, gravel, and topsoil can all be purchased cheaper locally than they can online because of the high cost of shipping rocks.

Honestly, don't bother with PC lighting for a planted tank. The list of stock you'd be able to keep is ridiculously limited and you'd actually end up doing more harm than good if you attempted to keep higher-light species. And, while those T5 lights aren't the absolute worst imaginable, you're much better off spending the little bit extra now and getting a light with individual reflectors and some form of cooling. That little bit can make a lot of difference to the amount of light put into a tank.

I run a 20g with a 4x24w T5HO system with individual reflectors and my plants actually grow faster than I can keep up with. Of course, good tubes also make a lot of difference - and as with anything, more light means they need more fuel to grow. Personally I use a DIY CO2 system and DIY fertilizers to dose daily which has seen the plants doubling in size every 2 days or so. If you want to go one step better, most people seem to recommend Eco-Complete as an ideal substrate which should see no need for you to dose with fertilisers. Failing that, there are a few quality ones around, although I've got no experience with these so I can't comment.

If given the choice, I'd look for something like this http://www.aquacave.com/sunbeam-24-2-x-24w-br-t5-f... for lighting. Simple, open design, individual reflectors, and reasonably cheap. You could keep a lot of things with that fitting without breaking a sweat. Two of them would be even better, although that would be something you'd have to look into later down the line if you noticed your growth and colour wasn't good.

lets see. il re edit my answer once i think of the lighting

first, it depends on the plants

for the substrate, if you really want to go that far, use a substrate heater, then maybe soil/small gravel, freshwater sand, then gravel or whatever you want to use for the top layer

in the freshwater sand/soil area, i would put some bacteria and fertilizer :D

pick whatever light fits your plants the best (most of the time, you get what you pay for)

hi