New to the whole planted aquarium thing, new to fish tanks in general. I'm going for a nice, clean, iwagumi setup. I don't know many plants right now, so I'm still up in the air what I want to plant in here. I saw micro sword grass in the store and I'd love a nice thick layer of that in the foreground. I'm not sure what I want in the background, something taller to fill up the top of the tank.

Lighting is a Nova Extreme T5 HO 24x2

Substrate is 40 lbs of Eco Complete

Water is extremely cloudy, how long should I expect this to last? Eco complete came with a water declouder, but I wasn't to use it until I get some plants and more water in there.

Fish I'm going for a nice little school of tiger barbs and possibly a rainbow shark.





Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm considering doing a Co2 setup, but ferts for right now will just be Excel.

micro swords are a great choice and spread runners very fast i have some in my 40g planted but i tend to prefer dwarf hairgrass over it just because of personal preference.
To adress your cloudiness issue you could always siphon out the water and replace it assuming you just added the water recently if you didn't then let it sit for a couple of days depending if you're running your filter. Just make sure you put something over the substrate such as a dish to minimize the impact.

I was just about to get some Eco Complete the other day for my new tank, but on the package was a sticker stating that it can raise the ph considerably for 3-6 weeks. Just in case you weren't aware of it, you might want to keep an eye on the ph if you plan on putting fish/plants in anytime soon. The guy at the store told me he has had customers tell him the same thing, and that it can get considerably high.

I did just add the water in yesterday, so I guess a little bit of time wouldn't hurt. I don't have my filter or anything yet, still waiting for my other package to arrive which contains my filter and water testing kit. Thanks for the advice of running it over a dish, I was wondering how people poured the water in there without messing up the slope and rocks. I had to rearrange it after I poured some water in there.

What's the difference between the dwarf hairgrass and the micro sword? I like how the micro sword can be found local (atleast around me) and seems reasonably cheap, 2.99 for a decent amount.

Wow, I didn't even notice this, glad you mentioned it. It's only been sitting aruond for a day, so I'll give it a little bit of time before adding some plants in there. I guess I'll continue to do pH checks weekly and see what happens!

lf you can get yourself the api test kit(i got mines from petsmart). lt's really one of the best investments you can make in this hobby. Don't forget to test out your nitrate,nitrites,gh/kh,phosphates/ammonia as they all play a key role in the sucess of your tank. lf you need any help or questions just send me a message. As they say the dumbest question is the one that's not asked.

sorry for the double post but i forgot to answer your question about the difference. This link should help out:

for dwarf hairgrass:
http://www.aquariumplants.com/Dwarf_...ot_p/po110.htm

for micro sword:
http://www.aquariumplants.com/product_p/po200.htm

also try googling the plants since these two links don't really do a good job of showing what they actually look like up close and in detail. dhg is usually more thinner than the microsword (i have both in my tank). They grow about the same size or close to and make a really great foreground pick. just read up on the requirements and you should be fine.

Thanks, decided to go with the sword grass despite the algae problem. I really like the look of it and would love for it to carpet the bottom.

I got my test kit in a few days ago and everything in the water checked out perfect. pH was a little on the higher side at around 7.4 after a couple tests. I decided to go ahead and plant a pots of micro sword grass and see what happens.

Any suggestions for a background plant?

Looks like a great start! I'm new to planted tanks as well so I'm not much help on that part. I will say though, that I think you should review your fish choices a bit more. Tiger barbs get to about 3 inches each and need a good sized shoal to be happy. Rainbow sharks get to about 6 inches and can be quite aggressive and territorial. I've read that they do best in 4 foot aquariums.