[Grimnokk]

First I would like to say sorry if this has been asked a thousand times. However I could not seem to find answers to these questions.

I have been keeping fish, mostly cichlids off and on for 20 years. I have never done a planted tank before and want to try my hand at it.

As far as tank setup is concerned:
75g glass tank
Rena XP3 canister filter
300w heater
AquaticLife T5 HO Dual Lamp Light Fixture - (1) 48" 48W 650nm Pink Roseate
(1) 48" 48W 6,000°K
80 lbs of Eco-Complete

Now on to the questions. Keep in mind that none of this is setup yet. I am making sure I understand the basics of plant care first before I do anything with the tank.

1) Is there some good reputable online sites to buy aquatic plants from? In my local area I have only found one store and they are pricey and plants did not look good.

2) I plan on running the fishless cycle. Adding ammonia to get it to 5ppm and keeping it there until the tank cycles and all ammonnia disapears over night. So once the tank has cycled, I understand that I can plant the plants. However should I keep dosing the ammonia until I get a bio-load in the tank. Meaning, with the plants planted, should I keep dosing the ammonia until I get some fish in the tank?

3) I know this is subjective and depends on what you want to do with the tank, but what would you plants would you muy to start with and how many? I want to keep this a low tech tank. I do not want to have to dose CO2. I want to keep this as simple as possible.

4) If this was your tank, how would you stock your tank? What fish would you put in it and how many? I was thinking about doing a community tank for this setup. Some Cradinal Tetras, maybe some angles, maybe some Gourami's. Not really sure. I would love to hear how you would stock the tank and what quantities you would use. I am open to all ideas.

5) Clean-up crew. What would you add and what quantities? I would love to have some shrimp, but unsure of how many a tank this size could support. Again I am looking for ideas. I am open to all ideas.

Thank you for taking the time to read and hopefully provide some feedback.

 

[BBradbury]

Your 75 G

Hello Grim...

Check with alphaprobreeders for your plants. They have a good variety. If you're just getting started, then they're a good source. Good prices and excellent packaging.

I keep low tech, lower light tanks. I like Anubias, Amazon sword, anacharis and Pennywort. All these are easy to care for types. Driftwood and rocks are a nice addition. If you can pick them up locally, that's best. The pet store's pieces look too fake to me.

As far as stocking. I prefer "Livebearers". With the possible exception of Mollies, they're as hardy as any and will survive most minor mistakes in tank management.

I keep Corydoras too. They're a pretty efficient "clean-up" crew. I stock one for every 5 gallons of tank volume. A minimum of 6 is good, more is better.

B

 

[ramen lover]

i have 55G and 6G low-tech tanks. in my 55G i have a school of harlequin rasboras and neon tetras. both of these fish that i have seem to ignore shrimp. just be careful of the fish you get if you decide you want shrimp. now, if you have a lot of plants/moss for the baby shrimp to hide in, then you should be okay. i started with about 20 or 25 red cherry shrimp and probably have almost 100 somewhere in my tank. they hide so well. shrimp really don't create a lot of bioload.. so for a tank the size of a 75G.. 1 or 2 dozen to start off would be perfectly fine. more should be fine too i think.

plants i use are anubias, crypts, amazon sword, micro swords, flame moss, java moss. these are all low light plants and are low maintenance.

 

[Merth]

lol a 75g tank can easily handle 1000's of shrimp probably however the choice of fish which would be compatible with shrimp typically would be small fish meaning you would need tons of them to actually enjoy the activity. Amano's would work and are typically large enough not to be bothered by other less shrimp friendly guys like angels. Oto's, dwarf or bn plecos will work for cleanup and dont outgrow the tank. If it were me I would pick the fish I like and set the tank up as suitable for them and then fit the appropriate plants to those water conditions (provided they match my tap conditions...RO is tough on a large tank and I dont like messing with the chemistry).

 

[Grimnokk]

Hello Grim...

Check with alphaprobreeders for your plants. They have a good variety. If you're just getting started, then they're a good source. Good prices and excellent packaging.

I keep low tech, lower light tanks. I like Anubias, Amazon sword, anacharis and Pennywort. All these are easy to care for types. Driftwood and rocks are a nice addition. If you can pick them up locally, that's best. The pet store's pieces look too fake to me.

As far as stocking. I prefer "Livebearers". With the possible exception of Mollies, they're as hardy as any and will survive most minor mistakes in tank management.

I keep Corydoras too. They're a pretty efficient "clean-up" crew. I stock one for every 5 gallons of tank volume. A minimum of 6 is good, more is better.

B

BBradbury, thanks for the reply. I will check out the supplier that you mentioned.

i have 55G and 6G low-tech tanks. in my 55G i have a school of harlequin rasboras and neon tetras. both of these fish that i have seem to ignore shrimp. just be careful of the fish you get if you decide you want shrimp. now, if you have a lot of plants/moss for the baby shrimp to hide in, then you should be okay. i started with about 20 or 25 red cherry shrimp and probably have almost 100 somewhere in my tank. they hide so well. shrimp really don't create a lot of bioload.. so for a tank the size of a 75G.. 1 or 2 dozen to start off would be perfectly fine. more should be fine too i think.

plants i use are anubias, crypts, amazon sword, micro swords, flame moss, java moss. these are all low light plants and are low maintenance.

ramen lover,

Can you define what you mean by school? Are we talking 6, 7, 8?? What is your definition of school. I will add the plants you mentioned to my research list.

lol a 75g tank can easily handle 1000's of shrimp probably however the choice of fish which would be compatible with shrimp typically would be small fish meaning you would need tons of them to actually enjoy the activity. Amano's would work and are typically large enough not to be bothered by other less shrimp friendly guys like angels. Oto's, dwarf or bn plecos will work for cleanup and dont outgrow the tank. If it were me I would pick the fish I like and set the tank up as suitable for them and then fit the appropriate plants to those water conditions (provided they match my tap conditions...RO is tough on a large tank and I dont like messing with the chemistry).

Merth,

I understand that a tank my size can handle lots of shrimp. I guess I didn't phrase my question properly. I was looking for more of a starting number. I know as the bio load increases, the feedings become heavier and will require more clean up crew members. But on a freshly setup tank, where is a good starting point?

 

[Diana]

Fishless Cycle:
You can plant from the start, if you want, or you can plant over the several weeks that the cycle is going to take.
Start with 5 ppm ammonia, but as soon as the nitrites appear allow the ammonia to drop to 3 ppm, and once a day add just enough ammonia to bring it back to 3 ppm.
If that is still too much ammonia for the plants, then keep it at 1 ppm, but test and add ammonia twice a day.

Plant source: Look into the trading forum here. Join a local aquarium club.

 

[jonathan]

Tropica has an easy to read guide explaining which plants are easy and need very little. Starts at page 20.

http://www.emagcloud.com/djursgruppen/Tropica_UK_ny/index.html#/1/ (is this link legal ? sorry if not)