[Aqua518]

Help appreciated - trying to estimate the initial plant load needed for a 180 gallon, to minimize algae problems during startup. I keep hearing that making sure you have enough plants initially is key to preventing algae and longer-term success. Can you help advise if this enough??

Species list below - and best guess at the number needed. This will be a dirt set-up, doing a natural look with rocks and wood (George Farmer type of natural). Light: the new USA Current Serene Pro LED lights, two 36" since 72" LED strip not available. No CO2 for now - looking to add system from CO2Arts or GreenLeaf Aquarium.

What would you change to have a 'dense-enough' plant load?
Your opinions much appreciated!

Foreground - 2 species:
Micro sword - 15?
Anubius Nana - 9? Petite (will be fixed to rock and wood so dispersed in foreground & midground)

Midground -
Anubius Nana - 5? medium, good-sized
Anubius Barteri -3? medium, good-sized
Anubuius Coffeefloria - 3? medium, good sized
ANUBIUS B. Variagat Glaba - 3? small (1 pot I can break into 3)
Java Fern - 9 medium-sized
Sword - 1 large or 3 smaller/medium

Stems/Background:
Bacopa Monnieri - 15 stems
Bacopa Caroliniana "Yellow Flame" - 3 (7-8 Stems each)
Ludwigia Replens for some red texture - 4-5? (4-5 stems each)
Spiral Val (Val. Torta) - 5 (approx 5 stems)

 

[davemonkey]

Your species list looks good and diverse, but it's really hard to know how many stems/plants of each species you'll need until you get it planted. For your stems, you could easily double your plan. For background and midground, if you have more than 2-3" of bare substrate between plants, I would say you need more. As those plants fill in, you can always thin out later.
For the foreground, 1" apart in a checker-board pattern to cover the whole foreground area.
I'm not saying this is what I "do", but if I wanted to start off heavily planted, this is what I would do.