new aquarium, to plant or not to plant?

[rockfish]

We are in the process of setting up a 650 gal Amazon tank. We are building a 60 gal filter with 25 gal. of bio-balls in a wet/dry on top with 2400 gph of volume. (With the option of doubling the flow should it be necessary.)

We are going to stock it with Pacu, Arawana, Shovel nose cat, Possibly a ray, (not sure) Plecos, and possibly one or two other species as candidates.

We are planning on driftwood as the main decorative motif, but are considering plants. As we can do what we want as far as building lighting, substrate etc; what do you suggest if we were to plant, how to do it well. The tank is 10' long and just under 3' deep.

Should we add a peat section in the filter? Where would one purchase the proper media if we did? What would one plant in? Trays sunk into the substrate? What would the media be for the plants? What species? Lighting that would not be annoying to the fish and unnatural looking?

We actually have a rather large budget for the project, (thank God) and we want to do it right. I am good at the anamalia, but have never really tried the Phyto family.

We are looking forward to your suggestions.

Blessings,

TR

[aquak]

I would first suggest that you find out if any of your fish are likely to dig up plants from the substrate. The ones you are planning that I know about don't, but I don't know about the pacu and catfish. The larger plecos may bump them out, but only if they're too crowded, which doesn't seem likely in your situation. If you can plant directly into the substrate, that is best. It's also nice to have some plants growing out of the wood. Java fern is good for this. Other plants that do well with low light are anubias, some Amazon swords, and others that I don't know the name of. If you do a search on low light plants you will find some sites that sell them and will tell you what they need. I don't see any reason to have plants that need special treatment when so many are available that do fine on their own. I have some that look like tall grass in my 70 plus a variety of other. I just don't know the names. People always try to sell me plants in the crypt family. Many people like them, but I don't get them because they tend to dissolve when they are disturbed in any way. They come back, but it takes a while -- 2 years in one instance I heard of, but not usually that long. Here is one site that I found helpful because they have a section in the side bar for plants needing low light.

http://www.aquariumplants.com/cgi-bin/cart/index.html

[rockfish]

The shovel nose are a bit active, Pacus love mango etc, don't know if they eat greens.
I was planning on an assorted size agregate for the substrate. Should I use trays with some sort of organic matter buried under it??

Thanks for the help!

Blessings,

TR

[AngelMom]

I recently swapped out my plastic plants for live. There are folks who claim you don't need any special substrate (and they may very well be correct) but I hedged my bet and added laterite to the gravel (you can get it in grey or red). One word of warning on that though......if you are (or plan to be) a vigorous vacuumer, it does give off a lot of dust.

I also have inserted Flourish Tabs fertilizer into the gravel as directed on the package. I do "feed" the plants the liquid stuff once or twice a week (usually just the trace stuff) and so far so good. Been just under a month and we have lots of rootlets and even some baby java fern cropping up.

For what its worth.

[aquella]

I don't use anything in the substrate, have low lights, no CO2, once put a fertilizer tablet in but didn't notice any difference. If you stick to the easy plants, and there's lots of them, you don't need to do anything extra. If you want other plants, you need to read up on the individual needs and follow through. Don't try the Madagascar Lace plant unless you really want to do some intensive work. You can do a search here on a reply on how to care for it. It was exhausting just reading it!

[Buddha_Red]

im using 48x12 55g tank with 2 watts per gallon. I use flourish and dyi yeast.

Witht the light level i limited to what i can grow, After this cycle i think my plants will do fine here as they ahve.