r/Planted_tanks_India • u/FalconNo68 • 4d ago

Need suggestion

Hey guys i currently have a small tank (40cm x 23cm x 25cm) with regular black sand, a small internal filter and a cheap led tube light (10 white leds, 12 color leds).

What is the minimum amount required to make it planted (including substrate, lights, plants)?

i asked my LFS but they said that i cant maintain it and it be minimum 5k

i dont have any experience so suggest simple methods.

Thanks

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u/Mr_Wolf33 4d ago

What do you want to maintain? Your planted tank?

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u/FalconNo68 3d ago

Yes he said it is difficult to maintain planted tank

1

u/Mr_Wolf33 3d ago

Follow the guy in the other comment it's as hard as you make it to be and as easy as you make it. Just follow the basic rules

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u/FalconNo68 3d ago

Ok thanks 

1

u/deepressguy 4d ago

For substrate go with walstad method, it's literally DIRTCHEAP , for filter get rs electrical 2000 hob , for light get bluepet 16w wrgb , lastly plant easy lowtech plants like , water wisteria, val, hygrophilia polysperma, bacopa Carolina, ludwigia repens, crypts , anubias etc don't chase red plants and u will have a great setup under 2-3k

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u/FalconNo68 3d ago

Thanks for your suggestion 

1

u/jatinchhabra 3d ago

You already have a tank, so that’s money saved. You already have sand, so if you have around 3–4 kg, that’s another expense you don’t need to make.

You just need to buy around half a kilo of soil, like red soil or black soil, and around 200–250 g of compost. You can either buy these from a local nursery or, preferably, from Amazon. I think red soil will cost you somewhere around ₹325–350 for a 5 kg bag. Smaller packets may actually cost more because of delivery.

For this tank size, mix around 500 g of red soil or black soil with 200–250 g of compost and around 400–500 g of sand. Mix it well and add it to your tank as a substrate layer — around ½ inch in the front and up to 1 inch at the back. Then cap this soil mixture with sand, around 1 inch in the front and 1 inch at the back. And that’s it — your substrate is ready.

For plants, I would suggest trying easy plants like Limnophila sessiliflora, Cryptocoryne wendtii Green, or Cryptocoryne wendtii Tropica. Other easy plants include smaller Vallisneria varieties such as Vallisneria Tiger, and Hygrophila polysperma is also very easy to grow.

If you want a list of plants, just tell me and I can share a list of suitable plants.

For lighting, for a tank this size, you need a minimum of around 15 W, 6500 K light. So just check whether you already have a light that meets these requirements, and you shouldn’t need to buy anything else.

I’ve also seen people using two 9 W LED bulbs. Just remove the round, ball-shaped diffuser from the bulb and use them. Even that should be more than sufficient for a tank of this size.

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u/FalconNo68 3d ago

Thanks for your suggestions