I've been doing fresh water aquariums with live plants for close to 30 years now. The basic setup I use is 1 to 2 inches of dirt covered by 2 inches of 1-2mm gravel. The dirt has varied from garden center top soil (make darn sure that there is on fertilizer or chemicals added) to plain dirt from my back yard. I run 2 to 3 watts of full spectrum fluorescent light per gallon and have CO2 injection setup.

For a huge amount of information go to Aquatic Plant Central. There are several different forum sub groups. I lean towards a modified version of the "El Natural" setup as promoted by Diana Walstad.

Go to Aquatic Plant Central and start reading. Everything from El Natural to the folks that think aquariums should be run like a chemistry lab.

Here is a link to a post I did on APC a couple of years ago showing an El Natural tank from 15 years ago with a guest that seemed to think it was nice... Visitor to El Natural tank

Search the APC forum for gpimm to see the rest of my stuff.

Gary

Just get nice clean feature bits, tends to make the water slightly alkaly but u can adjust it and after a while u won't hav to adjust it cause it will become neautral pretty much

Thanks for the tips.
Limestone won't be a problem. Here where I live it is limestone country. Will it not affect the water w.r.t Ph or something else?

go with a cannister filter if you can with a built in Uv steriliser, saves alot of bacterial diseases.

just keep it pretty clean and you wont need any other filters,,

try get a few bits of limestone too cause they work as natural filters

I agree with racetech. We can only go tropical if you want a decent fish tank. Marine is VERY expensive, especially here where I live because I am inland.

I did quite allot of research and found that the under gravel filters no one recommends. Especially when going planted. So I am going filter that sticks to the side of the tank.

It is for a start a 8 gallon (30 liter) tank.

bailz, i do agree with go marine, but crap a decent setup is expensive and life stock in SA is very rare and not cheap, you okes are so lucky, you have the freakin barrier reef next to you.

Personally i would kill any kid that touches a marine tank with dirty hands or nock it to get the fish moving.

In SA a nice tropical tank is just the best and easiest.

lol.

Gx i will stay away from filter sand, that stuff was made to block. I prefer to use river sand. Not that fine but still nice and does a good job of sucking the the crap in and not keep it on top of the sand.

Lets start at filtration in that small tank, what are you looking at? I like a under gravel filter, good for plants.
Then instead of a air pump in it for circulation, i use power head (Water pump)that sucks water up thru the under gravel filter pipe.

If it is a big ass tank a external canister filter is a good addition to the above mentioned setup.

Then you will need to look at decent lighting for plant growth, in a small tank this is were the #OOPS# hits the fan.

I would love a CO2 setup for plant growth, but i do not see this in my current setup.

In my experience it is the best to remove the plants from there containers and plant them directly into the gravel, with the under gravel filter there roots will grow underneath it.

do yourself a favour, i have been into tanks for years, save some cash and go marine! its so much better....

i spent more on my tank in the last year than what my datto is worth

Thanks, now I can ask my detailed questions.
1. What sand can I use? I am planning to use real plants in the tank. A friend here at work said he has a full bag of unused swimming pool filter sand. You know, those silicone (I think) sand that they use in that big tank thingy to filter/backwash etc the water.
Will this be ok?

Plants. What food do they need? Do I have to use real mud or can I just put them in the normal swimming pool sand that I want to use. I can get at the local petshop a bottle of water plant food drops for aquariums that you put a few drops of in on a monthly basis.

I am still in the planning phase before I start to buy stuff and put it through a cycle and then adding fish.
It is actually the little guy's Christmas present but my wife and I are more excited and enthusiastic about it.
It is going to be +- 20 to 25 liters thank. Not big because I live in a town house and don't really have space for one of those big suckers.

I have been playing with fresh water tropical fish tanks for more than 10years.

What info are you looking for?