There are many things and much knowledge to be learnt in order to have those aquatic plants grown well in an aquarium. My usual way to find out those information are actually from internet, forums, friends and also asking my brother-in-law who had planted a few tanks inside his home.
My list of equipment set-up is as follows:
1. I have 2ft and 3 ft tanks reserved for that purpose. My intention is to have an initial hand-on on the 2ft to gain experience and then move on to grow those plants in the bigger 3 ft tank subsequently.
2. Bought a CO2 cylinder with regulator valve and also glass diffuser to inject the gas into the aquarium. An automatic solenoid regulator instead of a manual one would be better because one could use a timer to on and off the CO2 to be delivered. The glass diffuser is a transparent device that one could observe and count the drops of CO2 per minute or second to get the right amount for the proper growth of flora. There is a drop checker that changes its color to indicate the acidity or alkalinity of the water when there is too much CO2 dissolved or too little.
3. Eheim 2217 and Eheim 2215 canister filters. Eheim is a well-known brand though it is a bit expensive. These filters are important for the good biological bacteria to grow inside the media and to absorb and get rid of all those wastes, nitrates etc. The flow rate is preferably 8 - 10 times the volume of the water. For example, if the tank holds100 liters of water then the flow rate of the filters should be in the region of about 1000 liters per hour.
4. An Aquazonic T5 lighting set with 4 x 39 W 10,000K tubes plus 1x 20W 6,000K ADA lamp. The rough guide is 2 - 3 Watt per gallon of water depending on the type of plants that you want to grow. The spectrum of light must imitate closely the natural light source, the color rendering parameter is therefore important for the plants to grow well.
5. A fan that blusters at the surface of the water level to cool the temperature of another 2 C down from the ambient room temperature of 30C to about 27-28 C. The more suitable range for some plant to grow well is probably 25 - 27 C. Some of the more advanced planters choose to use a chiller instead to get the water at a consistently cold temperature.
6. To set up a proper substrate or soil for the plants to take root and absorb all the nutrients required for their growth. This could be an expensive portion of the set-up cost. Based on the more popular aquatic soil brand ADA, one has to put in a layer of power sand, then traces of special elements, the coarse substrate Amazonic sand then the finer powder Amazonic sand. This will set you back for a couple of hundred dollars.
7. There is also a need for periodic dosing of liquid fertilizer to enhance the growth and replenish the nutrients consumed by the plants. The common ones are: N, P, K, Fe (Nitrates, Phosphorus, Potassium, Iron) etc. The available commercial brands in the market include ADA, Seachem, JBL , Sera etc.
Weekly water change is also performed so as to adulterate the fertilizer to avoid growth of algae and also give a suitable water condition for the fauna and flora to live in. The more professional planters might even test the water hardness, PH value, chemical content etc. to get every parameter right for better and healthier growth.
8. One could choose different kinds of fauna or fishes for the aquarium. The most common ones are Tetras and they are beautiful fishes for planted aquariums. Algae eaters such as Siamese flying fox, Amano shrimps etc are also introduced into the tanks to clean up left over food, algae on leaves or glass, drift wood etc.
It is interesting to note some of the very scientific names of the various kinds of flora or aquatic plants. The names are simply bizarre. Just to give examples: Hygrophila Polysperma, Rotala Rotundifolia, Hygrophila Difformis, Rotalla Macranda. Bacopa Australis, Cabomba Furcata, Mayaca Fluviatlis etc. I kept a number of these plants in my aquarium. You probably could identify some of them in the photos below.
There are also some mosses that one could tie them on the rocks and drift woods that form a splendid view of the aqua-scaping foreground or background. The common ones are Java Moss and Christmas Moss. When the right amount of CO2 and light is shone on the plants, they will start to pearl with little bubbles of air releasing and rising up to the surface of the water. It is relaxing to look at them and enjoying the splendid view of a well-planted aquarium
