Need Some Advice Please!

I am fixing to setup a 20L live planted tank and I was wandering what plants are good to start with.I want plants that grow fast and want to heavily plant the tank.I will try to get a real good lighting system.Also can I use sand for the plants.Also do I need to use a co2 system and do the plant chemicals really work.The fish that I want to put in there is alot of tetras and some cory's and female betta's.What else do I need?Any advice would really be apriciated.

Do my boiled top soil topped with sand method.
All I use is flourish excel and a splash of iron from time to time. You can stick in root tabs later on when they look like they could use them.

CO2 is over kill in my eyes, I do fine with just the excel.
So it will be a 20g long? I can throw you together a plant pack of quick growing nice plants for a very fair price.

So you boil top soil and the sand?Does it look good in the tank?What kind of package deal can you give?I'm also going to put that drift wood in there you made for me.

Boil the top soil, add it to the dry tank one cool, pat and smooth out. Add the washed sand over that, then slowly and gently add water. You don't see the dirt just the sand.
If its a 20g long I can give you enough to decently plant the tank for $30, wont be quite the jungle look but it will be close. I can also fit it in with your wood so the shipping is still cheap. It would pretty much be some of everything I have that suitable for that size tank.

I've been using Sword plants and of course water spray and the do grow really fast, mines is already producing leaves twice! in less than a month..

Ok how thick should the top soil and the sand be?I will let you know when I am ready for the wood and the plants.Also when I put the plants in there do I put the roots all the way in the top soil or just the sand and let the roots grow into the top soil?

Wow the Sword plants grow that fast?

A sword will take over that size tank in a month or 2.
Most of the plants will be stem plants, just stuff them all the way down. I will toss in a few micro swords and those just tuck into the sand, the roots will grow down to the dirt, if you cover the crown they will die on you.
Dirt 1/4-1/2" sand 1/2-1" roughly, you want your sand thicker than the dirt. You will also for the first 3-5 months need to poke the sand with chop sticks to get the methane bubbles out, the dirt rots and produces some methane and other gasses, with the corys in there your gonna need to poke about to release it so they don't get a face full, non bottom dwellers are fine with or without poking.

what if you have gravel instead of sand??

Will I be able to tell if all the gasses are out or not?What happens if the top soil gets above the sand?

Just use the chop stick and poke straight down, that shouldn't mix them at all. Ya when the bubbles get tiny your good, all your doing is preventing big ones from forming by releasing them every 3 days or so. If you forgo the corys till the bubbles slow down you wont need to poke them out.
But the top soil is the best and cheapest way I have found to make plants grow like mad. The only supplement I have had to add is iron in my sump due to the massive amounts of plants in there.

So if I do this rite than my tank will look like a jungle in there.Thats what I want is a jungle.Will I need alot of light?

2-3 decent plant bulbs aught to be plenty, its a shallow tank so the plants will get most all of the light without the water diffusing it too much, the deeper you go the more light you need.
Yes the jungle look is easy to get.... but getting fish out of the tank..... Plan well on who you are putting in there because you may never get them out without tearing the whole tank up.

I don't want tear the whole tank down to catch a fish so I will be careful on what fish I put in there.Thanks for your help!If I have anymore questions I will let you know.

I planted my 29T tank with primarily 'grass type' divisions of aquatic plants. Since they were given to me as a group, I'm still guessing at their identities. Chances are they are:

Sagittaria subulata, Vallisneria spiralis, mixed with a Echinodorus amazonicus and a Cryptocoryne wendtil.

Doing a version of the method Fern recommends - the subulata doubled in height in just the first week.

For light I'm using a self-contained grow light strip I purchased from Walmart for $7 (75W output - with only 20W usage) - and the light strip that came with the hood. (Put the grow strip over the hood's glass, then open the front of the hood and place it's light hood angled over the water - duct tape some plexiglass over that portion to keep water splash out)


For fertilizer I simply went through Petco's clearance rank. Got a packet of soil tablets as well as two different brands of liquid fertilizer. Since the tank is a little overstocked with barbs, CO2 levels shouldn't be an issue.

Currently, I have the lights on a 14 hour timer. May have to either reduce it - or buy some snails (or a single silver dollar) to graze down the plants.

Ok thanks for the info!