Just thought I'd intoduce myself.

Hello everyone my name is Evan and I'm from Michigan.
I've been keeping fish for about 15 years now, mainly piranhas and Southern/Central American Cichlids.

I've always wanted to have planted tank setup but due to my last attempt, which was around 10 years ago already, I didn't want to dissapoint myself again.
This time I'm going to take the advice that I've read in various articles and start off small, working my way up to success.

I'm currently housing a small Rhombeus Piranha in a 29 gallon growout tank in which I'm trying a low-light, easy care, plant setup. Substrate is only standard gravel and the tank is lit by two T-5 bulbs at 18 watts each. Plants are: one hornwort, one very small amazon sword, two anubias nana's, a few java ferns attached to some rocks and a small amount of narrow leaf chain swords.
I'm dosing weekly with flourish and flourish excel. I'm thinking about adding more light however I'm trying not to spend money on this tank and work on putting the funds toward the Rhom's 100 gallon. Suppose I could at least throw on the old strip to add to the t-5's.

Thanks everyone and wish me luck!

You might take a look at a zoo display Oliver Knott did:

about 4 month after set up photo - Oliver Knott the aqua creator photos at pbase.com

Note: lower light, easy to grow grass plants, lots of water changes, CO2, gravel foreground(easy to care for in deep tanks).

Regards,
Tom Barr

Tom just dropped the bomb of all piranha tanks right there with that one!

Theres a very helpful and well respected Piranha/plant keeper on another one of my forums. His tank is what got my wheels rolling with this and I use it as inspiration for the future. Heres some pictures. I can only hope to care for a tank of this caliber.

Saddly, he lost his Compresses Piranha due to heater issues recently.