I reciently had a great idea to grow out 5 juvenlie sturgeon in a fish tank to put into my pond next fall. Because this tank will be cold water, and because juvenile sturgeon are very delicate, I will not be putting any other fish in the tank. I don't want the tank to be too booring so I decided to try a planted tank for the first time. This leads me to my first question. WHAT ARE GOOD COLD WATER PLANTS? Assuming that there are sutable plants, I need to now make a tank to support the the plant life. The canopy has a setup for 3 four foot VHO lights so my second question, WHAT KIND OF BULBS SHOULD I GET? and my third WHAT KIND OF SUBSTRATE SHOUND I GET? and my fourth DO I NEED CO2? Which leads me to the fifth and most important question. WHAT KIND OF FILTER SHOUD I USE? I've tried to grow out sturgeon twice before, one time the sturgeon got sucked to the intake of an AC110 where it's back was broken by suction, the other time it was sucked into the overflow for my sump. Ive also had plants clog power filters and sump overflows as well. For these reasons I thought I'd use an under gravel filter. But everything I've read says not to use UG filters with plants because the air stones/and or oxygen difusers on powerheads give too much oxygen which counteracts the CO2 needed for proper plant growth. It seems to me that for sturgeon to thrive I would need to have overly oxygenated tank to compensate for the higher than ideal temperature. The tank is a 5 ft, 125g Clarity Plus flat back hex with a center overflow (Kind of a cheesey 90's salt water tank, white acrylic stand and all), so it would be easy for me to run a sump, but I could just as easily cut out for hang ons, canisters, or airline tubing.

Any ideas for a comfortable O2 / CO2 medium would be good.

Thanks.

To grow out Sturgeon I would not go with a planted tank. An open Sand gravel and rocky type tank would be better. You could go with some clumps of plants but I would not try to overdo it. Look more toward creating structural complexity. For plants, Try our Native Elodea, Vallisneria and Naja species for plants. These plants can be readily collected in the river (Not now of coarse) and do very well.

I'm not one to give any info about specifications for planted tanks so will leave that to others...

Thanks, I was actually specifically curious about what you were going to have to say. Would creating structural complexity be for the sake of the fish of just for asthetics? Do you have any clumps of native aquatic plants in tanks at the the nature center that you need to trim back?

Structure is to add both aesthetics as well as benefit the fish. Having varied areas where you can break up the flow rate and circulation benefits the fish. It is often good to have a strong flow across the front of the tank with a few depressed areas or blocked off areas with less flow. This keeps them from the spastic dance of going up and down the front glass. Varied bottom types seem to similarly keep them occupied. gives them areas they can dig around in, search over or noodle around in.

Wish this post was about three weeks earlier as I just fully trimmed back or removed a bunch of stuff while renovating a few tanks. Put it into hibernation.. I might have some Elodea and some Vallisneria around I'll check tomorrow and let you know.