How many plants into 30G?

[irrka]

I'd been surfing craigslist, since people keep giving away aquariums all the time. The latest one i'd seen was a 30G tank. How many plants would that fit? i mostly have a bunch of phals and catts and a couple of oncs. They're all hanging out on windowsills and growing fine, but i haven't been able to get the catts to flower yet.

[camille1585]

I would think that the catts would just need more light, no no need for the aquarium, unless you're planning to put strong lights over it.
As for the aquarium, I have a 110 liter one (so around 30 gallons) and I can tell you that it's not as big as it sounds. If you are talking about phals and oncs in 5-6 inch pots, then you really can't put that many. If I were to do that with my tank, I think I could fit maybe 5-6 phals max. Maybe less. I don't have the aquarium in front of me right now, so it's hard to judge.

Just a question; why do you want to put those orchids in there? There don't need high humidity, and most phals and oncs do just fine on a windowsill. For me an aquarium would be interesting to grow high humidity minis for example.

[irrka]

the thought was if i move them into an aquarim i can mount some lights on top relatively easily. The oncs have been going through water like crazy so i thought high humidity might slow them down to reasonable as well.

[dravenxavier]

You can get the biggest tank you can find, and I guarantee that you'll soon find it's not big enough I have a 75, and I do plants that are FAR smaller than what you're looking to keep, and I'm already wishing I had more room in it haha. That being said, I would try to hold out and find a 40 gallon breeder, or a 75 gallon, as they're 18 inches wide, rather than 12. It can make a really, really big difference when trying to squeeze some larger orchids in there.