Suggestions for a plant.

[Windex]

i am looking for a plant that will grow to about 1 inch high and will cover the bottem of my aquarium. it will be housing guppys, and angel, and some shrimp. ( prob more but for now i just need to get the plants sorted out). i really just want it to look good and have a place for the fry to hide. it is going into an 80 gal.

thanks.

[Mzungu]

Re: Suggestions for a plant.

Two quick questions:
What kind of lighting are you using, and how many watts per gallon?
What kind of substrate?

Depending on those, we can recommend some foreground/groundcover plants for you.  :)

[Windex]

Re: Suggestions for a plant.

1. idk

2. little gravel...

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Suggestions for a plant.

in that case maybe algae.


check the wattage that's on your light bulb but you say it's an 80g so I would take a wild guess and say you have around 40w over your thank that would not be enough for healthy growth. I think the bare minimum to grow low light plants would be at least 1.5watt per gallon which would force you to go with at least 120wpg.

[Darkflames77]

Re: Suggestions for a plant.

Glossostigma and Hemianthus callitrichoides seem to fit what you are looking for. The problem is you need high light and pressurized Co2 system to maintain good health. You can substitute the pressurized Co2 system with DIY, but you will need a ton of bottles and it would probably be inconsistent.
If you don't want to spend several hundreds then you can try tying java moss to a piece of mesh and put it on the substrate. Java moss doesn't need a lot of light.

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Suggestions for a plant.

I think even moss would need at least 1wpg.

glosso and hc need co2,good substrate, light and ferts so I dont think it would  work out too good.

[Tiapan]

Re: Suggestions for a plant.

havent peoeple has success with more of a natural approach with glosso an hc, just good substrate and high light. i know it grows a lot faster with co2 but it doesnt have that in the wild so i shouldnt "need" it. but yes you would need a lot more light. gonna suggest Power compact flourencents. get between 3 to 4 watts per gallon with PCs and as long as the tank isnt too tall (say under 24 inches) then ground cover like glosso should work fine, just feed the fish a lot and do frequent water changes.

[Windex]

Re: Suggestions for a plant.

thanks for the help =)

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Suggestions for a plant.

In the wild it has the enviroment providing the co2 and nutrients it needs and foreground like those will just be little plantletts in a tank that is lacking. In a tank its closed off from what would normally provide those things and throw in the fact that you the hobbyist is now pretty much playing god.
What you could do is overstock the tank and hope that the fish can give off enough co2 and waste that the plants can use but I doubt that would be enough.

Putting high light on a tank without dosing ferts and co2 for the plants to live off of will just cause poor and ugly growth from those plants and will turn your tank into a algae farm.

Just my $0.02 worth.

[Tiapan]

Re: Suggestions for a plant.

thats wierd i dont have an alge issue anymore and i never use ferts at all. tank isnt really high stocker either. granted i dont have glosso, but i saw that it was popular with a lot of el natural people on aquaticplantcentral. maybe i get more co2 from all the decomposing material i have in the tank. and i almost never do water changes just add, (ive done like 2 in 6 months on that tank, and yeah my nitrate arent high at all ) ive thought of doing a brackish with just a sponge filter to see if i could keep any of the spawn of the red nose shrimp but it would be better just to buy new ones then go through the trouble to catch the 4 i have in there. but hey to each his own style. i just saw elnatural and thought hey i can wait for them to grow a little slower and not spend the money on ferts. but if i could afford them then i probably would get them.    but hey in the future i spend that moen yon a new Wii

[Ellen]

Re: Suggestions for a plant.

Tiapan, you do realize that you change water for more reasons to reduce nitrates right? When you just top off  your tank, you are slowly raising your TDS. This is fine as long as you realize it is happening and your fish can handle it. I know for some people it works for a very long time.

Ellen

[Mzungu]

Re: Suggestions for a plant.

By "el natural," do you mean what Diana Walstad writes about? I've heard a lot about it, but haven't yet dedicated myself to reading and studying (or practicing) it.

[Tiapan]

Re: Suggestions for a plant.

yes and yes to both what ellen asked and what mzungu asked. i think Jerry uses the same method or close to it. it says "basically" to use potting soil or simmilar and then cap with pea gravel, and you dont use real heavy lighing but replace with some natural sunlight. i dont have natural getting to my 60 so i just increased the light some(its not quite 3 watts per gallon) it also says to have fast growers (like hornwork or guppy grass) to take excess nutrients out of the water and to do less frequent water changes. im going to go read more about it now. its on aquaticplantcentral. i just use flourite instead of pea gravel and my plants have loved it. i hear a lot of people have succes with pond soil too as apposed to potting. all i know is that my plants seem to love it and it makes my flourite go a lot longer and i can still get a good thick substrate beding.

[Tiapan]

Re: Suggestions for a plant.

here is a thread about low tech glosso. https://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...igma-tank.html

[Mzungu]

Re: Suggestions for a plant.

To go along with that topic above, here's a link for you, ek:

http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/breeding/McNaughton_Iriatherina_werneri.html