Best Ground Cover for a High Light / CO2 Injected Aquarium

[eklikewhoa]

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/sw...ea-minuta.html

Saw this on TPT...

[Totenkampf]

yeah i saw that this afternoon but the post said he is shipping this morning, i may try to catch him next week if he still has any so he can ship around the weekend

[davemonkey]

I just wanted to 2nd the Marsilea as a great ground cover if you are looking for darker foliage. The best looking carpet of Marsilea I had was M. crenata under high light (to keep it short and to keep the leaves from developing multiple lobes) and triple the "normal" dose of mono-potassium phosphate. M. crenata and M. hirsuta seem to me to be the ones that are mis-ID'd as M. minuta. They do stay short under high light and good ferts, but once they get under shade they reach up with 12-18" petioles and the leaves that do stay short will get multiple lobes. In the high-lit areas, they will keep single, sometimes double lobes. The lobes are not as small as true M. minuta, but still very attractive in a 50+ gallon tank.

The biggest disaster I had with a Marsilea carpet was when I switched a tank to El Natural. Once they nutrient load in the soil played out, it went down hill fast. Plus, I had to reduce the lighting to keep algae down (it was a non-CO2 tank) and I ended up with 4-leaf-clovers all over the place.

[Totenkampf]

what dosing regime are you using now instead of EI? i was planning on PPS-Pro with double KH2PO4 to prevent green spot algae. I would like a dark green groundcover foliage to stand out with the black substrate and brown / red crypts. will the shade from crypts which will be poking up through them be enough to be a problem? I have 6 x 54w T5HO over my 75 gallon with a 3-5" substrate depth.