plants that like lower light?

[Gilraen Took]

Hmph. I posted a topic on a freshwater plants forum and got flat out told(by a noob with 25 posts) that ALL of the plants in my 60 are basically dead, and ignored on my second part. So since I know at least one or two people here have had freshwater planted tanks before maybe someone here could help me out a bit?

I've got a 10 gallon tank with a 10 watt pc lamp on it. Which I know is a bit better than a regular fluorescent, right? Also the tank gets a half hour or so of sunlight through a crack in the blinds in the morning and a bit of offshoot from my saltwater tank. I've got plant substrate and need to have it kinda dense for my betta girls so they don't just fight with each other. About all I really know is that I want to try duckweed as nutrient export for them. Any plant suggestions?

[Wiskey]

Duckweed may work, not sure though, Hornwort is one of my Fav plants for a new tank because it's lower light, grows super fast, and is amazing for algae control,.. it's not the best looking though and it's hard to keep rooted,.. more of a floating plant.

One super cool low light plant is Anubias (nana or b something or other) it even has these little flowers it puts off under water. I have my 180's driftwood covered in this stuff,.. just be carefull not to burry the rimazone,.. they prefer to be attached to wood or rock and the roots will eventually find the substrate.

My 10G Blackwater planted tank uses 2*15W NOF (normal output floressent) bulbs, and is able to grow duckweed and most med/low light plants very well.

HTH,
Whiskey

[Wiskey]

If you look at the driftwood in this picture you will see a bunch of the anubias,.. it's the sortof round leafed plants, best visible under the sord on the right:


Whiskey

[Wiskey]

Woh,.. Here's a really old pic with a close up of them:


Whiskey

[Gilraen Took]

Wow! Your tank is awesome! I was planning on getting some of that stuff for my tank too. Thanks

[Wiskey]

Originally Posted by Gilraen Took

Wow! Your tank is awesome! I was planning on getting some of that stuff for my tank too. Thanks

Thanks Gilrean Took I'm perty proud of it. That was the end result after experinting with a number of smaller tanks over the years. I finally decided that I needed to setup a big display to enjoy

Two by 15 w NOF bulbs would be perfect over that tank BTW,.. it's not very expensive. On my smaller planted tanks I used to use shoplight fixtures,.. 2*20W NOF shoplight fixture can be bought for about $12 then one 5500K, one grow lux bulb (about $5 each @ HD) and you've got great light for a 20G for lower to mediam light plants.

Whiskey

[baum89]

hey whiskey, wicked tank
i was wondering what you have as far as substrate under that gravel
i have a 55 that i would like to do up as a planted tank and i was just wondering what they best thing to put on the bottom was, my lfs sells a special wet bagged plant substrate but its pricey, i was wondering if i could just do sand with smaller gravel over top? im really only looking to do noob plants in it similar to what i have going down on my 29...
anyway let me know what your rockin

[krystalclown]

My boyfriend bought one of those plants for his freshwater about a year ago and he has low low low lighting and a sand bottom and the plant has spread so much that it's getting too big to be in there.

[baum89]

so if you do a sand bottom is just playground sand that you buy in big ol bag fine to use?

[Wiskey]

Originally Posted by baum89

hey whiskey, wicked tank
i was wondering what you have as far as substrate under that gravel
i have a 55 that i would like to do up as a planted tank and i was just wondering what they best thing to put on the bottom was, my lfs sells a special wet bagged plant substrate but its pricey, i was wondering if i could just do sand with smaller gravel over top? im really only looking to do noob plants in it similar to what i have going down on my 29...
anyway let me know what your rockin

Thanks Baum!

I'm thinking that your refering to eco compleate?

In my tank I use 1 inch of potting soil (the cheap stuff, nothign with fertilisers in it), with 1 inch of normal pea gravel over it. This stained the water yellow for a while, and forced frequent water changes, but it works really well for me, and it's cheap.

Whiskey

[Wiskey]

Originally Posted by krystalclown

My boyfriend bought one of those plants for his freshwater about a year ago and he has low low low lighting and a sand bottom and the plant has spread so much that it's getting too big to be in there.

You can cut the rimazone and get two plants,.. if were talking about anubias still. I take these back to the LFS for credit

Whiskey

[Wiskey]

Originally Posted by baum89

so if you do a sand bottom is just playground sand that you buy in big ol bag fine to use?

I am not a fan of sand because some plants don't like it. It also doesn't provide any nutreants to the plant's roots.

Whiskey

[baum89]

thanks for the info whiskey

[Wiskey]

Originally Posted by baum89

thanks for the info whiskey

No Problem

Whiskey

[icebear]

Almost any Anubias is good for low light, also crypts...(cryptocoryne), hornworts, java lace, java moss...