20g Selecting Plants

[Arical]

I am just starting to look into plants for my aquarium now and am looking for a some opinions. After spending some time on plantgeek I updated my previous plant list to include a few more med-high/high light plants. I have no idea what combination of these I want to use, but I am starting to get a pretty good idea. I'll maybe post some pictures within the next while of the current setup (with no plants).

Some base information about my tank.

• Size: 20 gallon high
• Occupants: 4 Peppered Corys, 1 Albino Cory.
• Lighting: Hagen Glo T5 (2x24W) (ordered)
• CO2: Pressurized (ordered)
• Ferts: Root tabs
• Substrate: PFS

Full thread can be found here.

Possible Plants

Background Plants
-----------------
Hygrophila salicifolia
Vallisneria
Cyperus helferi

Mid Plants
-----------------
Hygrophila Corymbosa
Amazon Sword [Echinodorus bleheri]
Dwarf Hairgrass [Eleocharis acicularis]
Anubias barteri v. ' nana'

Foreground Plants
-----------------
Microsword [Lilaeopsis Brasiliensis]
Riccia [Riccia fluitans]
Glosso [Glossostigma elatinoides]

Floating Plants
-----------------
Water Hyacinth [Eichhornia crassipes]

I don't plan on including all of these, especially at the start. I happened to find these ones intriguing.

If anyone has a favorite plant or any recommendations I would be glad to hear them! Also if people have any of these plants in their tanks I would be interested to see some pictures or just hear about how they are growing and a little about their setup.

Also, would it be possible to recreate anything like this? It is a 15g tank that I find amazing!

 

[fort384]

For foreground I would go with the microsword over the riccia. In my experience, while riccia looks great, it is really a floating plant so to use it as foreground you have to tie it down with something. It grows quick in the right conditions so constant adjustmant to keep it on the bottom becomes a pain in the butt. The lilaeopsis stays planted and grows well once established. It will do fine with the equipment you have ordered.

 

[Arical]

Once again thanks fort, I really enjoy the lilaeopsis and from several of the tank logs that I have seen it seems to stay around longer than similar plants.

I should have mentioned that my overall goal is to create a system that won't require constant attention or a high fert dosing regime. I don't mind weekly or so trimming, but I would prefer not to have daily maintenance.

For controlling algae in my plants I have MTS, but I don't really know how effective they are. Should I consider something like an SAE, small pleco, shrimp, something else? I have noticed quite a few people have SAE, would 20g be too small for one of them?

 

[fort384]

I had 3 SAEs in a 29G with a bunch of other community fish. They did just fine. They really did a good job at cleaning up hair algae and even BBA. Just make sure you are getting true SAEs and not the look alikes. There are several species that are sold under the name SAE (whether unwittingly or otherwise...).

I think they can get aggressive if they aren't kept in groups... so 1 might not be a good idea. Some others with experience might be able to refute that as I never tried it.

 

[ricardo48]

I think its the opposite... the "true" crossichelus siamensis SAE gets aggresive in groups especially if males while the flying fox ( crossichelus oblongorous ) Fake SAE is not aggresive generally if kept in groups.

I have had both species and they both ate algae in my tank... BUT as the Fake SAE get older they stop eating algae while the True SAE does not. Also it eats a wider range of algae types.

 

[fort384]

hmm, interesting. I kept 3 true SAEs in my tank and they were about the most docile fish I had. Maybe I got lucky.

 

[ricardo48]

Maybe... I think there is no black/white answer. Depends on the fish personality, its environment and other tank mates.

And yes I am suggesting fish have "personalities"

 

[fort384]

Agreed

 

[mfdrookie516]

Depends on the fish personality, its environment and other tank mates.

And yes I am suggesting fish have "personalities"

That is a very good point... ive heard of people having some of the most ridiculous sounding fish together, compatability wise should NEVER be put together in a tank, and live hapily for 5-10 years. There will always be somebody who cant keep two fish together that "should" be able to be kept as well as somebody who can keep 2 fish together that "shouldnt" even be tried.

 

[timwag2001]

That is a very good point... ive heard of people having some of the most ridiculous sounding fish together, compatability wise should NEVER be put together in a tank, and live hapily for 5-10 years. There will always be somebody who cant keep two fish together that "should" be able to be kept as well as somebody who can keep 2 fish together that "shouldnt" even be tried.

lol true. i have a carinotetraodon salivator as a community fish. he's very docile and leaves all of the other fish alone.

 

[timwag2001]

ive never had one but i think that an amazon sword might get too big for ya. not too sure though. for ground cover i would go glosso probably. and riccia can be beautifull tied down but what happens is as it grows it blocks out the light to the riccia underneath and it starts to rot and then starts to float. as a floating plant i find it to be a ROYAL P.I.T.A! it sticks to everything and is hard to get rid of. when its tied down though its an excellent tool. when it pearls you know you have enough co2.

if i were you i would skip the thought of having floating plants as they block out light for the rest of your plants.

and i dont like to recommed plants because different plants can grow different in different peoples tanks. for instance my rotala indica isnt as red as it is in most tanks. what i do is buy lots of different plants from forum members in the classified section because you can get them cheap and sometime only for the cost of shipping. that way you can try different plants and see what works for you and works the best.

 

[timwag2001]

as far as algae eaters i personally like to have an army of amano shrimp and oto's. your tank is too small for mature sae imo. i think they get to be over 5 inches

 

[mfdrookie516]

amazon sword is a very easy plant to grow in almost any tank... i have some in my 10g and as timwag said, it is probably not a good choice because of its size.. i have one plant that has grown as tall as the tank and now the leaves are starting to float on top shading my other plants... imo you need a 20" tall tank at least to let it grow, but you can always trim the leaves down if needed as it is the hardest plant ive ever had to kill, my mbuna ate one down to the root ball and its grown back in 3 weeks with leaves 9" long

 

[Arical]

Thanks for the replies guys, I have decided to cut Riccia out of the picture, sounds like a considerable amount of work to keep it respectable. I think I will go with the microswords, I quite like them.

Thanks for mentioning the size of the amazon sword, I didn't realize they would get that big. Is there a common miniature version or something similar?

I had a feeling the SAE's might get too big for my tank. So if I decide to go with otos, what is the minimum one should keep? Currently I have 5 corydoras and I would like to add about 8 black neons. However I dont want to overstock my tank. (Really wish I had a bigger tank )

Amano shrimp would be awesome! Except I have no idea where I could get them locally. Are their any decent Canadian sites that sell them? Would they just end up dying in transport in the cold weather?

 

[mfdrookie516]

my lfs sells amano shrimp as "algae eating shrimp" then have their scientific name under them... alot of lfs have different terminology for fish/inverts... if your lfs has plants, they probably have amano's in the tank with them, at least mine and a few others around here do

 

[Arical]

I'll have to start asking around then, maybe some of the stores will order some in!

 

[mfdrookie516]

if all else fails, post a wtb ad in the classifieds here and check some of the online stores like live_aquaria, they might have some...

 

[Arical]

Sorry its taken so long to reply, I have been rather busy lately! I received all of the equipment on Tuesday and I was able to set it up yesterday!

The lights are freaking bright and the CO2 is running! Currently I don't have a CO2 diffuser; so in the mean time I am using a bamboo chop stick. The tiny bubbles are being fed into my HOB filter. Before putting it through the filter my entire tank was filled with tiny bubbles, too many bubbles...
Now there is definitely CO2 in the water as my pH went from 8.0 to 7.2 in a day. That was only at 20 bubbles per minute. I slowed it down to 15 bubbles per minute. Corys still seem alright though.

One of my buddies was nice enough to let me have some of his Water Hyacinth. It is currently taking up half the tank.

He also let me gave me a baby Lilaeopsis (I believe), not sure exactly which particular one though. I really hope it grows! It didn't seem to have any problem anchoring in the sand, this stuff seems to hold plants down very well.

And here is an overall shot of my tank, needs ALOT of work. He also gave me a plant I am not quite sure what it is, possibly Limnophila sessiliflora. If anyone can identify it, that would be sweet.

I can't wait for the aquarium society auction at the end of the month; hopefully they will have some of the plants I am really looking for!

I am currently cycling my 5g so that I can pick up some Black Neons. I haven't had a chance to ask the LFS about Amano's yet, I am thinking it might be too soon. Or should I be getting them ASAP to keep the little soul patch of grass clean, heh.

Anyways, just thought I would show an update so everyone can see how er, lovely my tank is? Hopefully after a year or so it won't be so bare

 

[dkpate]

I LOVE the Water Hyacinth!!! I am gonna have to find me some of that! And I think your tank looks pretty good!

 

[FishEggs]

looks like a good start to me. i at one time had 2 flying fox and 1 Siamese algae eater. the fly fox get very aggressive toward each other and any fish that looks like them. now i just have the 1 sae 4-5" long and he sometimes will chase the emperor tetras a bit but he leaves the rest of the fish alone. i think it is because they have a dark stripe kind of like the sae. i think oto's would be much better in your tank size. it's best to let your tank mature a bit though before you put them in so they have algae to graze on.