easy and low plants for the front part

[kostasonia]

I have seen wonderfull plants in guides, fast growth, slow growth, green, red, easy, hardy, delicated, long, short etc.

But I still haven't found a plant like this:

* hardy
* small size
* fast growth
* beautyful (if its small and easy and fast growth I will love it anyway )
I am interested in a king of "grass" for my tank.

Somebody knows???

 

[malkore]

depends on your lighting. most fast carpet plants need 2wpg minimum.

 

[kostasonia]

I have 2x36W in a 29G tank...

 

[Alshain]

72 Watts doesn't tell us much without the bulb type.

1 Watt incandecent =/= 1 Watt Compact Flourecent =/= 1 Watt T8 Flourecent..etc.

Also we need to know the bulb color. Freshwater should have bulbs should have anywhere from 5000k to 10000k. If you have an actinic bulb, that light is useless to freshwater plants.

Also, it would help to know how dedicated your system is. Do you fertilize and/or have CO2 injection?


Back to the plants, there are lots of "carpet" foreground plants out there. Some of the more popular ones are Lilaeopsis brasiliensis, Glossostigma elatinoides, Marsilea minuta, and Hemianthus callitrichoides.

For a actual "grass" effect there are several options as well. Lilaeopsis brasiliensis looks like grass but is slow growing and usually demanding. For a slightly easier solution, you might try Sagittaria subulata which is rather undemanding and requires moderate light and takes off rather quickly.

 

[kostasonia]

mmm...

I'm such a newbie that I don't know these things...I will have a look and I will tell you..

 

[Alshain]

If you don't know I would reccomend the Sagittaria subulata simply because its easier to manage.

You may have too much light for the level of expertese you seem to be interested in, if that were incandecent bulbs, you would have 2.5 watts per gallon and flourcents of all types use less wattage per lumens so you would comparitively have more watts per gallon with those. The only way this wouldn't be true would be if you have 1 daylight and 1 actinic bulb (its kinda bluish). In this case, you really only have 35 watts total because freshwater plants don't use this light.

The cool thing is, because you have a dual bulb system, you can take one bulb out and start with beginner plants, and then upgrade later. Even if the bulb is actinic, you can replace it with daylight. Look around inside your light fixture and see if you can figure out what kind of bulb specs you have. If it is a long tube, it will be most likely T8 Flourecent, if it is a "bent" tube its probably compact flourecent, and incandecent is normal everyday style screw in bulbs. (You may have T10, they arent as common so I doubt it)

 

[JustOneMore20]

Echinodorous tenellus is another grass like plant that will do well in light 2wpg and up. If you do have the full 2.4wpg, it would be great. I like E. tenellus alot better than dwarf sag...it is a lighter green color and gets very pretty in higher light.

Here is a good picture of it. That site is in another language....so you won't be able to get info off of it. It looks just like grass. If you need more info you can just google the name. It is a medium light plant that stays lower to the substrate when you have more light.

 

[wobbles]

Maybe a chain sword? It will grow in almost any condition. Very fast too.

 

[JDogg]

Maybe a chain sword? It will grow in almost any condition. Very fast too.

i second that

 

[gheitman]

I highly recommend that anyone who wants to grow plants go to http://www.plantgeek.net/plantguide.php. It will let you find plants based on lighting, difficulty, family, tank placement, region of origin, plant type, etc. I've found it to be a valuable resource when trying to get plant ideas.

More information on Echinodorus tenellus (aka narrow leaf chain sword) can be found at http://www.plantgeek.net/plant-108.htm. I would tentatively recommend that as your best plant that is both small and fast-growing. If your bulbs are of the right spectrum you should have enough light and you might want to add CO2 to get some really explosive growth.

 

[kostasonia]

Very nice cite the plantgeek.net !!!! Thanx!!