I'm a little afraid of change but...

[Karackle]

So I've been thinking about trying a carpet plant in my 20g aquarium. It's a 20g High with only 15 watts of T8 (or T5?....i'll double check when i get home) fluorescent lighting over it. It's ~16" high, so I imagine not a TON of that light hits the bottom. HOWEVER i do have excellent growth of Wisteria, purple cabomba, anubias, crypt wendtii red (small), crypt (spiralis?) and what i've been calling wendtii green but am now thinking is another anubias. my small red cryot wendtii is shooting out new leaves like crazy, but it's very low to the ground and somewhat in the shade of my driftwood (it was ~3-4 leaves about a month ago now it is ~10+), and the 2 small pieces of wisteria were only single leaves that got broken off during a water change about 2 weeks ago. Here's a picture to show which i'm talking about:

circled in red is the small red crypt, in yellow are the small pieces of wisteria:


I think my tank gets either some direct or ambient sunlight during the day, it's the only reason i can think that the plants do so well despite a mere .75wpg. So my questions and concerns:

1) Is there any carpet plant/moss that would grow in such low light?

2) I could upgrade my lighting to
a) a second strip light
b) a coralife dual bulb fixture Coralife F/W T-5 Aqualight Double Strip Light-30
BUT i'm worried about throwing the whole tank off balance (which worries me a little with adding the carpet anyway)

How does one gravel vac with a carpet?

would a carpet grow in just an aquarium gravel substrate?

Sorry for the lengthy, possibly nonsensical and very train of thought post.

And as always, thanks in advance!!!

Tank Journal and Parameters:
My 20g Planted Journal (! 56k)
20g High, low tech tank
regular aquarium gravel, 78 degrees, Penguin Biowheel 100 filter
Flora:
Purple Cabomba, Wisteria, Cryptocoryne wendtii red (small), Crypt wendtii green (large), Crypt spiralis, Anubias (nana i think)
Fauna:
3 female Bettas, 3 mollies, 3 neon tetras, 3 glolight tetras, 3 zebra danios, 1 female guppy, 1 clown pleco

[CatatonicBug]

I know from reading other posts on this site that you don't have to gravel vac if you have a carpet. The plants actually use the stuff that you would be vacuuming out as ferts.

[Purrbox]

For your amount of light, the only carpet plant I could recommend trying is Marsilea sp. (Clover). With the good growth of your other plants, it probably do well for you. Most any moss could work as well, just make sure to pick one that tends to attach easily.

You don't gravel vac a carpet plant. Just vac the unplanted areas and waves the vac over the planted areas to pick up any excess gunk.

[neilanh]

There's definately not going to be a lot of options for that amount of light. marsilea is about the only thing that would potentially grow, but I think you're even a bit low for that flourish. Can't hurt to try it though.

If you switched to the light you linked, that'd put you close to needing to get out of the low-tech stages. While you'd probably still be okay without ferts and Co2, its starting to get close.

[Skyrmir]

If you upgrade the lights and do some DIY co2, that wysteria will turn into a carpet by itself. I wish I had some decent pics of my 29 when the wysteria took over. With a bit of co2 it shows it's true colors as a weed plant and grows like crazy. Fish love the hidey holes and being able to pop in and out of it though.

[Karackle]

I forgot to mention that I dose Flourish Excel and Comprehensive occasionally (~every 2 weeks between water changes) and upping the frequency is no problem, i could just add it with teh dosing routine for my 2.5g low tech 5g tank.

I thought maybe the coralife would be a little much for a low tech though, but I was thinking i could add simply another single tube striplite along these lines: Fluorescent Aquarium Lighting: Perfecto Fluorescent Single Strip Lights

or a double tube fluorescent strip like this: Fluorescent Aquarium Lighting: All-Glass Twin-Tube Black Strip Lights

I'll have to look into the Marsilea too!

Thanks again!

[Karackle]

Skyrmir - Yes, the fish LOVE hiding in the Wisteria on the right side of the tank...as to it being a carpet though, I wanted something lower growing...will it spread horizontally rather than vertically? Also, I didn't really want to get into C02 if I can help it, not sure that I have the time or $$ to do so. With 2 (and soon possibly 3) tanks, 2 dogs, my housemates dog, and a 60g Hex gecko paludarium project in the works, i'm not sure CO2 is something i want to start fusing with at the moment but thanks for the suggestion

[Skyrmir]

It'll grow up, left, right and anywhere else it can reach. With enough light and ferts it'll turn your tank into a green cube. You can trim it up kind of like a bonsai tree though to get the shape you want. The biggest problem I had was keeping it from stealing all the light from my other plants. The base level averaged about 3 to 4 inches deep in the 'carpet' area, with stalks along the back, up to about a foot tall.

You might be able to get away with flourish excel for the wysteria. I stopped using it after it ate my anacharis and withered my vals, which is what the wysteria replaced. So I never tried them together. The DIY co2 ended up being cheaper than Flourish.

[Karackle]

Thanks! I was hoping to keep the wisteria as a taller jungle in one area and do a much lower growing plant as a carpet, but it's definitely a possibility if i can't get anythign else to grow

[Karackle]

Well, since I don't want to go CO2, i'm thinking of just adding a second 15w fluorexcent...maybe even something a little smaller, perhaps a strip light for a 10g because my tank is set up kinda weird...i have a 10g glass canopy on the back half, and the 20g length on the front and the HOB filter on the side....i switched from an in-tank filter but didn't want to move my tank away from the wall...Anyway....that wouldn't be too much light over a 20H that i'd need to go CO2 would it?

Also what about substrate....should i switch the substrate in the front area where i'd want the carpet? if so....how do i do this? just swap out the old for the new? And what should I use?

As always, thanks in advance!!! and thanks for the input so far!!!