Need Plant Ideas

[Bent Needle]

I'm trying to fill in my tank! Problem is I'm really not very familiar with aquatic plants. Looking for any suggestions. Below are current specs/stock and ideas.

20 gallon long, Aqueon QuietFlow 30 filter (with some added media for more biofilter), 50 watt heater. 17 watt all-spectrum light, on 12 hours per day. Dosing Flourish Comprehensive every 5 days.

Temp: 79 degrees Fahrenheit.
Amm: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10
ph: 8.2

Current Plants:
java fern, Microsorum pteropus
water wisteria, Hygrophila difformis

Current Fish:
2 red wag platies, Xiphophorus maculatus
1 bristlenose pleco, Ancistrus cirrhosus

Need to take a current tank shot, but it still looks mostly like this except there is a rock and some driftwood to the left of center.

I have one more piece of driftwood that I think I'm going to add towards the center, it's mostly flat so I think I'm kind of going to stand it up to make it a tallish point of interest. I need a focal plant, and some more for the foreground. Also I think I don't have quite enough substrate. It's about two inches thick.

Bearing in mind this is pretty much a low/medium light tank (I can't find any higher output bulbs to fit my fixture, and replacing it is kind of out of the question at the moment), here are my ideas.

1 red flame sword for the focus plant
Cryptocoryne Parva to fill up some of the middle areas
Petite Nana Anubias for the front middle

Still need something for along the back, I think. I thought about dwarf hairgrass for the foreground but it sounded a bit hard to grow.

 

[Rivercats]

You need to pull those java ferns up so the rhizome is sitting on top of the substrate and not buried. You only want to bury the white roots that are growing off the rhizome in the substrate.

 

[Bent Needle]

I've fixed that since this picture was taken, someone else was nice enough to mention it. Hehe. They're growing all kinds of new shoots at the bottom now and in the tears of the original leaves.

 

[DanTheGuppyMan]

Ohh I want a current tank shot! Lol. I can never grow java fern well...that's why I'm selling all mine!

 

[Bent Needle]

Any thoughts on how these plants will do, or suggestions for better choices? What about fertilization? I think I will need to add root tabs if I do plant all of these.

So far I'm getting corkscrew vals and a red tiger lotus from Dan, and want to order a red flame sword, some parva crypts, and some anubias nana. Any thoughts on how hard the dwarf hairgrass is to grow/maintain? What about some Hornwort for a floating plant?

Just worried I'm trying to combine too many things here.

 

[DanTheGuppyMan]

Any thoughts on how these plants will do, or suggestions for better choices? What about fertilization? I think I will need to add root tabs if I do plant all of these.

So far I'm getting corkscrew vals and a red tiger lotus from Dan, and want to order a red flame sword, some parva crypts, and some anubias nana. Any thoughts on how hard the dwarf hairgrass is to grow/maintain? What about some Hornwort for a floating plant?

Just worried I'm trying to combine too many things here.

Hello, I can send you some dwarf water lettuce and/or duckweed for floating plants if you like with all your other plants...and DHG is not tht hard to maintain, but it does enjoy high lighting. If you want it to carpet then you woul need high light, also with DHG it can become a real algae magnet (mine had hair algae covered in it the first week I put it in, but now it's growing more and healthier in my tank

 

[Bent Needle]

Guess I won't be doing the hairgrass then!

Btw here is the FTS. Will post another view of the java fern in a sec, I can't figure out how to post more than one pic from my phone.

 

[Bent Needle]

Java fern. It's not growing super fast, by any means, but it's definitely growing.