Planted Tank Update

[Kerrinne]

It's been a while since I posted here. So I'll update.

I have a 20T tank that I've made my planted tank. I don't have any special lighting for it -- just whatever came with it from Petsmart. I will check wattage at home, but I don't think it's very high. The only thing I've added to help plants is mixed laterite in with the gravel when I set up the tank.

Anyway, I have tried a variety of plants in there to see what I could grow without investing tons of money into equipment (since I'm about to be out of a job soon!). Here's some of my results:

Java Fern - Babies galore. This original plant started out in my 5 gallon betta tank when I had it. It produced babies once there. I moved it to my 10 gallon tank before I owned the 20T and once my Betta passed away. There it spawned off many sets of babies. I moved it several months ago to the 20T and it continues to produce babies. The babies are all surviving, some starting to grow their own offshoots on the leaves. The original plant is turning darker and darker green though. Is this normal? The offshoots I've planted are bright green.

Moneywort - Good gods, I have found a plant my fish love to swim through and not just survives but thrives in my tank. I started these in my 20T when I set it up. The outcome has been fantastic. My only complaint -- they come loose when my platties are chasing each other for mating. I'm almost ALWAYS plugging one or two back into the gravel.

Anacharis - I started this off in my 10 gallon with my glowlight tetras. It did okay, but I wouldn't say it thrived. Moved it into the 20T and it died.

Microsword - This stuff was doing fantastic in my 20T. Unfortunately, it couldn't stay planted and I got tired of finding strands of it all in my filter intake. It's been removed.

Chainsword Narrow Leaf - One of my original plants along with the Anacharis and Java Fern. It did very well in the betta tank. When betta died, I moved it to 10 gallon. Glowlight tetras thought it was dinner. Moved it to 75 gallon -- what was left of it. BA tetras also thought it was dinner. So my advise, don't use with tetras.

Melon Sword - See Chainsowrd Narrow Leaf - must be a tetra delicassy.

Water Sprite - See Mircosword times ten. I put this one in my 20T at setup. What a mess this stuff was! I don't recommend this for tanks where you have very active fish who pull plants out. Talk about clogging filters!!! The baby platties when born did like to hide in the ones floating on the surface though.

So now I just have the Java Fern and Moneywort in the 20T [acronym:c48b7e0c27="Gallon"]gal[/acronym:c48b7e0c27]. I have a few strands of Moneywort in the 75 [acronym:c48b7e0c27="Gallon"]gal[/acronym:c48b7e0c27], and I have some java fern babies in the 10 [acronym:c48b7e0c27="Gallon"]gal[/acronym:c48b7e0c27].

For what I have and for not wanting to upgrade equipment, anyone else have suggestions of good plants to try? Obviously, I will have to watch my tetras no matter what I choose. The moneywort and the java fern they seem to leave completely alone.

[travis simonson]

Anubias is always a good choice for low light tanks and it is rarely eaten by fish, in fact I've never seen anything that would touch it. It grows slowly but is pretty much bulletproof and there are a wide variety of Anubias species to choose from. Cryptocoryne wendtii is also a good low light plant. It comes in a wide variety of color variants and again, [acronym:da22f00d24="In My Experience"]IME[/acronym:da22f00d24], is not eaten by fish. You might also look into Marsilea spp. (clover) for a foreground plant. It stays low and does well in low light tanks too. [acronym:da22f00d24="Hope this helps (or) Happy to help"]HTH[/acronym:da22f00d24]

[Kerrinne]

Thank you! I'll look into those!