Plants for my tank????

[Duddits]

Need some help guys and gals. I have a 55g cichlid set up that I'd like to add some live plants to. My set up is a 55g tank, pc lighting 4x65w (2x10k and 2x blue actinics), aragonite sand substrate, 1 power head. Temp at 79-80 degrees, ph at 8.1. Fish include 2 yellow labs, 2 ruby red peacocks, 2 Kenyi's, 2 red zebras, 4 acais and 2 giant danios. Few pieces of driftwood as well. Lights are on roughly 8-10 hours a day with no natural sunlight. Below is a pic of the tank as of now.

 

[phoenixkiller]

Need some help guys and gals. I have a 55g cichlid set up that I'd like to add some live plants to. My set up is a 55g tank, pc lighting 4x65w (2x10k and 2x blue actinics), aragonite sand substrate, 1 power head. Temp at 79-80 degrees, ph at 8.1. Fish include 2 yellow labs, 2 ruby red peacocks, 2 Kenyi's, 2 red zebras, 4 acais and 2 giant danios. Few pieces of driftwood as well. Lights are on roughly 8-10 hours a day with no natural sunlight. Below is a pic of the tank as of now.

No expert or anything, but I hear that actinic bulbs do nothing for planted tanks. so I would say better lighting is needed.

I'm sure a very experienced person will chime in.

 

[paytertot]

I'm no good with light either, but if you have/get the proper light requirements, aponogeton crispus makes a nice background plant

 

[Austin.b]

I'm not familiar with cichlids at ALL, but I hear that they don't like the taste of anubias. Its also a very low light plant. You can tie the rhizome to DW or any other decor, and it will attatch it self in time. Some say that this is better than planting it in the substrate. Other than anubias, I'm not sure which plants will work with cichlids, sorry.

I have also heard that actinics will do nothing for plants. The best thing to do, would be to swap those out for some bulbs in the 6500k range. Your Plants would like that much more lol

 

[rkilling1]

If you want to grow tons of algae, then I would change out the actinics.

Are you guys even reading the OP? The OP has 260 W of total light on a 55 gallon tank. Not including the actinics, they have 130 watt of CF going into the tank. You can grow ANY plant with that much light.

I would be surprized if algae was not an issue. That's A LOT of light with little to no plants in the tank.

 

[paytertot]

Are you guys even reading the OP? The OP has 260 W of total light on a 55 gallon tank.

No need to be snippy, we both clearly stated that we know very very little about lighting.

 

[Austin.b]

If you want to grow tons of algae, then I would change out the actinics.

Are you guys even reading the OP? The OP has 260 W of total light on a 55 gallon tank. Not including the actinics, they have 130 watt of CF going into the tank. You can grow ANY plant with that much light.

I would be surprized if algae was not an issue. That's A LOT of light with little to no plants in the tank.

For some reason, I didn't think actinics contributed to the total light of a FW tank. My mistake.

Chances are I'm wrong here, but 130W over a 55G tank is roughly 2.36 watts per gallon (yes, I know it's a very inaccurate way of finding out how much light a tank has) is it because the tank is shallow you say he can grow any plant he wants? I'm just slightly confused lol

I agree, no need to get snippy

 

[Coursair]

Try Anubias. See what happens.
Offer your fish, blanched Zucchini, spinach, deshelled defrosted green peas to help protect the plants til they realize they taste bad.

You can use a veggie clip if needed.

Super Glue (gel) or tie plants to rocks or wood or decor.