What plant do i want?

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GIES2525

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Nov 3, 2008
Messages
42
Location
Hamilton, Ohio
I have a 39 Gallon tall square tank, with a pretty small ground surface. I am looking for a plant that is fairly easy to maintain, and get pretty tall, considering i dont have anything on the top half of my tank and it just makes the tank look plain. So i noticed someone had a sword something something plant that looked like it gets pretty tall. But what kind of maintenence/upkeep would it be? Are they hard to maintain, and can you have it in the tank with fake plants?
Thanks for all the help.
 
first need to know your lighting!!!

swords do grow large and are great background plants!

only kind of plant i seem to have to "keep up" with are my stem plants, and thats only a trim when they reach the surface!

hornwort is a great plant that can be left floating at the top and requires almost no light.

most swords and some hygro can grow very large, but like i said, it all depends on your lighting :D

ps yes u can have fake plants with real
 
You might try cryptocoryne. They require relatively little light & is low maintainance. I have a Crypt balanase that is growing to 18-24" tall. Looks a bit like a sword but much less demanding on light or ferts.

Elodea (anacharis) is also an easy tall growing plant, but requires more light.
 
I suggest hornwort. I have only 30 watts over my 10 gallon and it grows insanely. With good enough lighting it grows and inch or so over night. Plus you can choice to plant this stuff in the substrate or just let it float. Just to tell you this now, these don't actually have roots but just makes stem like branches under the substrate to at as roots to hold itself in the ground. So yeah hornwort is a good suggestion from me. Also when I bought mine it was only 2-3 dollars and I got around 2-3 baseballs put together sized. That's how much I got. Good deal.
 
Im not sure what my lighting is, i will look tonight and get that. But until then, it looks like i may either get the sword, or the the cryptocoryne. But what kind of lighting would they require for a pretty deep 39 gallon tank?
 
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Crypts & hornwort will do Ok in low light, but I find they grow better with a bit more. Swords do not do well even with medium light (at least in my hand :( ).

A low - medium light setup for a 39 tall would be somewhere in the 80-100 W (normal output fluorescent) range. If you have T5 or Power compacts, (because of their higher efficiency), that would work out to 55W - 75W.
 
Vallisneria get tall. Val nana'd work great.

Crypt Spiralis, retrospiralis, balansae get tall.

Bolbitis might also work - not as tall, but over 12" tall anyhow.

None need a ton of light.
 
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