20 Gallon Tank - Plant Suggestion?

[saikit]

Hi forum members,

I am planning to put in plants for my 20 Gallon tank.

At the moment, I have a 24" Corallife T5 light strip with 2 x 14 watts lights.

Q1: What types of plant should I consider putting into my tank? (Prefer beginner plants). I do have a piece of a Driftwood that I want to get Java moss for.

This is my first plant tank and I do not have a CO2 system in place yet.

Q2: I have a thin layer of gravel (around 1 inch). How much gravel do I need for my plants?

Suggestions and comments are appreciated.

 

[neilanh]

That's not a lot of light, so you'll be limited to low light plants. Mosses, Java Ferns, Anubias are all easy and would work in your setup.

Is it just regular gravel? Deeper will make it easier to keep the plants down while they're rooting in, but 1" should be sufficient I would think.

 

[Carissa]

Easy plants would be java moss, java fern, anubias, crypts. You could also get away with hygrophila or possibly ludwigia under that lighting, it's low light but not extremely low. Also I'm assuming neither of those lights are actinic. If it is, you'll want to replace it.

That much gravel is fine for the plants I've suggested.

Oops, I posted after the other post and didn't see it!

 

[newfound77951]

I agree, that is not a lot of light for that tank. CO2 will not be necessary with that little light. Also, make sure that both bulbs are plant-appropriate, a lot of light strips of that type come with one regular and one actinic (blue) bulb, which produces light that is not useable by plants.

The plants neilan suggested would be great. None of those plants actually need to be planted in the substrate so any substrate will be fine. If you got some Cryptocorynes they would appreciate a bit more substrate and a root tab or two.

 

[Carissa]

It's about 1.6 wpg. Not really moderate, but not super low. (T5's are brighter so multiply by 1.2 to get more accurate wpg) My crypts did fine in 1/2 of regular gravel. But a bit more, is better for them since they are rooting.