South American plants

[DARK Jak]

helo im starting a new 55gal aquarium and was wondering if there are any amazon plants you could recommend ,but the thing is they have to be able to live in little more than 6 hours of light because my parents wont let me set the timer to any longer. the lights in the tank are 1 48" true blue actinic coralife bulb 1 48" 50%50 coralife bulb and a standard 48" full spec bulb
I dont know if this arrangement makes any difference,but well maybe.

anything will help TIA

 

[czcz]

I believe many true blackwater areas of the Amazon do not have much submerged plant life, but here are some SA plants: http://www.plantgeek.net/plantguide_list.php?category=6&filter_by=19

A lot of those may not grow even if you changed all the actinic bulbs to 5000-10000K for ~2wpg, assuming all bulbs are NO Flourescent. You should look at what Jchillin is growing in his tanks if you are willing to broaden your plant options. Either way, 6 hours is a very short time and it may be a lost cause. Maybe after your parents see the planted tank you can squeeze at least a couple more hours of light out...

 

[DARK Jak]

I figured that there were very few plants that would grow in 6 hours of light and tried telling my parents that and yet that is another lost cause. the thing that really sucks though is that i bought an amazon sword and pygmy swords before they told me it could only be 6 hours so now my investment is slowly dieing

 

[Jchillin]

That is very depressing to hear. Is this related to costs? To be sure, even without the plants being an issue, the fish could use the additional lighted hours too.

Perhaps if it is related to cost, you can may want to show your parents that the cost of running NO flourescents is negliable and you could possibly make up the difference?

 

[DARK Jak]

I asked and they said in the month that I had my lights on the electric bill went up 40.00 dollars! The thing is I hardly belive that its all from my lights
theres just no way it put it up that much...?right? :?

 

[Purrbox]

Considering that we are heading into Winter and you live in MN, I suspect the bulk of the increase was due to heating your house and not your aquarium lights.

 

[czcz]

AA has a cool cost calculator: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/calcs2.php?type=electric

At the default cost, 120w for 6 hours would add $2.16 to the monthly bill. Try to get at least 10 hours of light if you are negotiating this. Unfortunately it is more out of pocket, but replacing the full actinic bulb will help grow plants. If it comes down to it, I think you would be better off leaving the full actinic off so you can leave the daylight and 50/50 bulbs on longer. Good luck!

 

[DARK Jak]

the other night my stepdad desided after seing my plants all but two dead i had about 20 he said oh sorry i didnt think they would die. he alowed me to put it up to 10 hours. and after looking at the posts.

 

[Jchillin]

Sweet...really glad to hear that. Now back to business:

You should look at what Jchillin is growing in his tanks if you are willing to broaden your plant options.

Still the best advice given so far. If you need, I'll identify each.

 

[DARK Jak]

well now that i can have plants mabye i could do plants from ALL of SA. But I cant realy find too many background plants. exept cabomba furcata

and now this is all thats left of my plants before this the whole left side was covered in plants

(oh yeh the convicts are just in there until I save the money to buy the fish i want)

 

[Jchillin]

To be honest, there's not a lot of SA plants that grow submerged. We usually cheat by adding plants from the far east or Africa.

Sending you a PM.

 

[DARK Jak]

got your mesage-sent a mesage-ttthhhhaaaannnkkkk yyyyooooouuuu.