Omaha/Council Bluffs low light plants

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KlcoKN

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Jan 31, 2012
Messages
106
Location
Plattsmouth, NE
Got extra plants crowding your tank? We're here to help!

We are looking for free/cheap plants that will do well in a low light tank..

Desperately need shrubbery for fry to hide in, and a trip to a lft sent us home $20 dollars lighter toting 4 pathetically tiny plants :eek:

We want basically anything that we might have a chance at growing.

Already have pest snails, don't particularly mind a few more.

Would love java moss, java fern, crypts, duckweed, hornwort,
whatever you have, we'll take it! :flowers:

My future fry and I thank you for your help!(y)
 
Update: went to petco and bought a few more plants (there's a buy two get one free deal right now) so I'm not quite as desperate for plants now :)
But if any of you have any extra plants hanging around I'll still gladly take them!
 
I always have extra water lettuce, and can give starter duckweed (my goldfish love the duckweed) but i am in des moines. I also recommend hornwort u and java moss. I got some grass weed from a pond that grows crazy in low light also but don't know what it is, so if your ever in des moines you look me up.
 
Thanks for the offer, but I've already managed to almost completely kill the duckweed someone gave me a week or two ago, turns out it needs rather high light. :( It kept getting sucked onto the filter intake anyhow so I'm probably better off without it lol. And I was looking at water lettuce at a lfs a couple of days ago, it is gorgeous but I was told it had a high light requirement as well? I've considered getting some local water weeds in the spring, but I'm afraid I would end up bringing pests as well... I read that snails and whatnot from ponds can transmit parasites to your fish?
Unless there's a way to 100% decontaminate them that I don't know about I'm too afraid I'd make my fishes sick to try it.
 
Duckweed and Water lettuce do not require high light. I have them in my 10 gal tank with a standard T8 fluorescent bulb 20" 18 watt bulb and they double in size every 3 or 4 days. I feed the duckweed to my goldfish in another tank and end up throwing away water lettuce.
Yes with duckweed you need to prevent them from getting sucked into the filter or have water crash on them from the top. One solution is to place something that floats on the surface that is round or goes across the tanks to keep an area more tranquil. Or you can just place a small stick of the right length across your tank surface so it wedges in and doesn't move... that is what i did lol.
As far as parasites and snails.... i have collected alot from local ponds including the harnwort, duck weed and this other grassy plant i have no idea what it is that grows great in low lights. i have several kinds of snails including japanese trap door snails that grow 2 1/2 inches across that i got locally.
Just try it. lol
 
I might try it when I'm feeling a little more brave, and have better lights lol. And I think my problem is that I don't even have 1wpg, I've got two 15 watt bulbs on a 55gallon :/ So unti I've got the money to invest in better lights I'm stuck with plants that will survive in extremely low light, so basically java moss and java fern it sounds like :(
 
Duck weed and water lettuce will have plenty of lite in your tank if they are near the lights. Are the bulbs florescent? Yea my java moss is also doing great but it grows much slower than the hornwort that also don't need much light. BTW a very cheap way to get more lights for your plants is to use "daylight" 35 watt (equivalent to the old 100 watt incandescent bulbs) regular screwed compact fluorescent bulb in a cheap regular light fixture that is pointed to your tank. i just started doing that yesterday thanks to help from this site.
 
I might try that, I have two bendable clip on desk lights that I could probably rig up there somehow, might help the plants I have not look so sad... :)
 
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