20 Gallon Aquarium Plants?

[MaffooJ]

Hello! I decided to set up a 20 gallon fresh water aquarium, and was wondering what plants would best suit it. The substrate is sand, and I'm planning on putting in 10 neon tetras, 8 harlequin rasboras, 4 corys, and 1 dwarf gourami. Also, If you know where to get plants for the cheapest please let me know! Any suggestion will be appreciated!

 

[jglover]

The biggest question is what kind of lighting do you have. That will determine the plants you can grow. Your stocking will not make any real difference as all those fish are fine with plants. Lighting is the key for plants. Also, do you have a 20 gallon long or high tank? The long will be thirty inches long but only 12 inches high.

 

[MaffooJ]

the tanks dimensions are 24 long, 16 tall, and 12 wide. Right now I don't have a lighting fixture, and am wondering what lights would be the best. The lid holds LED only.

 

[jglover]

That's a 20 high so the substrate is deeper than long. Same tank as I have and I'm able to easily grow any low light plants with an 18 inch Current Satellite LED Plis fixture, about $75 online. A standard incandescent hood with cfl bulbs will also work and you can adjust the wattage to into higher light plants if you want. That hood is probably about $30-40 with bulbs.

 

[MaffooJ]

I would buy a new hood, but I don't got a lot of money right now. I have an old 10 gallon hood im trying to get fit so I could just get some normal bulbs that seem to grow plants good in my 55 gallon. If that doesn't work, do you think sunlight could help grow. I know algae would spread alot, but the tank is right near a window. Other than that, know any plant that would look nice in this 20g tank?

 

[jglover]

A 10 gallon hood would probably fit but it would be four inches to short so you'd have a gap on either side of a couple of inches. My 20 gallon has java ferns tied to driftwood, a large amazon sword and a small patch of micro swords, an anubias (not sure what variety, probably nana), some anacharis and pennywort planted in the background, some java moss tied to some rocks and floating bunches of hornwort. All are growing, well, like weeds! I run the Current USa LEds about 8 hours a day, dose liquid carbon daily and Flourish and LeafZone weekly.

You're right about the algae and sunlight though if you can control the nutrients by having the plants outcompete the algae, you might get by with it. Still, I think the 10 gallon hood might be an temporary option though it will light the tank unevenly, so center the hood and plant in the middle. You could put java ferns and moss on the edges as they will tolerate less light. Hornwort would do okay floating on the edges as well.

 

[FishyBusiness]

A lot of people on classifieds here sell plants, that's where I get mine from anyway. I have led lights (low/low med) and my java fern, Val's, dwarf sag and some others I can't remember name of off hand are doing well. Use root tabs too. I made my own and costed $15 for 350 of them! That'll last me years lol. Try some floating plants too such as water lettuce and frogbit, the gourami will LOVE that. And floating plants suck up nitrates too!

A glass canopy (or even just skip it for now) is cheap at www.drsfostersmith.com and a fennex led light is about $50-60 on amazon.

 

[jglover]

That's a great idea, I completely forgot about a glass canopy. That be a better option than the 10 gallon hood, put on a glass canopy and you can set the 10 gallon lighting fixture directly on the canopy, or purchase some shop lights for more lighting, till you have funds available for a Finnex or Current USA LED.

 

[jetajockey]

If you are dealing with the very basic LEDs that come with the kit, they probaby aren't all that intense. You can still get by though, just using some very low light stuff like crypts, ferns, anubias, moss.

 

[MaffooJ]

Thanks for all the help guys! Do you think incandescent light bulbs work well with plants? I think I will look for a 20 gallon lid on castanet or ebay if they work well.

 

[jetajockey]

Replace them with daylight CFLs, it's a cheap and easy upgrade.

 

[MaffooJ]

Will do. Thanks for the help!