ground covering plants?

[Guest]

i am looking for very low to the ground plants to cover a lot of the substrate....make my tank look more....gardeny....


any suggestions?

Thanks

 

[JustOneMore20]

How about HC (Hemianthus callitrichoides)? It needs high light and would do better with CO2...which you have right?

 

[Purrbox]

This will depend greatly on the amount of light that you have.

Low-Medium Light Options
Marsilea Minuta

High Light Options
Elatine Triandra
Glosso
HC

 

[Guest]

I think that si what i am looking for. I do not yet have CO2 but plan to DIY myself something.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Another lower light ground cover is Clover. When you get clover, it's 3-4 inches tall. And that's because it's emersed growth. But when planted in the aquarium, the tall growth dies off and new growth begins, and it hugs the ground. Emersed it's a 4 leaf clover, but when submerged, here's what it looks like.

The clover tends to run in one direction, so if you want it to spread out more, you will need to use clippers and clip off some of the runners under the substrate. That will allow it to run is several directions and spread out. I usually cut mine every 4th leaf.

 

[Guest]

that is exactly what i want....clover....


i wish they had something like this at my LFS =(

 

[Purrbox]

FYI - The Marsilea Minuta is Dwarf Clover

 

[mr funktastic]

alright here is a dumb question but is clover just simply the stuff that grows outside on my yard? it is all over in my yard and would it be as simple as taking some out cleaning the roots and them slowly growing it submerged? i should make a post on this.

 

[Purrbox]

No. You would need to make sure that you were dealing with an aquatic clover. Often you can find the same plants being sold for ponds.

 

[Alshain]

PlantGeek shows HC as medium light. Is that not correct?

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Yes, HC medium to high light is needed. Don't know how well it would do in low light.

 

[mr funktastic]

H.cuba wont really "grow" under medium light. it will survive but wont really spread all over the place like in all the pictures u see. maybe medium light and high Co2 levels it may grow well. if u can get some try it and experiment. its always worht a try. even if it doesnt survive u only lost a few bucks. or u could end up with a massive capet of beautiful HC.

 

[fish_4_all]

Get the Clover, Marsilea Minuta, you will be much happier. I have HC and had hoped it would form a carpet but it grows really slow in my tanks. DIY CO2, 3+w/g over 10 gallon tanks. The clover will be a much better choice and you will be much happier with it especially if you don't want to spend 100's of hours replanting the HC. Don't get me wrong, I will stick with the HC until it grows like I want but it will be a good 6 months at least before it makes a descent carpet over my plastic canvas "nets". I just think that the M. Minuta will serve you much better. For ground cover, I am going to use crypts. At least until I get much higher light and pressurized CO2 and Eco Complete or sand.

 

[Zezmo]

If you want your ground cover to get some density fairly quickly. Then Elantine triandra can be real nice.
If you like grass/lawn type plants then Ranalisma rostrata is a pretty good one. It stays about 1" tall.
Aquatic clover is a real nice, as shown above. Not as high maintenance as some others.
You can do a real nice ground cover of crtpts. Several species will lie down in the high light of a foreground. For a more "lawn" like crypt Crptocoryne parva is the smallest of crypts and relly nice looking once it grows in.
http://webpages.charter.net/zezmo/nano-chocolatecherry2.JPG

 

[Glenc]

Hello there, I have had good experiences with HC. If you give it a fine substrate, high light and decent C02 levels it won't disappoint. I have a ten gallon set up using HC as the ground cover, in under 2 months it has completly covered the substrate from front to back, pretty thick to. I have 5 tanks running at different light levels, from very low to very high light, C02 and no CO2, good substate, average and poor. I have tried HC in them all. In my experience, it does best in high light and CO2. Without a sandy substrate, or at least a pretty fine substrate, HC does not do well. It just won't stay planted or spread much at all. High light, 20 to 30 ppm C02 and good substrate, I'm using eco complete, = happy, fast growing HC. If you can give HC those conditions I would highly recommend it. You won't be disappointed. Good luck.

 

[JRagg]

Question about the clover that LBW has. You said it was called 4-leaf clover. Is this the stuff you're talking about? $9 seems kind of steep for something that they'll probably send me waaaaaay too much of (since the auction is for ponds, im guessing they'll send pond sized portions).

eBay link

This could be the same thing, how about this one

 

[Purrbox]

Did some quick searching and found several of the vendors that carry this plant. It's very common and many LFS often have it.

AquariumPlants
FreshwaterAquariumPlants
Aquatic-Store

If you post in the Barter Trade section you might be able to find some that way too.

The reason that the first link you posted is so much more expensive, is probably in large part due to it being the varigated form rather than the regular four leaf clover.

 

[MSU Fan]

sorry, i don't have a planted tank yet, but how exactly do you "trim" plants that are underwater? Plastic scissors??? I am so a noob!

 

[JRagg]

I just use regular scissors and dry them off when I'm done. Most scissors are stainless steel anyways, so the won't rust.

Of course, I'm a noob too, so I'm not sure if that's what everyone else does.

Thanks for the links Purrbox. Does the second link that I posted look like that. The price is much more reasonable, and he ships priorty mail so the total cost would be like $8.

I would try those sites you posted, but shipping is ridiculous. If that second eBay auction isn't what I'm looking for, I'll try the classifieds.

Thanks again.

 

[Purrbox]

While that second link would work, the problem is that you are only getting 5 stems that have been grown emersed. That's not a lot to work with especially since you will be switching it back to submerged growth.