groundcover advice

[tbonem91]

Id like to add some groundcover to my tank I'm rebuilding and cant seem to find something that will spread out, look good and is readily available.

My tank is a 20Long with 40w 6700 lighting and as of next weekend, Eco-Complete and CO2 injection.

I know I'm sitting comfortable in the medium zone - does anyone have any advice on plant choices and where to get them? should I just browse aquabid or...? It seems most of the good looking ground cover is for high light tanks

 

[hashbaz]

Dwarf saggitaria is a good canidate for medium-light.

Some people find successs with marsilea/clovers but my marsilea failed in my 2wpg tank.

On second thought, just get some more light and glosso!

 

[czcz]

You might want to try Elatine triandra, which you can get in the Barter/Trade section if patient. Its going vertical for me in med/low light with CO2 injection though, but I've badly shaded it recently. Still looks nice.

 

[malkore]

marsilea should work at 2wpg, especially in a shallower 20long...more penetration to the substrate.


rumor has it Tom Barr grows glosso as a perfect horizontal carpet with 2wpg of NO fluorescent light, and about 40ppm of CO2.

 

[Hoovercat]

FWIW, I'm having much better results with glosso in my 29 with 55w of PC and a hagen ladder running pressurised CO2 than I did with mariselia (quadrifolia).
The clover grew in way too slow so it was bad about collecting green spot or BBA when my dosing wasn't quite right.
My other tanks have narrow leaf chain sword which does quite well but overgrows itself with enough time and nutrients.
I tried micro sword with no love whatsoever.
I haven't tried dwarf sag's or the triandra so I can't comment on them.
BTW, my water is not very hard 5-8 on both kh and gh so take that into consideration on my recommendations.

 

[travis simonson]

I'm with Hoovercat, Glosso may be worth trying, although I can't make any guarantees at 2wpg. czcz also has a good point, Elatine triandra will grow well at lower wattages as long as you have CO2. Those would be your best bets if you haven't had good luck with slow growing Marsilea spp. Both Glosso and Elatine are fast growers so I would give them a shot, although many people have noticed more vertical growth with both species at lower (~2 wpg) light range. Let us know

 

[Zezmo]

Elantine triandra is one of my favorite groundcovers, very nice looking...under highlight CO2 etc. You do have to work at keeping it down though. A real nice choice that I have bbeen growing lately is Ranalisma rostrata. This is a grass like plant, similar to E. tennelus, but with much shorter leaves. It quickly forms a dense carpet, about 1 inch thick. If you like the "lawn" look this one is great.
Here is a picture of some R. rostrata. This was one plant 2 months ago. Behind it is some Blyxa japonica which can be used for nice effect in the foreground. Behind teh driftwood, that is Blyxa auberti. That gets too big for foreground, but looks nice behind the B. japonica.

This pic has some other foreground plants. Starting in the lower right, and going clockwise. is Hygrophila sp from Araguaia, then Elantine triandra is the bright green with small leaves, the darker green rosette plants are Echinodorus parvaflorus "Tropica", left of that is a light green plant that also grows above the drift wood Hygrophila sp "foreground", There is also some Monosolenium tenerum "Pelia" above the driftwood. The pelia looks like seaweed and kinda gets all over. Despite the mess, it looks very nice.

here is a link with some info on Hygrophila sp from Araguaia
http://www.greenchapter.com/plant.p...tmpf=0&tmpt=0&dm=0&pl=0&typ=0&li=0&pname=#199
http://www.rva.ne.jp/plants/hygrophila_sp_araguaiared_sharpleaf_hygro.htm

 

[czcz]

Will Hygrophila sp from Araguaia keep the color under low/med light? Does it need high light to act like a carpet? Great looking plant.

 

[Zezmo]

It has no "green-ness" to it that I can see. So I think color will hold under any conditions. It is also very viney. Starting with plant, the one you see in the pic. In about one month it had not covered any more "area". I decided to move it. To my surprise it had put down thick roots, much like a crypt might have. Also, it had grown into itself. So not spreading out, but just becoming a thicker more intertwined sort of bramble. Well Icarefully untangled it, and was able to separate out 8 plants, each with thick roots. These I replanted earlier this week, to cover a larger area.
We will see how those grow out, some are in a more shaded area under an Echinororus "Indian Summer". Which is unfortunately turning out to be a huge plant... but that is another post I think