Low-Medium hardy plants

[FishRus]

Hello

I have a 55 FW tank dimensions are - 48 x 12 x 21, I have 2 48inch fluorescent 54 watt bulbs at 6500k.

People have told me that i could be able to grow these types of plants but i was wondering if there were anymore?
1. Java ferns
2. Anubias
3. Amazon swords
4. Crypts
5. Moss balls

I want to do low plants for the front, medium plants for the "middle" and tall plants for the back. I have people gravel now in my tank and im planning on sticking with it but id like to have the look where it looks like theres grassing growing on the bottom( basically where you cant see any of the gravel)

I think i understand the whole root tabs and where to put them(right next to the plant) but i was wondering how your supposed to vaccum your tank?

Also im wondering if i would be overstocked?
1. 3 gold barbs
2. 5 Black skirt tetras
3. 5 lemon tetras
4. 5 Hi 511 tetras
5. 1 clown pleco
6. 1 Albino BN pleco
7. 5 julli corys
8. 2 bolovian rams
9. 1 kuhli loach

Thanks for all the help and sorry for so many questions in advice!

 

[Coursair]

You don't vacuum planted tanks much.

Dwarf Hairgrass and other grassy ground cover is High light/High tech usually ( injected CO2)
And won't grow in gravel. Needs sand or EC or other plant friendly substrate.

Start with the suggested list. Learn and then when you are ready, switch substrate, switch lighting, add CO2. Or stick with low light/low tech and relax.

JMHO

 

[aqua_chem]

It's hard to say what your potential is without knowing more about your light/setup. I would definitely recommend looking to Excel/glut if you're not wanting to get into CO2 (which takes a bit of a financial commitment), as it will give you more options and better growth. You should also look into some sort of fertilizer like Flourish to provide trace nutrients.

For plants, I would look extensively into crypts. The genus runs the gamut of appearances from small (parva), medium (wendtii, nurii, etc) to quite tall (balansae, retrospiralis). You could potentially stock a fairly meagerly lit tank with entirely crypt species front to back. If you're looking for grassy plants, you might be somewhat disappointed. As coursair said, the most popular 'grass' plant is Dwarg Hairgrass (DHG), which is both light and resource demanding. That being said, you can look at larger plants like sagittaria subulata or echinodorus tenellus, both of which can be fairly prolific in medium light Excel tanks.

 

[BBradbury]

Hello Fish...

Your lighting is more than sufficient for the plants you've listed. These are slow growers, so don't require much more than a watt of light per gallon of the tank volume. You have twice what the plants require.

I keep the same plants and they do fine with nothing but large, frequent water changes and a reasonable fish load. You can add more nutrients by not vacuuming the substrate. The material that collects on the bottom of the tank dissolves and nourishes the plants. The only things I do, is make sure to do the large water changes and feed the fish on a routine basis. The fish and plants take care of themselves.

B