Karackle
Aquarium Advice Freak
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2008
- Messages
- 302
So I've been thinking about trying a carpet plant in my 20g aquarium. It's a 20g High with only 15 watts of T8 (or T5?....i'll double check when i get home) fluorescent lighting over it. It's ~16" high, so I imagine not a TON of that light hits the bottom. HOWEVER i do have excellent growth of Wisteria, purple cabomba, anubias, crypt wendtii red (small), crypt (spiralis?) and what i've been calling wendtii green but am now thinking is another anubias. my small red cryot wendtii is shooting out new leaves like crazy, but it's very low to the ground and somewhat in the shade of my driftwood (it was ~3-4 leaves about a month ago now it is ~10+), and the 2 small pieces of wisteria were only single leaves that got broken off during a water change about 2 weeks ago. Here's a picture to show which i'm talking about:
circled in red is the small red crypt, in yellow are the small pieces of wisteria:
I think my tank gets either some direct or ambient sunlight during the day, it's the only reason i can think that the plants do so well despite a mere .75wpg. So my questions and concerns:
1) Is there any carpet plant/moss that would grow in such low light?
2) I could upgrade my lighting to
a) a second strip light
b) a coralife dual bulb fixture Coralife F/W T-5 Aqualight Double Strip Light-30
BUT i'm worried about throwing the whole tank off balance (which worries me a little with adding the carpet anyway)
How does one gravel vac with a carpet?
would a carpet grow in just an aquarium gravel substrate?
Sorry for the lengthy, possibly nonsensical and very train of thought post.
And as always, thanks in advance!!!
Tank Journal and Parameters:
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f19/my-20g-planted-journal-56k-101691.html
20g High, low tech tank
regular aquarium gravel, 78 degrees, Penguin Biowheel 100 filter
Flora:
Purple Cabomba, Wisteria, Cryptocoryne wendtii red (small), Crypt wendtii green (large), Crypt spiralis, Anubias (nana i think)
Fauna:
3 female Bettas, 3 mollies, 3 neon tetras, 3 glolight tetras, 3 zebra danios, 1 female guppy, 1 clown pleco
circled in red is the small red crypt, in yellow are the small pieces of wisteria:
I think my tank gets either some direct or ambient sunlight during the day, it's the only reason i can think that the plants do so well despite a mere .75wpg. So my questions and concerns:
1) Is there any carpet plant/moss that would grow in such low light?
2) I could upgrade my lighting to
a) a second strip light
b) a coralife dual bulb fixture Coralife F/W T-5 Aqualight Double Strip Light-30
BUT i'm worried about throwing the whole tank off balance (which worries me a little with adding the carpet anyway)
How does one gravel vac with a carpet?
would a carpet grow in just an aquarium gravel substrate?
Sorry for the lengthy, possibly nonsensical and very train of thought post.
And as always, thanks in advance!!!
Tank Journal and Parameters:
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f19/my-20g-planted-journal-56k-101691.html
20g High, low tech tank
regular aquarium gravel, 78 degrees, Penguin Biowheel 100 filter
Flora:
Purple Cabomba, Wisteria, Cryptocoryne wendtii red (small), Crypt wendtii green (large), Crypt spiralis, Anubias (nana i think)
Fauna:
3 female Bettas, 3 mollies, 3 neon tetras, 3 glolight tetras, 3 zebra danios, 1 female guppy, 1 clown pleco