Hey all I have a 40 gallon bowfront with low- light. I do not dose Co2 or ferts at this point..? Just letting fish waste as fertilizer. What other plants would be good for my setup?
View attachment 261154
Here is what I have so far
1x giant Anubias
1x Anubias petite
10x anarchis
40 gallon
1x leopard ctenopoma
1x albino bichir
1x tiger pleco
With live plants in the tank
75 gallon native tank
5 pumpkin seed sunfish
1 red crayfish
1 spotted bass
Ferts give plants the nutrients that they need to grow. In low tech set ups you can look into commercial liquid fertilizers for the plants that uptake nutrients through the water column (such as mosses, anubias, Java ferns, most stems, etc). One common combination of ferts that you'll often see in low tech set ups is API Leafzone and Seachem Flourish Comprehensive. It's not a fully complete regiment but for low tech set ups it's a very solid base. Later on you can look into dry ferts. Plants that are heavy root feeders (crypts, swords, many rosettes) will benefit from root tabs placed under them. These you can buy commercially as well or make yourself (just do a forum search for diy root tabs).
CO2 is not necessary for low tech set ups but will always help. You can alternatively use a liquid carbon source such as Seachem Flourish Excel or its generic counterpart glutaraldehyde. Additionally you can look into diy co2, although I wouldn't worry about it too much at the moment.
Just some random notes:
Plant as many anubias and Java ferns as you want as they are very slow growing in low light set ups. I'd definitely start with more than one Java fern as they look much better in larger clumps and you'll be waiting forever to propagate them from their little plantlets. Try to keep them low as their slow growing leaves (particularly with anubias) can attract algae growth.
Get a timer for your lights if you don't have one already and look to run your lights around 6-8 hours a day.
Crypts are awesome in low light set ups as there are a ton of different types, ranging from very big (crypt balansae) to very small (crypt parva). Remember to give them root tabs.
Anubias and Java fern also come in many different varieties with different sizes and leaf structures. I particularly like Java fern 'Philippine' and 'narrow leaf' in smaller tanks.
Many types of mosses do well in low light. I'd recommend skipping Java moss (too messy) and looking for some Christmas or peacock moss.
Sent from my iPad using science
