Carpeting Plants

[nano55]

I have a planted aquarium but the only plants I have are tall ones and I quite fancy a carpeted area in one corner of my tank. Only problem is I get confused with all the Latin names and I realy dont know what will or will not grow in my tank.
I went in to a local shop that specialise in aquascaping ans hydroponics and they said I need to spend hundreds on Co2 injection!! Surely that cant be true?? My aquarium is for fish, plants are just something to look prety in the background!

Could someone please point me in the direction of a carpeting plant (dont mind grass like or small round leaves etc) that will live in my aquarium without all this Co2 stuff?
I dont know what details you need to know regarding water peramiters etc so please ask. As regards lighting I have an 18W PL light and my aquarium is 55litres so is that 0.33W/L? My substrate is aquarium sand, nothing special.

Heres a picture of my tank so you can see which plants I have already, theyre all surviving well but the plants at front left, rear left and in the middle are growing like crazy!!!



Also excuse the cloudy water, it was taken just after I set it up.

 

[SO19Firearms]

You could use a liquid carbon if you didn't want pressurised CO2 (which you could DIY for a lot less than they told you at the Green Machine)
Hemianthus callitrichoides is my favourite and totally possible on liquid CO2 with good flow.

Maybe check the low tech plant lists (I'm sure there's one knocking about here) if you don't want to add anything.


IMO

 

[DreamertK]

One of those plants isn't an aquatic plant (rear right). You'll want to take it out before it starts rotting away in a month or two.

You can get liquid CO2 and dose daily/weekly if you find them turning brown, however being at the bottom of the tank they shouldn't be blistering with light anyway. Though with a lot of plants there will be less nutrients to go around.

Sorry I'm not so good with carpeting, but some moss would really look good on those decorations~

 

[nano55]

What do you mean by liquid carbon? Is it like a suplement you pour into the tank once a day or something like that??

 

[nano55]

One of those plants isn't an aquatic plant (rear right).

You'll want to take it out before it starts rotting away in a month or two.

Oh dear!! All the plants were bought at my lfs!! Wont be shopping there again!!! Which one are you on about?? The green and white one or the big green fearn like one??

 

[Ps3Steveo]

You have to dose liquid carbon daily as it has a 24hr half life so would cause huge fluctuation over a week resulting in algae, HC is great, dose daily some carbon look on aqua essentials and some full ferts like TNC complete. Providing you have good flow it will work, if you don't want to dose try something like eleocharis (hairgrass) it's low tech compatible.

 

[nano55]

You have to dose liquid carbon daily as it has a 24hr half life so would cause huge fluctuation over a week resulting in algae, HC is great, dose daily some carbon look on aqua essentials and some full ferts like TNC complete. Providing you have good flow it will work, if you don't want to dose try something like eleocharis (hairgrass) it's low tech compatible.

Sorry I'm new lol, by low tech do you mean I can just plant it in my tank as it is and it will grow with no aditives etc??

 

[SombreroBanana]

One of those plants isn't an aquatic plant (rear right).

You'll want to take it out before it starts rotting away in a month or two.

Oh dear!! All the plants were bought at my lfs!! Wont be shopping there again!!! Which one are you on about?? The green and white one or the big green fearn like one??

The green and white one and the fern-like one are both terrestrial plants.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Yeah kind of low tech means no CO2, maybe trace ferts like just the T and low lighting. What lighting do you have and what size is your tank?

 

[nano55]

Tank is 55litres and I have one 18w PL light. The tank is an AquaOne AquaNano 40.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Right so we are talking low ish light, you might struggle with HC but I grown it under less light with full ferts and liquid carbon,if you dont want to do that maybe some moss on mesh or eleocharis?

 

[nano55]

How many watts of light would I need??

Sorry I thought eleocharis was hairgrass? http/www.tropica.com/en/plants/plantdescription.aspx?pid=132B this eleocharis looks great but says 0.5w/l so I guess theres no chance of that growing...

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Ignore what it says on those sites, it says HC needs loads and I grew it under old T8 1WPG.

 

[nano55]

Ok so Co2 is erelevent for HC as I havent got enough light

so is it only moss that I can grow?

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Could use Riccia on a mesh pad like these.