Low Budget

[pieman]

I've spent around £150 on my tank and I don't have much left at all, I want to add a small plant to my tank for some of my fish to hide in and swim through without having their fins ripped apart.

I have a 58litre gravel based tank and was wondering is it really nessecery to have one of these CO2 kits?

 

[karlp]

No, it's not necessary if all your after is a couple of plants.

If you pick something quite easy to keep like amazon sword, anubias species, Vallis, they will do quite well in lower lighting and no CO2.

 

[pieman]

Currently I have a 15watt light in a 58Litre (15.3 US Gallon) tank, will is that low enough?

I'm also looking for something with lost of thin fine leaves (basicaly something like grass )

 

[karlp]

If you can add another 15W tube, it would be better. A single 15W is a bit low to try to grow any plants really. You'll probably find they'll either grow really slowly, or just slowly die. You should also look at replacing the existing tube with tube designed for plant growth and a reflector if it's not already got one.

Grassy plants have a root system that does better with some fertilizer in the substrate, so if you've not already put fertilizer in the substrate, get some plant fertilizer tables to plant underneath them.

Dwarf Sag or Pygmy chain sword should be suitable, although it's unlikely you'll get a good carpet covering without higher light and CO2 usage and they do normally grow quite short.

Cabomba is quite a good plant for low light if you've got fairly hard water too, will grow tall quite quickly.

 

[pieman]

Thanks for your help, i'm going to Pets At Home on friday to get some equipment and more food for my tank, then when I goto the Garden Center (huge fish section) I will look at some plants for my tank I had a look around a few sites and am going to be looking for Vallisneria spiralis.

Thanks

 

[wrecker]

buy some java moss

 

[TammyLiz]

I would say the val will lose leaves faster than it can grow them with that amount of light. I had one in a 10 gallon with the same amount of light and thats what it did. Your tank will be even worse because it is deeper. Plus, my bulb was brand new, full spectrum. The same plant is doing fine now in a different tank with higher light. If you aren't going to increase light you should go with anubias or java fern, anything else would probably be a waste of money because it would just melt away.

 

[pieman]

I've been reading up about various plants and apart from ones like java moss, they don't do well in a gravel base since they cant anchor themselves, I don't want to put an sand in either as this will be very hard to clean, is this true, becuase if it is i may just use a small glass bottle/old fish food tub and then fill that with sand and put the plant in.

Also when I gave a description of grass, I ment it as in long thin strands as opposed to a bed for the tank i.e. java moss.

Thanks for all help so far

 

[pieman]

Would the light issue matter so much if i bought a CO2 unit with diffuser?

Also I have one person telling me I have too much light, whilst another is saying i have too little, who should i believe

 

[Phillip.M]

the one who said u have 2 lil light. High lighting=2-3 watts per gallon

 

[Alex_]

Yes, there is still a ligth issuse even if you have Co2. think of light as being their
food and Co2 being what they drink well and fert i dont have one for that but,
you understand?