Low growing grass like plants

[Jennet15 73]

As the title says, does anyone know the name of any low growing grass like plants that I may be able to but in the uk please?

I have just thrown out (in a sealed bag) the half a dozen plants I bought for my aquarium, and I am going to carry on cycling it bare, with just putting in a lettuce leaf or similar weighted down for the forseeable future until I don't find any more snails clinging to it for several days.

Thanks

 

[Uberhoust]

Your lighting will likely affect what is available. For me I haven't found any low growing grass like plants, but I only have 48watt LED for a 75 gallon tank (about 98 par). If you have more light there are more opportunities.

 

[GaryE]

I (as usual) agree with @Uberhoust . I have seen and spent money on low grassy plant tissue cultures. I generally do extremely well with those cultures, but not with those ones. You need quite intense lighting and shallow tanks help. Such plants aren't easy.

I have some non grassy Marsilea ground cover talking off in a shallow experiment set up, with two good plant lights on it. It's bright. When it comes to plant keeping, I'm generally not.

 

[TwoTankAmin30]

How are you adding ammonia to get it cycled?

A low growing grass-like plant would be dwarf hairgrass aka Eleocharis pusilla 'Mini' This is one that Tropica grows and sells so should be easy to find, BUT (height below is in cm)

Plant info​

Origin:	Cultivar
Growth rate:	Slow
Height:	3 - 5+
Light demand:	Medium
The average or medium light demand of an aquarium plant is 0,5 W/L.
CO2:	Medium
A medium need in CO2 is 6-14 mg/L.A high demand in CO2 is approx. 15-25 mg/L.

from--> https://tropica.com/en/plants/plantdetails/4571/4571

I grew this easily in my high tech planted tank- High light level and added pressurized CO2.

Dwarf hair grass can be pruned lower, but it is messy. I used a vacuum connected to my H.O.T. Magnum filter (no longer made) and sucked up the cuttings as I made them. Otherwise, they would have rapidly scattered all over the tank makeng an awful mess to clean up.

 

[Jennet15 73]

@Uberhoust It looks pretty bright from where I am sitting, but I will check the blurb written on the box tomorrow, (don't throw stuff away till I'm sure I've got all info I need from it).

Just spent some time researching on line to find out what kind of stuff I like the look of, but will come back to check it with you guys on here before I make any decisions. I am also going to go with tissue cultured plants in future - I've learned my lesson with snails.

 

[MattW35 151]

Sagittaria subulata will show you if you have enough light. I had it a couple of years back in my Flex, it grew tall when the light wasn't sufficient enough.

 

[Jennet15 73]

@TwoTankAdmin Absolutely love your aquariums, but I would not be able to manage cutting the Dwarf hairgrass! I am just over 5ft 1" and my aquarium is on top of two pieces of heavy furniture that the top comes about 4" below the top of my shoulder.

I already have to stand on a high stool to get to do anything other than draw water with a syringe for testing. It has to be this way due to my 4 year old grandson who is going through the process of being tested for Autism, and as his Mom and my husband both have Attention Deficit Disorder it is highly likely that he may have this too. Unfortunately over here in the UK they don't start to test for that until a child reaches 6 years old, so will be a few years yet before we know about that.

 

[Jennet15 73]

From what I have seen so far, am liking the look of Elceocharis Belem and maybe some Dwarf four leaf clover or Monte Carlo in the foreground, and maybe Pygmy Sword chain a little further back on one side and possibly Dwarf Sagittaria on the other side.

My aim is to try to get away with not having anything planted that does not have to be cut back and things that float that I can pull out as needed. (Oh well - to not try, one will never know the joy of succeeding).

What are peoples thoughts on this as a possibility? I never planted tanks when I kept fish in the past, just threw in oxygenating plants.

​

 

[TwoTankAmin30]

I tower over you. At my peak I was 5'5" but gravity and the loss of the disk under my L5 vertebrate I am just oiver 5'3". I figured between some parts replaced and shrinkage I will never die, I will just disappear. And I am a member of the "wet armpit cub" Membership comes from my reaching into deeper tanks on my small ladder or stool.

Live plants make the best filtration we have in a fw tank.

The plants you want which do not grow are made of silk or plastic. All the rest will. Last Oct. I bought. a small bag of Amazon frogbit at the club auction. When I got it home it was late and I filled a bucket in the bathtub and put it there. By the time I got back to it a couple of days later there was enough left in usable condition to put a small portion into 3 or 4 tanks. Today I have it in 6 planted tanks. I have been bringing two big bags of it to monthly club auctions to sell.

I have one of the 6 tanks above started just for frogbit and excess anubias, I have thrown away enough of it to cover the surface of a 220 gal. tank. I have to keep removing frogbit from tanks weekly.

When one buys plats for tanks they are usually described in a few ways. One way is how fast they grow. Another is how difficult they are to grow with Easy being with what most of us start. Note the term grow always figures in the description. All live plants grow and even the slow ones do so. You cannot prevent them from growing and needing to be pruned. But,

You can grow plants in smaller terracotta planter or attached to wood, rocks or other decor. If you get one of these you can move them easily. They come in a variety of lengths and are made to be used in tanks. I have a 24 inch set. The grabber's end has rubber tips.

This was my 75 between being versions of a more permanent planted community. So I used it to quarantine these imported redline barbs for a few months. Nothing in this pic is planted in the substrate which was less than an inch of sand. Every one of those plant began life way way smaller.

 

[Back in the fold1]

There’s a short Sagittarius that you might like . I think it’s called Pygmy Chain Sword . Somebody here must know which plant I’m talking about . I , of course , do not .

 

[GaryE]

I find there's quite an explosion in plant keeping in my local club. There are a number of people who don't keep fish, but just plants and shrimp in large tanks. There is a bit of technology involved with many of the plants - CO2, specialized lighting, ferts... there is even a new local store opened online that sells only plants and specialized high intensity lighting.

I've noticed a different focus on aquariums with the Ukrainian refugee community. It seems there is an aquarium scene there and a few very skilled aquatic gardeners.

All this is pushing me to be fashionable and catch up. I want to be able to stay in the conversation with these young planted tank people. I'm finding there's way more to it than my old ways of choosing plants that survive. I've always had planted tanks - sometimes jungles of plants, but plants have always been a distant second to the fish. I've been exploring aquascaping a bit more, and trying some plants that are considered harder to keep. They are.

Like with fish, when you decide to raise your game with more difficult ones, you can waste a lot of money and potential if you haven't gotten the supporting 'infrastructure' in place. Kit lights don't do it. Here, floating plants need ferts, and rooted ones need root tabs. My clean, excellent tap water and lightly stocked tanks lack pollutants!

These one step up in difficulty plants need more attention than I ever offered plants before. Beware - when people say an unfamiliar plant is easy, bear in mind they may already have invested in aquatic plant lights, CO2 and ferts they assume you have too.

 

[Jennet15 73]

Thank you all for your really useful replies.

I already looked at the Pygmy Chain Sword, but put a cross against it in the notebook I write in to keep all my facts in line. I will go back to look at this as from memory it may have been something to do with needing soft water, and from my kettle, I know we have hard water here. However, tests I have done may indicate that it fluctuates.

I only have one 80 litre that is currently cycling and have not yet set up the little 24 litre that I bought from Pets @ Home yet. I also plan to get another aquarium that has to fit inside a hole of just 37.5" x 23" x 25" so will be looking for an aquarium to fit in there.

In the future I may see if I can make enough room by getting rid of some furniture to put another aquarium in, but not sure about that yet, as one piece of furniture holds a lot of memories from my parents home.

I have not been able to find any information on line about any tropical fish forums near me, but I will speak to Ian (the cory man) when I next see him at my lfs.

 

[gimme302 1]

Crypt parva. Grows in hard water, low light requirements, doesn't melt like other crypts when added to the tank. If you're looking for a carpet you'll have to buy lots of it because it is one seriously slow growing plant. Dwarf sag would work too but needs a little more light. Skip the monte carlo unless you intend to add C02.

 

[GaryE]

I have not been able to find any information on line about any tropical fish forums near me, but I will speak to Ian (the cory man) when I next see him at my lfs.

I've only spoken to Ian Fuller once, when we both were speakers at an aquarium convention in the US many years ago. Our talks were around the same time so I didn't get to see his, and our meeting was late in the evening in the lobby with a bunch of diehard aquarists who had a generous supply of beer. I can't say I know the man, but I liked him.

As far as my fishworld goes, to me he is one of the top contributors to the hobby, internationally. You are very lucky to have an opportunity to just run into him. He's the equivalent of finding a world class author or musician next door. You should buy a lottery ticket.

You know he may try to convince you to get rid of everything but the cory catfish.... and they don't like low growing grass like habitats.

 

[Jennet15 73]

I've only spoken to Ian Fuller once, when we both were speakers at an aquarium convention in the US many years ago. Our talks were around the same time so I didn't get to see his, and our meeting was late in the evening in the lobby with a bunch of diehard aquarists who had a generous supply of beer. I can't say I know the man, but I liked him.

As far as my fishworld goes, to me he is one of the top contributors to the hobby, internationally. You are very lucky to have an opportunity to just run into him. He's the equivalent of finding a world class author or musician next door. You should buy a lottery ticket.

You know he may try to convince you to get rid of everything but the cory catfish.... and they don't like low growing grass like habitats.

I could always ditch the idea of getting a taller custom build aquarium in the 'hole' that I currently have and just buy a shorter one and a good plant light and get more cory's and another community tank that I can keep some of the smaller Paracheirodons.... He's not at work at the moment. Was not in the other day when I went nor today, so may be on holiday or possibly doing another talk somewhere.

I will be taking a couple of large rocks back there to exchange for neon green rasboras and chilli rasboras and a few harlequin rasboras to keep them company as these are what I am going for in my 80 litre aquarium. If he's there then, I will have a chat with him about what I could set up where I have the above hole, and if I take the glass out of the area underneath, I could also set up another maybe 12" high aquarium under there.... hmmmmm......