Low light plants

[marnold00]

Hey,

I have a corner of my tank that needs a good 25-30cm tall plant but it is a very low light part of the tank thanks to my frogbit.

Any suggestions? Low tech is preferable. I have 4 degree KH and 8 degree GH water, no ferts, no CO2 and lights (standard stock flourescent tube) ar on 8 hours a day.


Thanks in advance

 

[Baker]

Bacopa, anacharis, water wisteria, water sprite are all good water column feeders that can grow pretty tall, the wisteria would get a lot bushier but the others are pretty much stem plants.

A dwarf lily bulb would grow nicely in a dark corner and since it's a bulb plant it will have all the nutrients it needs stored in the bulb, that would last about 6 months before it dies back down and then from that point it would probably want frets to grow back in nicely. Side note: the lilies are seasonal so it's perfectly normal for them to die off and come back after a couple months.

It would still be best to use liquid frets to see the best growth out of all these plants but probably not necessary depending on what comes out of your tap.

 

[marnold00]

Thanks for the advice! Plenty of choice I'll keep my eye out for some at a good price. Water wisteria seems a good bet - looked for some of that before and ended up with some water fern (dont know the name) which is thriving in my tank. In reality i need to add water ferts but never know what to get!

Dont shout at me for this but i use RO with a scoop of 'minerals' which i dont actually know whats in it.... Just whats the LFS offers and plants are OK in it... The only one to ever thrive is the water fern and my amazon frogbit

 

[Byron]

Thanks for the advice! Plenty of choice I'll keep my eye out for some at a good price. Water wisteria seems a good bet - looked for some of that before and ended up with some water fern (dont know the name) which is thriving in my tank. In reality i need to add water ferts but never know what to get!

Dont shout at me for this but i use RO with a scoop of 'minerals' which i dont actually know whats in it.... Just whats the LFS offers and plants are OK in it... The only one to ever thrive is the water fern and my amazon frogbit

If "water fern" refers to floating Water Sprite (Ceratopteris cornuta), this along with the Frogbit, both doing OK but nothing else, it is more likely a light issue. Though I'm not saying you don't need a liquid comprehensive fertilizer, but it may not do much if light is the issue. Floaters are close to the light source so they get more than lower plants would, even without the shading aspect.

The stem plants Baker suggested are nice, but in low light won't amount to much. I've no luck with Wisteria (Hygrophila difformis) or Water Sprite planted in the substrate, because of my low/moderate lighting. What should work is Java Fern, attached to a chunk of wood standing vertical. This is how I fill the back corners in most tanks, either just a chunk of wood reaching to the surface (resembling a tree trunk), or one on which I attach Java Fern. Java Moss will spread on such wood too,if you want more green than brown, and moss is low light.

 

[Baker]

It's not a bad thing necessarily to use RO water, the thing to know about it is just that it's chemically inert but if your plants are doing alright then at least you know the "minerals" are doing something,
If you do want to start dabbling in plant fertilizer though I would recommend just picking up a bottle of seachem flourish, make sure it's the comprehensive blend and follow the directions on the bottle for the first few months just to see how your plants react to it. The comprehensive blend is richer in micronutrients and less so with the macros which should be alright because you're getting some of that with your inhabitants waste production anyway.

 

[marnold00]

Thank you both!

With the fern im just going off what my memory tells me. Its planted in the substrate near the filter outlet so doesnt have plant cover so gets lots of light. Its tripled in size over the past month and a half.

RO is required as my tapwater is so hard i dont really have cups of coffee... A week after a clean kettle i have cups of dark brown limescale haha!

Tempted to have a dabble with seachem flourish comprehensive gets good reviews and isnt that expensive... £10.99 for what looks to be enough to last me a fairly long time as my tank is only 20 US Gal.


As to the plant colour im not too fussed really. The half of my tank in the light is filled with bright green (EDIT: green from plants not algae!). The half covered with frogbit (and currently only containing a rather sad ozelot sword and driftwood) is more of gloomy but it kinda works. So a less vibrant plant could look pretty cool there tbh.

 

[Logic]

vallisneria

 

[Logic]

get nilocg dry ei fertz