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man this is challenging

i am loach frenzy, so i did some research but i don't know if i could find the right plant for my 55g tank.

1st - plant need light, loach don't like light

2nd - plant need CO2 so meaning less water movement in the tank, but currently my tank have 1 aquaclear, and 1 powerhead so i have some currents running the tank which i think will reduce the amount of dissolve CO2 in the tank. my loach love swimming against the current by the powerhead though

3rd - loach are bottom feeder i couldn't even put a fake plant inside cause they always digging the substrate for food


any suggestion? /:'

Hi,
Here are the answers from my side. Its just my opinion, experienced plant gurus may help u better.
1. provide enough plant cover for the loaches. They'll live happily under the shades. You can also stick with low/medium light plants. Provide them enough hiding places.
2. Flourish Excel provides Carbon in form of comlex compounds, not free CO2. Surface aggetation should not effect that. You can even keep low/medium light and slow growing plants without CO2. Some plants, like ferns, would actually love the current.
3. If you have a good depth of substrate and the substrate is a bit larger coarse in size , loaches wont be able to do much damage and the plants would stay rooted. You can use plants like Java fern and anubius tied to driftwood/rocks. I have yoyos in a planted tank with hardly a problem ever.

-Haroon

If you stick with ferns and anubias tied to rocks and wood, they'll do just fine in moderate current and without high lighting, and your loaches will love having the decoration to explore and hide out in. I had a big pleco that was very destructive and I wanted a planted tank, so I went with a jungle of lots of anubias. It looks great, it's SO easy to care for, and the pleco can't hurt it. I imagine that the same would go for loaches.

Hoping that there must be a word for everything I mean...

What loaches do you have? I've kept various botia, dojos, and now kuhlies in a planted tank with 4-5wpg and various substrate covers. They quite enjoy plants growing on the substrate to wiggle through. I also never found that they really minded the light that much. Once they got used to it provided you gave them some hiding places like driftwood and a few tall plants they were quite happy. My kuhlies are always out even in the middle of the day. They tend to stay toward the bottom and wiggle through the aquatic clover but I see one or 2 swimming across the middle-surface of the tank every few days. The dojos were always in the middle of the tank or playing at the surface. My loaches never really seem to care there's four 65w bulbs and two 40w bulbs shining down on them.

I to have Kuhli loaches, 5 of them. They love the bronze wendtii I have all over the tank. I have 4 40watt bulbs and the kuhlis are usually out and about. I can look under the tank and the plants have a major root system.

oh ya forgot to let you all know, the residence are 4 clown, 4 zebra and 4 red fin loach.

every time i fed them especially the brine shrimp and blood worms they'll will be digging the substrate, last time i tried to use some fake plants, it stays there for 1 night only i guess, cause the next morning the fake plants were floating on the tank already

i have 1 driftwood and 2 caves for those loaches.

i want to do something with the tank especially with the plants cause it looks empty to me with only substrate and hiding places for them.

You can anchor fake plants to the bottom of the tank using suction cups. I did this with some driftwood that wouldn't sink for a while. Unfortunately, you have to clear away all the gravel to get the suction cup to stick to the bottom, but it works quite well, and can be completely hidden. I used fishing line tied around the top of the cup (mine had a little nub that made this easy), then tied my wood--or in your case, the fake plants--with the fishing line, and then stuck the cup securely to the bottom of the tank. I used the heavy duty black suction cups because they last longer and are harder to dislodge. Then cover the gravel back over the cup and you'd never know it was there.

Hoping that there must be a word for everything I mean...