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A couple days ago I broke down my 46 gallon tank and completely cleaned everything, because I wanted to start a new "project" with it. The fish are living in some other established tanks for the time being.

I was thinking that it should be some sort of moss/grass tank, so I need some people's opinions on what kind of grassy plants I could put in there. I wasn't planning on using CO2 on this tank (between my other fish tanks and 12 snakes, I don't know if I would have the time for that), so I was thinking I should get some hardy, slow-growing species to sort of match the moss. Ideally this would be a low-maintenance tank.

The lighting is two 96 watt compact fluorescent daylight bulbs, and the substrate is just plain gravel. I haven't dosed any fertilizers yet, but I might start doing that if it will make the moss/grass grow faster. The pH is about 7.6-7.8, and moderately hard.

I have some large rocks and driftwood in the tank right now, but right now with nothing behind the driftwood (which is only slightly lighter than the background), the rocks appear to be dominating the tank. I want the moss to grow on the rocks a bit. The driftwood is in many pieces, so I can move it around if necessary. I know the sawed-off edges look kind of weird, but it took me half an hour just to cut through them with a hacksaw, and I'm not sure how to make them look more "natural".

The plants I have in there are Christmas Moss, Taiwan Moss, narrow-leaf Java Ferns, Anubias Nana, and some Cyperus I just planted today (I assume it's C. helferi). I've been hearing conflicting information about the latter... When I purchased it I was told that it is a slow-growing plant that basically just needs bright light to be happy (which I have), but online sites say it is difficult to grow and needs CO2 and special substrate. I don't want it to take over the tank or anything; I think the way it is now is the perfect height.

I was probably going to take the Anubias out of the tank once the moss, ferns, and Cyperus is better established to focus on the moss and "grass". I welcome any comments or suggestions anyone has about the setup so far. The water is a bit cloudy right now due to the tank cycling.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

i think it looks good as is, but if your looking for a grassy thing to cover the substrate there are many options and you might want to consider dwarf chain sword, or dwarf hairgrass. there is also riccia and you could do some moss matts over the substrate.

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

Yeah I was thinking about planting a bunch of moss over the substrate. I've tried chain swords before, but I must have had too much light or something because they just stayed extremely flat and didn't add to the tank too much. Sort of just looked like a bunch of green spiders on the substrate.

I've tried Riccia before as well, and that grew too well. As soon as it got more than a couple centimeters thick the bottom died off and then little pieces of it floated everywhere. It took me forever to get that stuff out.

I'm probably just going to buy a bunch of moss online to cover the bottom and cover the rocks a bit.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

youll probably want to tie the moss onto smallflat river rocks or use a mesh method to get it to grow from the substrate... possible could use a bark of soemkind, but i dont know how that would affect the water chemistry... a supplier from singapore i think has alot of mosses availble and currently has a 6''X6'' piece of xmas moss for i think ten dollars and free shipping... if you want to email them their email is : sales@aqmagic.com they havs some good moss prices along with free shipping via their website www.aquaticmagic.com and on aquabid. but your best bet on a deal would be to email them and ask for their wholsale moss prices... and the best thing is that they have a 100% satisfction guarantee so if it is damaged or whatever they will refund you or send it again until you are happy. the other thing is the "insure" your satisfaction with the products for like month or so. only set back is it take about two weeks to come in. you shoudl really look into them... i have never seen any LFS that carried mosses in SOCAL, so i used them... what part of california are you in?

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

I was looking at AquaticMagic's auctions last night on Aquabid and they seem like a pretty good deal - 20 square inches of Christmas Moss for $19.95. That's a lot cheaper than I've seen it in stores around here (usually around $7-10 for four square inches). I would probably buy some tonight but I'm going out of town later this week, so I guess I'll have to wait.

I'm in the Bay Area. What part of SoCal are you in? I am going to be in Anaheim in September for the reptile convention, and if you know the area are there any good fish stores you recommend?

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

you dont have to purchase through an auction just tell them your budget and what you wnat and they will find somthing to fit it... plus it takes like 15 days to arrive (pretty steady but on average) so you should be ok if you order it now, or plus not to mention about two or three days for processing of the order... yeah they are an excellent deal! but a fair bit of warning their anubias dont ship well but i ordered some crypts that are doing well... i am an avid customer of them but they probable hate be cuz alot of stuff dies on me... not really their fault, but i ask them for a reship of wither the same or different product depending on why the things die...

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

I'll probably purchase some in a few days so I can make sure it doesn't arrive when I'm gone (especially with the heat we're having). The moss they list in their eBay store seems to be cheaper than the stuff on Aquabid...?

I guess I'll buy it on eBay then (or email them about getting a larger portion instead).

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

You had to go and redo a tank about the same time I am...

I have to say, yours looks quite nice as it currently is. I'm also considering buying from Aquaticmagic.

Have you ever had any luck with hairgrasses? Dwarf hairgrass might be nice in that tank too.

><>

Thanks! Hairgrass might be a good idea, I've never tried growing it before, though.... I guess I could have that sort of in the front, the Cyperus in the back, and is there a sort of medium-height grass that could go in the middle? I've tried Dwarf Sagittarias before and didn't have much luck with them, even though they are supposed to be easy (I think some of the fish were eating them).

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Tank seems to have cleared up...

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

the tank looks nice. with some moss growth it should look stunning... AquaticMAgic has and A+ in my eyes, nothing but great stuff or your money back.. thats all that matters in a good bussiness right? well it should be what matters!

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

I love this tank as is!

I wouldn't add anything else - the current arrangement has a certain flair to it. Its simple & stylish.

What are the fish that I can see swimming about in the latest pics?

G_T

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.

Thanks for the replies. I'm still debating whether or not I should take the Anubias Nana out... I guess I'll have to wait until I get some more plants in there to determine if it fits well or not.

I'm pretty sure I want to at least add some more moss to the tank, because the large areas of gravel look kind of weird. I also think I should add some more grass behind the driftwood to make it stand out a bit more against the black background.

The fish are an Arulius Barb and a Denison Barb... I have them and a bristlenose in there right now.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Thanks for the replies. I'm still debating whether or not I should take the Anubias Nana out... I guess I'll have to wait until I get some more plants in there to determine if it fits well or not.

I'm pretty sure I want to at least add some more moss to the tank, because the large areas of gravel look kind of weird. I also think I should add some more grass behind the driftwood to make it stand out a bit more against the black background.

Nice set up you have going there. You have done a good job with the layout. I have a couple of comments/suggestions for you.

1st ~ Leave the anubias and let it grow it. A nice solid mid-ground holds the scape together. See the link in my sig. for the 55G.

2nd ~ It wouldn't heart to fill in the back a little farther to the right with the C. helferi. That will help balance your mound.

3rd ~ If you are going to have the moss bordering the large rocks I would not add a foreground plant unless it was something very short like HC. If you place the moss on smaller rocks and border the large rock then an average height foreground plant would work fine.

Overall you have done a great job. I look forward to watching this tank grow in.

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

Thanks for the suggestions. Yeah, I'm thinking about leaving the Anubias in for at least a little while longer, to see how it establishes itself. The Anubias in your tank looks excellent; it really helps bring everything together.

As for the Cyperus, I was planning on getting some more to plant in the back, but the two plants I got were the only ones they had at the store at the time. Otherwise I would have gotten a few more of them (I really like the way they look). Hopefully they don't die on me, though... 4.2 WPG should be enough for them I hope.

The Blyxa in your tank also looks very good (I had never even heard of that stuff before I read your thread recently), but I don't think I could get something like that to grow in my tank unless I rigged up some CO2 and added a bunch of fertilizer.

With the moss, I was not going to have it cover the substrate completely because that tends to make the tank difficult to clean. I do want it to grow around all the rocks though and cover some areas of the substrate, particularly on the sides of the tank where it looks a bit bare. There is no moss at all on the right side of the tank right now, so I want to install some over there.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

dwarf hairgrass would look nifty up in the front of your set up, in one of the corners or near a rock... I love the natural set up, looks great