FishProfiles.com Message Forums

I currently have a 20 gallon tall amazon tank. It has a sand bed and two larger pieces of driftwood. I currently have 3 Amazon Swords planted and they are doing pretty well. I have adequate filtration and one lifegro2 bulb which seems to be doing well for the plants. I change 5 gallons every week or every other week (depending). Inhabitants are 1-Bristle Nose Catfish, 1-Neon Tetra (soon to be 4), and 1-Cockatoo Apisto (male).

I'm looking for plant options that will give me some authentic ground cover (as in something that would actually be found in their native habitat. I don't really want something that's high maintenance and if I can avoid buying new lighting that would be great too.

Any suggestions?

"A fish swims through the sea, while the sea is in a certain sense contained within the fish."
-mewithoutYou

How many watts is your lifegro2 bulb?

><>

The most natural ground cover you're going to find in the amazon is leaf litter and dirt. Contrary to what Takashi Amano's tanks may suggest, the bottom of the amazon river isn't covered with clean beds of riccia and glosso In the area where your neons and apistos are found the water is tea colored from tannins leached out by fallen leaves and wood. Mostly swords and floating plants, with tons of leaf litter on the bottom.

If you wanted a natural effect without being completely authentic, I'd go with dwarf sag. or even e. tennellus. It'll do OK in your lighting and will provide some greenery to the bottom level of your tank. Banks of the river do have some grass-like plants along them, so that may work. But really the most natural bottom you can replicate in the aquarium would just be a fine, muddy base, like peat moss.

---

Back in the saddle!

If I am correct you have a bulb with 20 Watt which gives you 1 WPG. Okay for amazons words but in my experience you will only be able to maintain tenellus but not really grow the plants. In order to have the tenellus propser you will need a little bit more light.

Ok, so say I want to put down leaf litter. What type of leaves do I use and how would I prepare them? And... what should I do when doing weekly vacuumings so I don't "suck" all my leaves out?!

Thanks for all the suggestions so far!!

"A fish swims through the sea, while the sea is in a certain sense contained within the fish."
-mewithoutYou

The thing about using leaf litter is this: it's dead, and it's going to decay. As it decays it's going to release ammonia and other organic garbage you don't want in your water. For rivers this is fine, there is a constant source of new water coming in. I'm not sure how easy it'll be to make it work for a closed system like the home aquarium.

You may want to google amazon biotopes/ leaf litter and see what you can see. I've seen some tanks using leaf litter on the substrate, especially apisto tanks. The leaves release a lot of tannins, which gives that blackwater appearance. I'm not sure how those tanks fared long term though.

---

Back in the saddle!