FishProfiles.com Message Forums

Hi i have amazon sword in my tank at the moment but it isnt doing ok but its starting to slowly die off. this is probably down to the lowlight i have but i heard that sometimes it could be kept in low light so i tried.

Im wondering if anybody knows any easy low light background plants? max size 42cm tall 420mm.

My lighting is 2x 18watt.

Sure, it's a species in the Water Sprite group. IME, that family is a little unpredictable - some people have wonderful luck with it, but in many tanks it seems to just go brown and rot away inexplicably. Also, I don't really think of it as a background plant except in fairly small, short tanks. It's often used as a floating plant.

-Molly
Visit shelldwellers.com!

Water Wisteria could be another option it grows fast tall and lush, i've never tried it in a low light tank, but i have some floating in some nursery tanks that only have a really small bulg and it's still growing.

go for some hygro. I had some hygro polysperma in .75 wpg, grew really fast. Now ugraded lights to 2.6 wpg, taking off. My fish love the stuff, constantly swimming through it, looks good too.

Update.

Its been about a month now since i re-done the tank.

Little mousling, the Vals and crypt wenditi are doing good in my low light and the vals are reaching the top all ready and the crypts have a fair few more leaves than they did to start with.

However happy as i am with that its growing it does look abit boring with all the Vals.

It looks like i will be getting more plants anyway to liven it up abit because of the algea problems and i will probably be getting some hornwort and more crypts.

well my plants should be here next wednesday. i will post pics soon as i can.

I just trimmed the val back in my 55g, some of it was 8ft long

its roughy 28gallons.i think i will order 10 corkscrews, 5 wendtii, 5 another background plant (decided against torta as it seems to get too big.





[span class="edited"][Edited by 2004-05-19 01:10][/span]

Edit:im leaning towards Golden Ambulia(if its ok in low light) or Red Vallis Spiralis


[span class="edited"][Edited by 2004-05-19 01:23][/span]

[span class="edited"][Edited by 2004-05-19 01:28][/span]

The corkscrew val is the one I've had the most experience with and IMO it does fine in low light. Is it sure to grow? Nope, but nothing's sure. Similarly, I'd generally recommend Wendtii but of course no guarantees. Try it though!
I get that you have 36 watts, but how big is the tank? Hard to evaluate light levels without both bits of info!

-Molly
Visit shelldwellers.com!

Thanks for the info. i guess indian fern aint that great, which i thought it would be.

Ive seen Red Vallis Spiralis, Vallis Corkscrew and Vallis Torta but it says you need bright light? If they are able to grow in low light like you say they can, do you think they are good vals to have?

Also would Crypt Wendtii(middish plant) be ok in my light?

Sorry about all the questions but i want to get the right plants right when i order them, so i dont have to keep buying more if they die.



[span class="edited"][Edited by 2004-05-18 10:40][/span]

Sorry little mousling i didnt mean to confuse you there. you mananged to post your message just before i managed to post mine after phone shannon.

I like the idea of Vals because we do have very hard water where i live.

I dont really like the look of hornwort it kind of looks like a weed.

Little Mousling do you know any info on Indian Fern by any chance? (i dont seem to find any good info on them)

I will find some pics of Vals in the mean time.

thanks for all the suggestions everyone.

My Anachris make a good background plant in my 29g

I'm probably gonna get some Vals now...I didn't realize that they were a low light plant

I agree, Vals are great, hardy and lo maintenance plants, i've had them in low light conditions and they don't grow fast but they grow.

As for swords, i found that amazon swords can live well in low light tanks.

Which one? Vals, yup. Obviously no guarantees (every tank is different), but it's pretty widely accepted, and I agree, that it's a low-light plant.

-Molly
Visit shelldwellers.com!

cheers for the suggestion. i take it can survive in low light though?

Vals - as long as you have hardish water (or sling some shells or crushed coral in the filter), they'll grow like hotcakes. Corkscrews are probably what you'll see in stores, they're great. American/jungle vals get huge, but you can always yank the too-big ones and keep the babies.

Hornwort's good too, but a totally different look. It's up to you which you like.

Others:
Anacharis (although it tends to prefer high light to medium, it inexplicably tends to grow well in low light, albeit with long internodes)
Green Hygro or, better yet, Giant Hygro (sometimes called Blue Stricta). Both can be great background plants as well as lovely midgrounders, and tend to do well in low light as long as it's not tooooo low.

-Molly
Visit shelldwellers.com!

Hornwort. Not only is it tall, but you will have to cut it back once a week.

the only one i could find is Indian Fern. Would this be ok?