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youll need to atleast get into the low light catagory which is around the 1.5 to 2.5wpg catagory

echinodorus quadricostatus var. "magalenensis"
needs a good substrate and 2 wpg

hygrophila polysperma
never kept this plant?

riccia fluitans
easy floating, hard to difficult to maintain submerged (co2 and 3wpg submerged, alot less floating)

echinodorus "ozelot" (green)
a good substrate eats up iron fast, when well rooted

vallisneria spiralis or villisneria americana
easy but you still need more light

hygrophila corymbosa "stricta"
i love this plant very nice and busy, another iron eater

ludwigia arcuata
pulled this stuff from a lake, grows better if allowed to grow above the water line. never got to put it in my tank since i melted in my qurintine tank

dwarf hairgrass
diffcult to propagate unless you have MH and good co2 gave up on this stuff

rotala sp. "nanjenshen" "mayacasellowiana"
pretty easy, dont bunch up let it bunch up on its own, will loose lower leaves if two close together

Resle,

If you bump your wattgae to 2 watts per gallon, I would work with Echinodorus Tenellus. The dwarf sword will five you a low planted effect without the headache of the beautiful but time and resource consuming riccia.

You still need to vacuum your tank, carefully arounf the plants. It helps to lift out the excess excrement but many planted tank enthusiasts will wax eloquent over the benefit of mulm, the plant deletrius that accumulates over time. I hate it and vacuum it away.

__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

with plants do you still have to vacuum the gravel?

would it be best to get Monosolenium tenerum (''Pellia'') instead of riccia? does it look similar?

does the dificulty of riccia when used as carpet lye in keeping itdown or giving it enough light?

Both. It needs a lot of light to reach the bottom to do well. Even with high light it needs a lot of maintenance to keep down. If allowed to grow the bottom will be shaed and the stems will rot and the lot will go floating off. It's quite a bit of work to keep it looking good.

It's pretty academic though. In your current lighting set up it really doesn't have a chance to survive.Getting your lighting levels up should be your priority at the moment.

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Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

MH is metal halide lighting. It produces a lot of light, a lot of heat, and is pretty expensive.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

If you wan't to work towards that luxurious carpeting effect with ricca, than you wan't high light with as much CO2 as you can afford.

The discus should be all right, as long as they have good water quality, and the lights are on at the same time each day. A routine is best, so that the plants and fish can get used to it.
CO2 is not necessary to grow plants, but it is helpful.
I don't know for sure about the riccia, but I'd say that getting light down to it would be the biggest problem, simply because it grows so low down on the substrate. I hope I've helped you in some way.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

would discus be uncomfortable in the amount of light required for my plants and is a co2 necasarey and does the dificulty of riccia when used as carpet lye in keeping itdown or giving it enough light?

AWOL - whats MH?

My dwarf hairgrass is growing very well new shoots coming up all over the place! Its forming quite a tight carpet from only 1 pot of the stuff! I split it up into much smaller pieces, maybe 8 chunks and planted them in the sand. I dont have Co2 and only about 1.6wpg

this my first time with planted plants so i need as much info as possible
the tank will have discus, tetras and others and is 55gallons here the plants i have selected

echinodorus quadricostatus var. "magalenensis"
hygrophila polysperma
riccia fluitans
echinodorus "ozelot" (green)
vallisneria spiralis or villisneria americana
hygrophila corymbosa "stricta"
ludwigia arcuata
dwarf hairgrass
rotala sp. "nanjenshen" "mayacasellowiana"

couple of questions are how do i tie down the riccia fluitans?
what are some plants thhat grown on rocks and driftwood?
are these good choices?

Last edited by resle at 29-Oct-2004 00:03

Additional Co2 is not "necessary" to grow plants. If you look at my tank in the "scaping contest I'll think you'll agree the plants grow pretty well, never injected a bubble of Co2. Having said that it is extremely beneficial, I have recently added a co2 system and the differnce is apparent.

But you have to understand what c02 actually does. It's not a nutrient or fertilizer as such. What it does isdrive the plants to maximise the efficiency of photosynthesis (sp?) ie make the maximum use of the available light. If there is insuffifient light to begin with then the extra Co2 becomes meaningless. Cutting a long story short you need to get lght levels up before moving on to Co2. It's generally consider that Co2 is of most benefit when light levels are at about 2 wpg and above. With lower light levels the addition of Co2 is not providing any real benefit.

I would say at your current light level Co2 would be of little or no help and you should focus on improving your lights first. After that has been achieved the next step would be to consider some form of Co2 supplementation.

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Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

is co2 necesarry for my chosen plants

Hi,

You count the 2 which is 34watts. This is only 0.6 watts per gallon.This is very low. Reflectors won't increase the power of the light although it will help light get to the bottom.
I'm afraid a lot of your plants that you listed wont survive in that kind of low light. You really need to get up 75-100 watts of light.
What type of bulbs are you using and what is the color temperature ? 17 watt bulbs are a strange size for a 55g. You should be able to get a few 40 watt flourescent tubes over a tank that size.

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Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

each flourescant lite for my 55 has 17 watts with no reflector do i count the total together equaling 34 or are they seperate how much higher would the light power be if i added reflectors

i have black gravel 2 bags of it are from topfin and another is a special gravel from some island is this good enough for plants or should i get that aquatic soil from homedepot

you might want to consider soaking your plants in a mild bleach solution, about 1 cup bleach to 5 gallons water, for about ten miniutes befoer you introduce them. I managed to bring both pond snails and some really virulent beard algea into my aquarium via newly introduced plants and I'm just now getting them under control. rinse them thourughly after with dechlorinated water.

Last edited by mike77ca at 29-Oct-2004 09:33

Last edited by mike77ca at 29-Oct-2004 09:34

Hi,
For some interesting thoughts on Riccia, check out this
site:
http://www.nature-aquarium.com/home.htm

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

I tie all my Anubias down with 15lb nylon fishing line you can you use finer that is up to you.

I suggest you have a look at Bernards tank in the latest Aquascape contest. He knows excatly what he is talking about when it comes to growing plants.

He is also very willing to assist where ever he can
Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
VOTE NOW VOTE NOW

Hi,

Just use cotton thread or thin fishing line to tie down in a kind of net design.You can also use something like plastic egg crate and tie it to that (riccia doesn't actually attch itself to anything). This make it a bit easier to maintain as you can lift out and put back in as required. Riccia is a natural floating plant so needs a lot of light to survive underwater. This also makes it difficult to maintain. Keep it well pruned or the bottoms will rot from lack of light and it will go floating to the surface. It's alot of work to keep it looking good.

Anubias, Java Fern, Bolbitis and Java Moss can all grow tied to wood or rock.

As to whether or not your plant selection will work depends on your set-up particularly how much light you have. There are a couple there that need bright lighting to do well.

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Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.