I am starting a ten gallon open top tank. I have a 24 wt cf 50/50 actinic bulb.I will suspend the light about 6"-8"above.I am planning to use eco complete substrarte.I am debating using a diy co2 setup. I want plants that will grow up and out of the water and possibly flower. Does anyone have suggestions on plants to get this effect with these specs?
Apponogetons (that is a spelling travesty I'm pretty sure) will send flowering runners to the surface. I have heard that some amazon swords will do the same. The aponogetons (maybe if I spell it differently no one will notice) are the only ones I have experience with... some may be too big for a 10g anyway. You know what, pretend you never read this post...
Id suggest some lillies, though tiger lillies get quite large. Most flowering plants will get much too large for 10 gal tank. I havent had any Swords to flower...I have a 30gal with an open top and numerous swords...they send runners that develop into small plants but never any flowers. 10 gals is going to really limit what you can put into the tank and most flowering plants take up a lot of space and lots of nutrients.
Possibly. Fully grown, "lucky bamboo" (Dracasomething sandisomething...) gets quite large and the root system probably wouldn't fit well in a 10g. A lot of people seem to just keep it floating/suspended in water though.
Since no one has mentioned it...I just want to say that you will probably have quite a time trying to grow plants in a 10 gallon tank with only 12 watts of light. The actinic bulb is really for saltwater tanks and the blue light doesn't do much for freshwater plants, so with a 50/50 bulb you are basically cutting your wattage in half. I would suggest getting a daylight bulb with 20 watts or more.
A tip if you try to search the internet looking for plants that will come out of the tank and flower: Emmersed growth is growth out of the water and immersed growth is growth underwater.
