Need grassy plants!

[Scooter]

Can someone give me some recommendations on an easy to grow aquarium grass that requires little in the way of lighting, fertilizer, co2, etc.? The scientific name would be helpful too. TIA.

[Cheech]

java moss... Easy to grow. Should be tied down to a piece of driftwood. Or even or a coconut shell.. Kinda gives it a cool look...

[Scooter]

Thanks Cheech. I want a strictly foreground grassy plant and I'm afraid that Java Fern might get a little long for what I need. I'm looking into Lilaeopsis brasiliensis (Micro Sword), but I'm getting conflicting information. Some sources say low light requirement, others say it MUST have bright light.

[Mr.Jingles]

woops, wrong post. I use glossastigma? (dwarf hair grass. spreads nicely and is semi small.

[Shiftaltumlock]

Try some Marsilea Quadrifolia or Aquatic Clover. It is a medium light foreground plant.

How much light do you have?

You can grow Glossostigma in as little as 2wpg, if you provide Co2 and nutrients.

Glosso is the ultimate foreground plant, IMO.

[Scooter]

Thanks Jingles and Shift. Right now I've got about 1 watt per gallon, but I hope to change that within the month. Currently, I'm not adding any CO2 or fertilizer, though I might change that as well. I have to say I don't know just a whole lot about aquarium plants so I appreciate the info.

[Richer]

Not much to say about plants, thats a personal preference, and it depends on what you can get in your area =)

But I can comment about lighting and CO2. If I were you, I would save my money, and stick with low light plants for now (anubias will work very nicely as a low light carpet type plant). Why do you ask? Instead of running off to get more lighting, save your money for a good pressurized CO2 system. Many people make the assumption that more light = better growth without factoring in CO2. In the end the only thing really taking off in their tanks is algae. Get a good stable CO2 concentration in your tank going first, then consider getting more lighting.

HTH
-Richer

[Mr.Jingles]

I agree with richer. CO2 is worth more of the investment than lighting. you could go out and buy a shoplight or two, depending on the size of your tank, and it would work fine. But with that lighting, algae would flourish without the addition of CO2 to help the plants compete. Plants dont use nutrients as much when they arent photosynthasizing because they arent producing more parts of the plant to service.

My glosso has already begun to spread out after 1 week and looks great. I would reccamend this, but you should also try other types of foreground. Uniformity doesnt look as good as a natural or wild motif, IMO. But a layout is needed to balance it.

anyways, microswords are both nice foreground glosso. There are also those clover type foreground plant that I cant think of, but they are good when the conditions are correct. You must remember that there really isnt such a thing as an aquatic plant that doesnt need much lighting, CO2, or fertalizer. not unless you are talking about java moss or algae. You will always need to provide a decent amount of lighting, CO2, and fertalizer for them to be healthy.

[Scooter]

Thanks guys. Sounds like some great advice. What I meant by not much lighting harkens back to much of what I read that says you "have" to have at least two watts per gallon to be successful with plants. Either that's just plain false or I'm doing everything right. One of my tanks has less than one watt per gallon, but it's got a variety of plants in it (besides grassy types) that have all grown and spread (now maybe not as fast as they would have with more lighting - but this particular tank has virtually no algae). Oh well. Again, I appreciate your input. I'll probably concentrate on the CO2 for now because it will give me the added potential benefit of lowering the pH in the tank.

[Richer]

Good idea, work on CO2. Whoever told you that you need at least 2 watts per gallon to grow plants successfully was somewhat mis-informed. 2 watts per gallon is the threshold for CO2 injection being a must. When you hit (and surpass) about 2 watts per gallon, you can start to get into more demanding plants. That however doesn't mean less wattage won't work =)
I'm currently planning a low light plant tank myself (so far it looks like the tank will get less than 1.5 watts/gallon), and I've known quite a few ppl grow beautiful plant tanks with lighting less than 2watts/gallon. So for sure, you don't need 2 watts/gallon to grow things successfully =D

HTH
-Richer

[Robert H]

I disagree somewhat. I find 2watts per gallon to be low to moderate light with or without CO2. Lighting is the most crital factor for growing plants, CO2 second. At one watt per gallon I dont think any plant will grow at its optimum rate, but the only plants that would have the best chance at that light level are the slowest growing plants. There aren't any grass plants that would fall in that catagory. E tenellus and Dwarf Sag are the easiest foreground grass plants to grow, but I don't think they will do that well without more light. But hey, you can always give it a try.

[Mr.Jingles]

The amount of light and amount of CO2 are actually related.

Light is a certain type of energy. You must remember the plants cannot use this form of energy flat out. If they could, there would be no talk of CO2. Carbon is the base of any organic compound.

read http://www.life.uiuc.edu/govindjee/paper/gov.html for a confusing, yet complete description of photosynthasis which tells why, indirectly, CO2 is just as important as light.

What it essentially said was that Light energy, in its two forms, breaks down CO2 into a usable form of carbohydrates. Which means that light and CO2 could not serve the plant without one another.


This is also a nice site with diagrams: http://photoscience.la.asu.edu/photosyn/education/photointro.html

[Robert H]

Well the intensity of the light determins the photosynthetic rate, and CO2 must be present for photosynthesis. You can read my own article on the subject

http://www.aquabotanic.com/photosyn.htm

[Richer]

I only suggested that Scooter concentrate on CO2 injection first because I assumed that if he adds any more light he'll likely go over 2wpg. Needless to say, without a good CO2 concentration in the tank, he'll probably get an algae bloom.

-Richer

[plantbrain]

CO2 has a great effect at 2watt even less, down to 1 watt/gallon IME.
I've been squawking about this issue that Gloss, hairgrass and other plants don't need 1/2 the light folks use on it of often advise.

At the AGA, Claus mentioned this.
You can go to the Tropica web site to see a nice somewhat technical write on the subject of CO2 effects on a low light aquarium.
A controlled study is nice and they used one plant, Riccia, which is a rather odd plant, from an odd group, but I found the same results several years before hand in practical hobbyist terms with about 60 species of plants. I would extened the species list out to all plants.
Amano has a similar opinion.

I've seen some very nice gloss carpets at 1.5 watts, a 15w light on a 10 gallon tank.
The Gloss looked as good as any I've seen.
Steve Dixon's 125 has 2.1 watt and it's the T-12 bulbs with a few little 9 watt PC's and a regular reflector. The tank is 24 inches deep.
His Gloss and tank looks great. It was on the cover of the first issue of Plant Aquarium Magazine.

I like Dwarf clover. It's nice.
E. tennellus is nice, Cuban chainswords,
Dwarf lobelia is the easiest IMO/IME. I've seen it for sale here a few times.
Anubias nana is nice but cost a fair amount. Crypt x willisii is another nice plant. Those are all nice foreground plants that do well.

Regards,
Tom Barr

[Scooter]

Wow, thanks all. Now I've got all kinds of decisions to make with regard to CO2 and plants. At least I now have some advice from folks that seem to know what they're talking about. Decisions, decisions.