Planted my tank! ID's?

[jencheung]

(Sorry in advance for the long post!) So this weekend we decided that the tank needed an overhaul. I'd tried a few plants with varying degrees of success. The moss was growing beautifully on the driftwood and the anubius and java fern were doing great. Then I had a heater malfunction, the temp dropped in the tank for 2 days before I noticed (fish were fine, didn't lose any thank goodness!) but the moss and the fern went to seed and algae started to take over. It was mostly some kind of a stringy brownish algae that got completely tangled into the moss. We were fighting a losing battle so finally we decided to scrap it and start over. We took the fish out, emptied and cleaned the tank really well (kept the filter though). We replaced the plain gravel with eco-complete, took out all of the moss and got some plants. This is our first attempt at our planted tank so we'd of course welcome any thoughts or advice. Our lighting is still pretty low - 40 watts over 29 gallons but hopefully these plants will be okay. Here's what the tank looks like this morning after everyone got settled back in:

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The plants in it were sold to me as: Sagittaria subulata, Camboba, Temple plant and Baby Tears. Now, I know that the Sag plant (back left corner) isn't a dwarf variety but I'm not entirely sure what it is as I haven't seen non-dwarf variety listed for aquariums. Maybe it's a Val of some kind? The other plant ID I'm not sure about is the Baby Tears - it definitely doesn't look like Baby Tears to me now that I've taken a closer look and compared it to pics online. Here's a closer look:

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Can anyone ID these plants for me? Are these plants going to be okay under my relatively low lighting? From an aquascaping point of view, do you think we should get some moss for the big piece of driftwood? I'm thinking fissidens fontanus 'cause I like the sort of softer look of it, but maybe we'll go back to Christmas moss again. Anyone have any experience with using fissidens on driftwood? Thanks in advance for any advice you might have!

[Squawkbert]

Sagittaria subulata may be OK w/ your light - not sure
Camboba - probably won't make it w/o more light
Temple plant - if Alternanthera reineckii, will be OK
Baby Tears - probably won't make it if it's HC. If it's HM (which I suspect), it will be fine, though it will not look like it does now - it will get leggy. I suspect what you have now was grown emersed, or under very bright light.

I like the arrangement you have, but suggest you be on the lookout for a lighting upgrade.

[jencheung]

Thanks Squawkbert! So the goal is to keep it pretty low-tech. I'm not planning on doing CO2 (I do have Flourish Excel though). If I upgraded to say a 65 watt CF fixture would that be enough light to keep everyone thriving without needing to start with CO2 to combat potential algae issues? Now to convince the hubby that we need to upgrade the light after all of that work this weekend!

I spent some time looking at pictures and I'm starting to suspect that the Baby Tears I was sold is really glosso. Is that going to survive under the light I have now? Thanks again!

[fishorama]

The dwarf sag should be ok but mine was ~8 inches when new but is only ~2+ inches now with similar lighting & eco.

Cabomba never has grown well for me longer than a few months. Asian ambulia does better but you can't buy (legally) it in MA, I'm not sure it's ok to own.

If the Temple is hygrophilia it doesn't grow for me, I think it's a heavy feeder & needs more light than you have.

If that's glosso, I was told it needs high light & CO2 so I haven't tried it. Could it be marislea (sp?) 4 leaf clover that gets only 1 leaf underwater? Not sure but it may be ok.

Your tank is very pretty & if you don't want to go higher light there are other plants you can try if those don't work. Rotala indica (or rotundifolia), crypts etc

[Squawkbert]

Glosso requires lots of light too, and I think you ^ may be right - that looks more like Glosso or Marselia than HM...

HM or Marselia (M. crenata, minuta or quadrifolia) would all be better ground cover candidates, though HM would require frequent trimming...

40W/29g? A 65W PC bulb (6700K-10,000K range) would improve things, but I'm not certain that even that would keep Glosso (if that's what it is) or Cabomba going.

I've got a 96W PC over my 46g bow (i suspect it's the same depth as your 29, or maybe a little deeper) and I managed to kill Cabomba and I've nearly killed some Myrio. matto.

My only Sag experience is with a little bit of the dwarf stuff I'm barely keeping alive in a shrimp tank.

[jencheung]

Thanks for all of the tips! I'll definitely keep your suggestions on my list. I guess I'll leave the plants in for now and just see how they do. When I have a better sense of what is definitely going to need to be replaced I can go ahead and reassess what plants might do better. In the mean time I'll work on getting a replacement light and see if that helps.

Side note: Anyone have experience with fissidens fontanus (phoenix moss) and getting it to grow on driftwood?

Fishorama - Nice to see another local! Thanks for the heads up on the Ambulia.

Thanks!

[fishorama]

I got my ambulia in RI...shhh ;)

[jencheung]

Love it! Now that we have our own Nordstrom in Natick I don't make it to RI very often... Perhaps I need to find a reason to go for a visit =)...

So I placed the order for a 65 watt CF fixture. Am I going to need to worry about CO2 with 2.2 watts/gallon of light? Or will I be okay dosing with Excel? I'm really hoping to keep it low-tech, especially since the stand the tank is on is an open wrought-iron style stand so there isn't anywhere to hide any equipment. Am I going to run into major algae problems without it? Thanks!

[fishorama]

I don't use Excel or CO2 but maybe it'll help the "borderline" plants. It certainly won't hurt unless you get vals or anacharis.

[jpappy789]

I agree that it looks more like Glosso than either HC or HM...definitely won't last long in that lighting.

Cabomba has only worked for me in about 1.5-2 wpg. Lower light and the leaves get thinner.