Plants that require very low light?

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Josh Holloway--Be mine!!!
Sep 1, 2003
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Jessica
How low is low?? But, Java sword, Java Fern, Anubius, and some crypts come to mind.
 

user_name

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my experience with wisteria was that it needed a lot of light to have any kind of growth, especially if you plant it. Java fern and anubias are probobly your best bet, I'm not sure about the rest.
 

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Josh Holloway--Be mine!!!
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what about water wisitira? and water sprite? and valls?
IMO--Water Wisitira and Water Sprite does not do too well under low light. It may do OK for a while, but then kind of fade out. Val, I am not sure. I know it grows crazy in high light, I pull out 20 per week.
 

Byron Amazonas

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Agree. Generally speaking, all stem plants (Wisteria is a stem plant) are higher light requiring because they are fast growing plants, and this means more light and more nutrients to balance. This is why most of them do not do well long-term in lower light situations. There are a few exceptions perhaps, and Brazilian Pennywort is one that I find does fine with moderate light and weekly fertilization. Another might be Egeria densa, commonly called Anacharis. But Wisteria (Hygrophyla difformis) is not one of these.

Water Sprite, if the floating variety (Ceratopteris cornuta) can manage as it is under the tank light, provided of course this light is sufficient (again, "low light" and similar terms are rather subjective). But the species that are planted in the substrate would need more light. Vallisneria is fast growing and moderate light is the minimum, and in moderately hard or harder water. Water Sprite does better in softer water.

If you have a tank with a light presently, giving us the data might allow us to narrow things down a bit more. Tank size, type of light, number of bulbs/tubes, wattage, Kelvin, etc.

Byron.
 

FreshyFresh

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I'm not sure which kind of water sprite I have given it can be left floating or be planted, but left floating, it seems to tolerate high light well. In fact, it continues to grow out of the water and towards the lighting in my tanks. I try to use it to shield lighting away from other plants.

Char, if you have patience, like said, java fern and anubia too best with low light (T8, CFL or LED intended for plants), but are sloooooooow growers. The healthiest java fern I have is in my planted 10g. It's taken me over a year to get it to grow to maybe 20% the interior size of a 10g. It's attached itself to a chunk of mopani wood I put in there when I set the tank up. Only problem is, the red cherry shrimp in this tank seem to be eating away at the mopani.
 

Mgamer20o0

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think the question is off.... not require low light but can handle low light.

the ones i always say.... moss. java ferns anubias and crypts. between them you can put together a very nice low light tank. though not all moss does great in low light same goes with crypts. just read up first and you should be fine.
 
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