Other Beginner plants

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wickette

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Im totally new to plants. I know variations of this has been asked many times, sorry for that.

Im planning on changing my substrate in a few months,dont want to deal with roots. Im looking for a list of easy rhizome plants that or ok with neutral water 76-82°, no CO2, not picky about lighting, dont "NEED" fertilizer, that do a decent job with Nitrate. Anubis and Java Fern/moss are on most lists, is there anything else or just those two?

I realize anything easy like that isnt going to be great at removing nitrates, but maybe better than Anubis ?
 

fishorama

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Well, there always pothos (a houseplant) grown with the leaves out of the water & roots submerged. It can help remove nitrate if it gets enough light to grow (it doesn't need tons of light, but some).

All of the low light, not substrate planted plants are pretty slow growers. You might try "Indian fern". It's happiest as a floater IME. Related to water sprite, also a possibility (not to be confused with wisteria).

Bucephilandra are similar to anubias & just as slow but growing with different leaf shapes & $$

You might wait until your new substrate is in & look to crypts (my favs). Patience is hard sometimes but can be worth the wait.
 

FreshyFresh

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What type of lighting does the tank get?

4-5yrs ago, I had a 55g up against a window with a twin tube 48" T5HO fluorescent light on it for 8hrs/day. It grew water sprite and wisteria to the point I had to scoop it out regularly. Most of it was floating and some was rooted. This was a tame pic of it..

 
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wickette

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I have pothos, one submerged, on right, a bunch growing out of the lid in those baskets suction cupped to the back wall. Two anubias' attached to the slate cave on the left. Rest of the plants are plastic.
Regular led office 18" tube light in the center, and a pair of tiny LED full spectrum lights mounted on either side of the tube. As you can see substrate is way too bright.

Wisteria looks really nice.
46520450_2179935055613403_4623927654473531392_n.jpg
 

FreshyFresh

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How long have you had the pothos submerged? I too have a pothos plant (growing out of my 75). The leaves will die if left submerged. The plant I have has taken over a corner of the room, ceiling to floor.

Unless you have aggressive surface skimmers like snails and plecos, that gravel will darken pretty quickly.

That lighting you describe may be barely adequate for anubia
 

wickette

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the pothos growing fully submerged has been growing sevenish months underwater. I snipped off a 2 leaf segment for the tank. It does ok submerged, the leaves wilt and get holes initially totallylooks like its dying, a month later the leaves left start unwilting (is that a word?) and new growth starts, just much slower than if above water.
There are 4 cultivars growing with just roots submerged growing on the canopy (not in frame)
every side except the back gets indirect sunlight, but if needed, I have 100+ full spectrum bulbs I can use to replace the desk light.

(The desk light has a swivel and a cover so I can point it into the tank when the canopy is open so I dont go blind, can tilt it when its closed reducing tank brightness and its so low wattage I can cover the cover in colored plastic and totally change the tint of the tank ... its super convenient, but obviously not the intended purpose)
 

FreshyFresh

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Very interesting with your pothos. I've had it for a few years. Never heard anyone have luck keeping leaves growing underwater.

Not familiar with those loaches, but I'm sure they skim all hardscape.
 

wickette

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Very interesting with your pothos. I've had it for a few years. Never heard anyone have luck keeping leaves growing underwater.
Hijacking my own thread, but my underwater pothos were kept/grown in 12"x 3.5" cylindrical vases as wedding center pieces (along with vases of submerged bamboo,which didnt grow at all). Held onto a few of the pothos. The small amount of water light had to penetrate may have helped it, dunno.

This person had similar results
 

wickette

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If I get a better light will either wisteria or water sprite do well in my tank?

GH is 7°-8°
pH 7.0 - 6.8
Temp is on a Timer 76.5-80
Nitrates over 20 under 40ppm (comes out of the tap at 20ppm), I change the water if the color is nearing the 40ppm color on the test kit but theirs no way to tell more closely how far bellow 40ppm it is
 
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