cold water plants

[pbeemer]

i have a cold water tank (striped minnows atm) and for the life of me can't get any plants to grow in it. they don't die off, the fish don't seem to be bothering them, but they just will not grow.

i can't tell you what these are -- i got an assortment figuring SOMETHING would thrive, but in a year they haven't grown a centimeter.

what should i get that will thrive?

note that room temp varies from perhaps 60 to however hot it gets in the summer (i generally kick on the a/c when it gets in the high 70s

 

[rocker92]

what size tank and what lights you have will make a big difference, many of the plants that they sell at petco and petsmart dont do very well in aquatic enviroments, take some pictures so we have a better idea what you have.

for low light plants i would highly recommend hogwart and vallisneria, ive had very good luck with these plants in the past and i am thinking about getting some more in the near future

 

[metricliman]

I would also recommend Anacharis.

 

[ManEatingShrimp]

temperature should not play a huge role in how well they grow. many plants prefer colder water but I would look for plants from colder climates.

Mosses really like colder water and some super easy plants I would suggest are anacharis, naja grass, dwarf sag, and jungle val. These grow really fast in my tanks and don't need a lot of light or nutrients. If all of your plants look healthy and have not died or grown much you may just have slow growing plants such as java fern and anubias.

 

[pbeemer]

sorry for the lack of info.

it's a conventional 20 gallon tank, with ~2.5" sand bottom, pebbles on some of that, and a piece of manzanita driftwood

it isn't all that cold -- right now it's 68, which is warmer than the room for some reason

the light is 26W spiral cfl, looks like a warm white (the markings are gone) in an aluminum reflector. over the 10 gal shrimp tank this setup caused both the plants and the algae to grow like gangbusters, so i put it on the 20 and downsized the one on the shrimp tank

 

[gmh]

That's not much light and the spiral cfl doesn't project the light into the tank efficiently. How long is the photoperiod? With that bulb I think you may need it on 14 hours day.