LIVE PLANTS!! I never thought this day would come.

It's a good start! Anacharis is Elodea canadensis. If you make a note of the scientific name, you can run it through www.google.com or look it up at www.tropica.com or various plant sites, and find out more and more about it. And get good at growing it.

Plants make a real difference in the character of your water. They take up nutrients, including micronutrients like copper that are toxic, especially to inverts like shrimp.

The Mondo Grass isn't a genuine water plant. It will last a long time, and at the beginning it will even put out a new leaf here and there. But it has no permanent future.

Look for Cryptocorynes. "Crypts." the next time you're in the lfs. Most of them will do well for you. The cheapest ones are always the easiest ones!
 
Elodea densa is south american
Elodea canadensis is north american
 
Welcome to the plant world NJ - looks good.

I would not worry about the Anachris - I had some growing in my old 29 gallon under the cheap bulb it came with - it grew albeit slowly.

Now I have 3 bunches in my 72 gallon with 1.5 watts per gallon and they are growing like weeds. I trim it and throw some out weekly.

Now, I have only used it as a floating plant - so I don't have expereince with it in the substrate - but it show be fine there.

You better watch out - once you get hooked on plants, its like a disease - LOL. Shoot, I never thought I would want to add more - but I look and say it might be nice to add this plant . . . .
 
That one's pretty definitely E. densa - at least, that's what it's always been sold to me as. The canadensis one is the familiar goldfish weed IIRC, and is more brittle IME. Though I've also heard that one called Lagarosiphon major. They basically can't leave the classification alone.

If you have got mondo grass, not only is it a slow grower but it's not even an aquatic plant. It's Ophiopogon japonica and it's not in my aquarium books, but it is in my gardening and houseplant books. But it doesn't look like the mondo grass I was conned into buying. However, there are lots of varieties and if people say that's what it is, then I imagine it is.
 
Java moss would be great too, and easy! I have some in my Lake Tanganika (sp?) tank with pH 8.2 temp 84 F and lots of salt. It's doing great. I took some out of that tank and put it in my tetra tank and it's doing great there too. It will grow ANYWHERE.
 
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