New to planted tanks — substrate suggestions/opinions?

[fishorama]

Warning! val. spiralis is NOT the cute little 8-10 inch plant you want. The "spiralis" refers to the flowers or sepals or something, NOT the leaves. I believe 1 of my "jungle vals" may be that & 30++ inches tall. That's not the val your're looking for.

Corkscrew or Italian is really v. asiatica (asiana?), that's the cute val. I think there's a little 2 inch 1 too but don't really remember. I haven't seen it in years.

 

[dougall]

Some of the varieties of spiralis arevdwarf, like Tortifolia and Leopard (in my experience) stay less than 8 or so inches, wild spiralis and other varieties get to be bigger..

So some v. Spiralis will work, just not most.

You might be able to use some of the shorter erio species too.

 

[fishorama]

dougall, I've never had any luck with erios in non co2 tanks...have you? Not a challenge, we all know I'm lame at some plants...but I'm curious...

 

[dougall]

I have, but I cannot think of the individual species off the top of my head, I will have to think or try to look them up.

 

[fishorama]

Be a long time until I see my planty friends again, think harder, lol! Just in case I get another offer...anytime soon-ish...no hurry...Sorry OP for the distraction...but this is how we all learn...

 

[Sprinkle]

Warning! val. spiralis is NOT the cute little 8-10 inch plant you want. The "spiralis" refers to the flowers or sepals or something, NOT the leaves. I believe 1 of my "jungle vals" may be that & 30++ inches tall. That's not the val your're looking for.

Corkscrew or Italian is really v. asiatica (asiana?), that's the cute val. I think there's a little 2 inch 1 too but don't really remember. I haven't seen it in years.

My vals got to, let’s say 4 or so inches . There cute.

 

[fishorama]

Sprinkle, does your little val have twisty or straight leaves? Do you remember what it was called?

 

[Sprinkle]

Sprinkle, does your little val have twisty or straight leaves? Do you remember what it was called?

Hey, thanks Its got straight leaves and was called vallisneria spriralis, it did grew but it does no grow much now. Looks like it stop grow.

 

[apenhow]

I've kind of been struggling to keep all the different species of plants and their conditions/sizes straight, so some of these options may not be the best for my tank. How do you guys keep track of everything?! ?

These are some of the plants I've been looking at instead of the Val torta:
Val Americana mini twister, val asiatica biwaensis (too large?), val leopard (said co2 is recommended, so not sure about this option), or vesuvius chain sword (not sure if the ph will be okay).

I also came across the red jungle vallisneria. I like the look of this one a lot! Modernaquarium.com said it gets to about 6-10 inches tall, but since it's a jungle val and also known as "Vallisneria Gigantea Rubra" I'm worried that means it actually gets really large?? Unless there are different versions I suppose. So that is also an option even though I am fairly sure it won't work with my little five gallon.

Thank you so much for sticking with me through my endless questions!! haha

 

[Sprinkle]

Also heard it may get up to 100cm. Not necessarily, but it might.