New to Plants-Trying to plant my 15 gallon

I currently still only have about 0.66 watts/gal (1 20 watt strip in a 33 gal, 30 w/substrate) and my Hygrophila and Rotala are thriving and of course Java Fern is a low light plant and is very hardy.

Don't have any other plants on your list, but can vouch for having plants do well with very little light and no CO2 bottle. I do have a rich substrate though, and fertilize with a Kent liquid supplement every other week.
 
Here's a plant I consider great for starting off tanks.

It's called Foxtail. Specifically Green Foxtail. It grows so abundantly taht I actually have it in Mbuna tanks and they cant nibble it to death faster than it grows.

Drawback, frequent pruning.

I use this plant especially when I'm starting up a tank and need something that will gobble up nitrates and such should a spike occur. Grows under 1wpg lighting, and with no particular fertilizers or c02 considerations.

Although I will admit the BEST and astest growth i've seen on it was in a molly tank that had about 1 tablespoon of salt per 5 gallons of water in it. I have also had it actually grow in a tank that was half full, with no filtration or livestock in it sitting in the back of my "lab" with no lighting over it other than the flourescents in the room for a month.

It's pretty common and can be found at many stores, plus on www.aquabid.com and on ebay if you do a search for "foxtail" and "aquarium plant".

Just my 2 cents worth :)
 
It's called Foxtail. Specifically Green Foxtail.
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interesting, I'm a little catious about common names, as I've heard more than one plant called foxtail, what species is the one your talking about?

Also, I've been reading over the posts, and it seems like it would be a good idea for me to get some plant-friendly substrate, what would be a good choice for my setup?

Thanks for all your help so far, this is why AC is so great :)
 
ya it depends wich 'foxtail' you are talking about.

Myriophyllum or Limnophilia (I've seen both refered to as 'foxtail' on ebay or such, mostly its myrio tho) are very hard to grow. They need lots of light and CO2 addition.

Ceratophyllum (AKA Hornwort) is VERY easy tho. It tends to like to float and has no roots. This one I owuld recomend for a first time tank. Will grow well in most anything and if given lots of light it will grow like crazy!

As to Jungle Val it will get prity big for a 15 gal. I have a version of jungle val and it seems to stay smaller in the 15 gal than it does in the 33 gal but its still big. I think a regular straight leaved Val would do what you would like and look a little beter proportioned.

Just so you know at one waterchange I took a Vall leaf out of my 33 gal tank that measured TWICE (and then some) my hight (5'10) and then still had nearly 2 feet to the tank and the botom of the plant!! The leaves on the top of the water was a twisted tangled mess to most people but I liked it. and so did my SAE who would rest on a leaf and bearly have to move a fin to stay there near the surface.

Neadles to say not much light reached the bottom of the tank untill I recently trimed the Vall back to 2 feet. ;P Some of the leaves also reached over an inch in width, with most of them being between half an inch and 3/4ths. I've also found that my Jungle Vall grows very very slow compared to others, reproduction wise anyways. I still only have less then a dousen plants.

I'm thinking of getting some regular Vall for the smaller tank. :)
 
Instead of jungle val, Try corkscrew val. It grows to about 6 "
 
I have a 15g with an incandescent hood over it, I ditched the incandescents, and put in two of the screw-in compact flourescents. Much more light than a single tube could give, and it works great!
The tank will work with, or without CO2 (since I'm lazy and only change the yeast bottle every few months) and the plants grow wonderfully, but not too fast to be a pain with pruning...
The substrate is about 2" of clay soil conditioner.

HTH
 
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