Picking plants for a 20 gallon tall

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L333B

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Mar 19, 2012
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Winnipeg, MB
Hello, I'm trying to pick some plants for my 20 gallon tall. Its 24"x16"x12" I have a Coralife 24w x2 T5 ho light and flourite black substrate. I would love to have a heavily planted tank with ground cover, foreground, mid ground and background plants.
I don't have co2 but if I need it I'm willing to buy or make a unit.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
 

FrenchFry

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Feb 7, 2011
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With that light over such a tall tank, you would probably fall under the low-medium light range. There are quite a few plants you could grow under these conditions, including some very colorful ones like members of the ludwigia family. With the addition of CO2 and a few ferts, you should be able to grow a lush jungle of many different kinds of plants.
Do you have a particular layout or aquascape in mind? Do you want to add driftwood or rocks to your tank? There are certain plants that compliment these items really well, like mosses or riccia.
Depending on which direction you go with the tank, you could have some crypts and dwarf sags or other undemanding plants in the foreground, ferns in the midground, and tall stems like ludwigias or rotalas in the background, or even some tall sword plants. If you want to go higher tech and you feel comfortable dosing fertilizers from time to time, you can experiment with some carpeting plants in the foreground (UG, micro swords, dwarf clover, glosso, to name a few), some cool looking plants in the middle like something from the hygrophila family or alternanthera, and then in the back you could have either tall vals, echinodorus vesuvius, stems, etc.
Either way, I would suggest adding some root tabs to help feed the plants.
Since your tank is tall and it is unlikely that you'll be able to purchase stems that are already two feet tall, I would recommend getting some floaters with long roots like amazon frogbits to keep the top of the tank from looking too bare as the other plants become established.
 

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With such a tall tank, and so small a "foot-print" your options are a little limited.

Crypts and some watersprite may work, but tough to get taller plants without being too "bushy".
 

L333B

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Mar 19, 2012
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Winnipeg, MB
I had no idea that my lighting was in the low-medium light range, people have been telling me that two 24w Ho bulbs was way to much light for such a small tank.
I would love to find some really branchy driftwood and I like the look of Val's for the background, Dwarf baby tears for the ground cover. I'll have to keep researching.
Thanks
 

FrenchFry

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Keep in mind that dwarf baby tears has some very specific requirements, and will do best with pressurized CO2 injection, High light, and nutrient rich substrate. It's not really a beginner plant.

The height of your tank is much more relevant in determining light levels than the number of gallons. Since your tank is tall (2 feet), there is much less light reaching the substrate than if you had a more shallow tank.

As far as branchy-looking wood, manzanita is always an attractive choice. Covering the branches with flame moss can look quite stunning.
 

ROYWS3

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I have two 20H's with similar lighting to you. I grow Vals, crypts, Bylaxa, H. Disformis, hornwort, Java moss cardimine, and Kliener Prinz swords. I have pics of both on here. I dose liquid ferts - a few drops daily + excel 2-3x week and I have verry good growth. It's not explosive growth that you might get with CO2 injection but I like it that way - I'm not having to do pruning every day - very low maintenance.

Roy
 

constevens

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I've got a few heavily planted 20h using the same light you are. It's a medium light tank as when i had t5no it was low light.

But i grow several different hygro. Like Difformus, corymbosa, angstfoilia, and a couple others. I also grow water sprite, bacopa, tiger lotus and red dwarf Lilly. Anubias, amazon sword, a. Reneckii, chain sword and some other. I don't inject co2 in these as i use these as breeders for my various breeding rams.

I dose dry ferts VIA EI and dose glut per the same as Excel dose. I get great growth. Pretty fast for no co2 and plants are from bottom to top.

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constevens

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Really a 20h isn't very tall. So not sure why anyone thinks its a tall tank.

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phish4brains

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I grow wisteria, amazon sword, water sprite (floater), java moss, anubias, ludwigia in my 20 h with less light than that... With co2 injection and ferts. All my plants are flourishing very well, although the ludwigia is fairly slow growing and prob needs more light. I was worried about the height, which really isn't that high but so far so good!
 
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