Short foregroud low-light plants?

katana1200

katana1200

Unhealthy obsession?
Feb 7, 2009
473
0
16
Northern Indiana, near the University of Notre Dam
I've bee working on my 72 gal bowfront now for awhile and it's comming along nicely. I'll get an updated pic up here a bit later in the thread, perhaps tomorrow. My question is about foreground plants. Here's the setup:

72 gal low tech
80watts of T-8 5000k light standard double aquarium (all glass?) fixture
Quite a bit of natural sunlight from a large window on each side.
Miracle Gro oranic potting soil capped with 2" of playsand.

I initally purchased crypt lutea for a forground plant as it was readily available at my favorite LFS. Seemed a good choice at the time as the plant I bought was around 2" tall and dense (I actually got 5 plantings out of it) now, I'm not as pleased with it. It is making a very nice jungle on the bottom of the tank however its getting a bit "leggy". It's around 6" tall wich is just too big for the very forfront of the tank. Seems the plant is a very health specimen sending out runners and new growth all the time. New growth is a nice bright green as the older leaves have actually turned a deep brown/purple. The problem is there is just too much of it, and that's really all there is on the ground. I have Anubias Lanceolata, and Bolbitus Fern tied to driftwood. An amazon sword Grandifolias, and Udulata in the rear. Some java moss on the driftwood here and there and guppy grass floating. Also some crypt California sunset (i think) but it's pretty much the same plant, just a different color with broader leaves.

Does anyone have a suggestion for a good short plant. I need some inspiration here. I don't need ground cover per say as I just dont have the light to support it and moss carpets would be imposable to keep clean. So, there it is. Planted tank gurus, what can I grow?
 
:iagree:
Anubias petite would look sweet, but it would take about 20 years to fill in. I've always wanted to do a mixture of everything just to see how it looked. I'm sure the sags would eventually crowd everything out, though.
 
I would look at the sags or micro swords. Still might be iffy with the lighting but possibly the best choices.
 
vote for dwarf sag here
 
Great suggestions everyone. I like the dwarf sag. It'll probably grow a bit tall in my tank as well since it has such low light. The anubias petite sounds like a neat option. I imagine that it would be best served tied to a small peice of slate and let sit on the bottom? I'm gonna have to cruse around and see what prices are like for these plants. I have my doubts about the microswords and the hairgrass. I loved the look of the hairgrass in high light tanks but I've read it just gets tall and gnarly looking in the low light set up, if it survives at all. I do have some crazy bottom dwellers, corries and kuhlis that may make my life difficult trying to get those rooted.

I just can't seem to get a good picture of the tank with the morning sun in the windows behind it so I guess I'll wait a bit longer. Here's a couple of older pics to give you an idea of the "before"

In the begining there were zebra danios, and driftwood with anubias lanceolata, and sand. That's about it. One pot of the crypt lutea split into several small plantlets around the space. This was Almost a year ago.

tank1.jpg

This next one is from about 3 months later. A little bit of growth on the Luteas, a new piece of driftwood with Bolbitus fern, and that's about it. Still pretty bare. Tonight I'll get the after pic.

tank2.jpg

The last one is a shrimp....just for the sake of having a shrimp in the picture. I love my shrimp!

June 9, 2009 008.jpg

tank1.jpg tank2.jpg June 9, 2009 008.jpg
 
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