want plants but dont wanna spend $ on lights:D

[henward]

ok, my tank is 62 height

i know the following:

java ferm does not need much light. so will definately have that.

the lighting i will have are t8. 2x aqua glo, 2x power glo.

i will attach java fern onto the wood, and i know spotted metynis, family of s dollars do not eat java ferns.

but what else can i attach on the wood or tie to the wood, that does not get eaten by spotted metynis AND does not require toooo much light?

anubias? or congo fern? doesnt have to be on the wood also, any plants that people may feel can be in the tank under these conditions.

Also,

does anyone have a profuse amount of java fern, in the LFS its always very small.

i want somet aths more established, longer leaves.

dosent have to be much, just so i can tie it to the wood, i know they m ultiply intime.

[henward]

according to lfs.

Anubias nana:

attaches to wood.

does not need extremely bright light.

i can attach it to the upper parts of the wood, whcih is almost the surface to get max light exposure and is easy to grow. (i think david has this plant)

Java Fern:

Attaches to wood

does not need much light at all

can attached it to all parts of the wood

Indian fern:

needs substrate (thats ok)

dose not need much light and grows rapidly.

can fertilise in the roots, the slow eroding ferts

amazon swords:

my tank is 62 high, with the light i have, can i have amazon swords?

[henward]

Needle leaf java ferns

narrow leaf java ferns

do they attached to wood and same care as java ferns?

[phoenix44]

They are from the same family, and need the same level of care. Their price however is higher, and so you will be more likely to take more care of windelov, phillipene, tropica and needle leaf if you owned it.

Anubias, Some crypts - again you need a healthy layer of substrate at least 1.5" -2" deep - your geos would disagree with and uproot your plants.

congo fern if you want to pay $20 for a small bit.

The term low light doesn't really mean much if we don't know what spectrum of light you intend to use.

6500K

7500K

8800K

10000K

are all good.

powerglos are a special 18000K but are about $50-60 a tube for 4ft T8 fittings.

The above spectra are fine for plants. you will need to choose your plants according to your lights, because reversing that theory is expensive.

you could try normal green tiger lotus, but that's just hit and miss with the lights and the possibility of something uprooting it every two seconds.

It will be futile adding ferts to your water because with the auto water changer, you will be removing the ferts within minutes or hours of them being added to the water.

__

Only just saw your silver dollar "problem" as I would call it. :-?

They will eat your plants, so discount every plant suggestion I have given you unless you intend them having a rather expensive meal.

[henward]

oh, the ferts is the clay balls by JBL, i used them awhile back, worked well untill the plants got uprooted lol.

but what i plan on doing for the plants that are needing substrate is construct a glass pot.

so its see through and camo'd on the tank floor.

it will be 2 to 3 inch maybe deeper in depth for maximum root growth and so the jbl ball can be right at the bottom.

then plant it there, and on top of the fine white silica sand in the pot that is holding the plant down, i will put heavier rocks so the geos cannot eat the sand.

and if it comes time to moving, i can just remove the glass pot - and move it. no uprooting.

how does that sound? or am i being too 'left field' with the pot idea?

i dont want a 4 inch layer of sand at the bottom of the tank, mainly because it will be shifted daily and constantly by geos.

but this way, the geos cant move big stones.

indian fern? how bout indian fern? i read they grow very fast, easy to grow, low to med light and fish dont like them too much.

anubias nana? that looks nice too. and can be attached to the wood higher up for more light.

the bulb i will use is your n ormal power glo from HFF.

power glo is 18k

[henward]

power glo is 50 bux

hff said that arcadia freshwater of the same tube is way better but is 67 dollars.

will it make a huge difference?

or not really?

[phoenix44]

Glass pots is a bad idea. you're limiting the root growth and thus limiting the life of the plant. especially a bad idea for tiger lotus and crypts that produce runners / pups.

I know the powerglos make a huge difference over the standard 6500K tubes, but with a $45 price differential, it would have to be better.

I use powerglos, be it in a different form.

can't comment about the arcadia tube, ive used the arcadia plant pro's in a t5 VHO setup and that's totally different.

Javafern likes 6500K and 10000K

lotus likes them too, but goes reddish and reaches for the top to form a canopy with powerglos. i was only telling someone the other day that a leaf on my lotus grew about 4cm after the waterchange, within about 4-5 hours at most.

[henward]

the glass pots will be big though, it will not be a small pot.

it will be a rectanble 30 cms length, 10cm deep and wide.

is still limiting?

there is no other way for me, as the sand will shift for sure with the geos. i can remove the geos from the equation but they are there to ensure that the crushed up discus vomit is eaten lol.

is that pot big enough for one indina fern plant?

a more square shape for a amazon sword?

the java ferns will be attached to wood, so will the anubias nana.

just looking for something easy to grow and looks nice to kinda "over grow" the tank for hiding places and an authentic look

[oneeyedfrog]

I would give it a go- you could get quite an effective setup with just a few plants. Try with some cheap lights first and see if you are happy with the results. figure out which plants they don't eat and then get creative with securing them.

DD has a 4ft 60cm deep goldfish tank that she did keep bare bottomed with some plants in pots. The lights are two cheap 4ft 6500k tubes.

In plastic trays as big as your hand and 11/2 -2 inches deep with gravel no fert she grew stargrass, ambulia, hygro diformis ( just stuffed as many stems as poss in ) they grew well but then the fish ate them.

They didn’t eat the hygro augusifola (which grew planted and even just floating around with weights on the end), Indian fern (both planted and floating), anubias tied to wood and suckers on back/sides of tank,, java fern (on wood or rubbered banded to pebbles and left to be moved around tank), windelov fern, java moss (tied to wood, rocks) and planted polysperma, some sort of val and an unidentified water lily I pinched from a pond. I thought this might not like it as I thought they need ferts etc but its growing great- heaps of new leaves- it looks a bit like a tiger lotus but with thicker leaves.

She now has the same plants in a thin layer of gravel in there and added a few crypts which seem to be growing fine.

She has a 60 x 30 x60 deep tank that has 2 x 6500k energy saving bulbs over it that is growing lots of plants at a reasonable rate so I think if you just want green plants and don’t want abundant growth 6500k bulbs are ok.

I have a couple of tanks with powerglos over them and the plants do grow faster and with more colour if red but then more maintenance is needed coz you have to trim all the time and I think they get more algae overall -come to think of it I have jbl balls in these tanks and not in the tanks with 6500k bulbs so that could make a difference too.

The little black rubber bands for horses manes are great for securing plants too.

[Jennifer]

For the scale of that tank you might consider going for anubias minima over anubias nana. You can get quite a bit of it to cover the wood and it will look very nice. I prefer either anubias or java fern but not both in the same tank - but that is just me - they are two different looks IMHO. Would be nice if you could get some valisneria or crypt balansae as well since these would create a lot of plant for very little root space (but I am sure they would get eaten in no time).

I grow M. pteropus (normal, windelov & needle leaf) as well as bolbitis (congo fern) all under two 15000k T8s and two 8000k T8s and they are an absolute jungle with very fast growth (growth is slower without CO2 and added trace nutrients).

[henward]

the power glo is also for fish colours

discus colours and fish colours if ind comes out better wtih a combo of aqua glo and power glo.

the other anubias, not the NANA one.

is that readily available? in lfs?

valisneria will get munched by the spotted metynis in no time though

looking for plants that wotn get eaten or grows so fast that it catches up.

[Jennifer]

the other anubias, not the NANA one. is that readily available? in lfs?

Yep. I just bought some more anubias minima this past week at the LFS.

[BikBok]

Indian fern:

needs substrate (thats ok)

dose not need much light and grows rapidly.

can fertilise in the roots, the slow eroding ferts

Indian fern grows super fast and easily. It can be planted or just float. It sends down roots and breaks off into more plants. Mine gets trimmed every week so it doesn't take over the tank and it even grows up out of the water. Never needed ferts with it. The fish like hanging out in it and don't eat it. even my kuhli loaches climb around in it, guppy fry hide in it and the baby whiptails also like hanging off it. A really good plant that adds a nice shade of bright green.

I don't have much knowhow and haven't invested any $ into specific plant lighting but the indian fern, java fern and windelov is working for me. I just have off the shelf hooded all in one tanks.

[Morcs]

the power glo is also for fish colours

discus colours and fish colours if ind comes out better wtih a combo of aqua glo and power glo.

the other anubias, not the NANA one.

is that readily available? in lfs?

valisneria will get munched by the spotted metynis in no time though

looking for plants that wotn get eaten or grows so fast that it catches up.

Anubias Barteri Barteri (the large growing anubias) is available, i keep getting myself some, but never convinced its true barteri, as at a small size it looks just like nana sp. ,especially since its grown emersed.

Get some Anubias Hastifolia