Favorite low light plants

[sawcat]

I am going to order some live plants for my fishes, and I'd like to get some input from you all. I was wondering what your favorite low light plants are?

so far, the plan is to get some anachris, more anubius (got 1 pot at lps), and some Java ferns. I will not get any hornwort because what I had did nothing but fall apart in a slow brown messy death.

I have a 15 w aqua glow (I think, said for plants and fish) bulb in my 10 gallon, the second has what ever came with the minibow and the third gets room light

[bettons]

the lights that are good for plants are fluorescent and I think your aqua glow is fluorescent. I don't think that what came with the mini-bow are good because they don't contain blue and red light which is what plants use for their chemical reaction. fluorescent bulbs are white because they contain the full spectrum, meaning all the color, energy or light is wasted because as I said they only use red and blue, but if you only used blue and red that tank wouldn't look as good.

I am not sure about anacharis because right now I am going through some huge prob. with them, but probably it is not because they don't get enough light I have 2.0WPG, it is probably because my GH is 0d*(i know) but aside from the anacharis I think you are good.

if you are having trouble with one of your plant I recommend banana plant they are really hardy plant! and great for low lights!

[sawcat]

I was wondering about the bananas, I've seen others using it and it looks neat. I have very hard water (GH, the KH wasn't too bad) so anything that can tolerate that is good.

[bettons]

yeah if some of your plants die you should consider banana plant they can tolerate almost anything, I had some in a bowl without any light and they lived. Now I have them in my 10G guppy tank and are doing fine.

[Rachel]

Cryptocornes (crypts) do really well in hard water, and most require low-moderate levels of light. I have a few types of crpyts in one of my tanks and they grow very well with Hagen's Aqua Glo (14w fluorescent in 5.5g). They are rooted plants so you do have to plant them in your substrate unlike java ferns or anacharis.

I also had disastrous results with hornwort. It created a mess that took months to get rid of. I wouldn't recommend it for tropical aquariums...

[sawcat]

rachel said:

I also had disastrous results with hornwort. It created a mess that took months to get rid of. I wouldn't recommend it for tropical aquariums...

Mine did that and I threw it out in december and I still think I'm sucking some out.

[twoluvcats]

crypts, java moss, java fern, and moss balls have all grown for me in less than 0.5wpg

and i had the hornwort thing too...i wish it did better, because I love it for floating cover...but BOY is it messy!!

[Minaku]

I had hornwort too. I didn't know that it shed in warmer water, so when I looked in my tank the next day I thought my betta had gone to work on it! Plus, it came with snails. I will never get hornwort for a tropical tank ever again.

[kent1992]

Anubias, as you already mentioned, do very well in low lighting conditions. For a 10 gallon aquarium, your better off with Anubias nana, Anubias nana var. barteri or Anubias nana "petite" because the bigger versions of Anubias will grow quite big and make your tank look small, when you really want a 10 gallon to look big.

[sawcat]

I ended up getting one barteri and a couple more nanas, and they're all doing great. The anacharis doesn't like extreme low light, but in my 10 gallon and minibow (got a 10 watt mini florescent for it) it's doing fabulous with great big long roots. I love the banana plant, it's doing great in the extreme low light tanks