125 gal, low light, planted discus tank.

[Maich]

I am finally getting around to setting up my 125 gallon discus tank. At the moment I have some VERY nice driftwood I will be adding, and probably natural rock gravel. Now what I want to know, my lighting is a 60 inch 4 bulb T6 light fixture, with 2 daytime and 2 actinic bulbs. Its very bright to the eye, but I dont think it will be horribly bright when it gets to the plants 30" below it. I want to have a low/medium lighted planted tank. Should I keep the actinics? Replace with something else? Suggestions?

I also would like to know some suitable plants for my tank, I want some java ferns, but thats not enough. I would like some ground cover in certain parts, and maybe a few different plants here and there. Any tips would be helpful.

 

[chonhzilla]

Looks like you are off to a great start. The plants like anubias and java fern will do great. Just do a quick look up of low light plants and you'll find plenty you may like. As far as ground cover is concerned there is not much choices with a low light setup. I have had dwarf sag as a low light ground cover before but it just grows slower. For my personal opinion, You can also try java moss as a ground cover. Wrap the moss in netting material to over rocks or pieces of decor and the moss will grow in over time giving you a nice foregound that does well in low light. Stays green and easy to keep low.

 

[Maich]

Thanks for the input, I'll keep those in mind. Anybody else have suggestions?

 

[tharsis]

I would remove the actinics and add 2 more of the daylight bulbs. Even with that you will still be in the low light range though. 30" is a VERY long way for the light from a T6 to travel.

As for plants, the dwarf sag is a great low light ground cover if you buy 30-40 plantlets and spread them around you will have a ground cover in no time. You can get some amazon swords, they will fill out a 125 gallon very nicely. A lot of the common crypts will be good as well. Crypt Wendtii comes to mind. Definitely java fern and mosses attached to your driftwood.. And jungle Vals make great background plants in low light setups.

Anacharis, hygro difformis are both suberb stem plants for a low light setup they grow like weeds (i guess they are weeds).

Oh yeah and look at some apongonetons sp? particularly the Ulvaceous variety, they are absolutely beautiful plants but they get enormous..way to big for anything less than a 125 Gallon tank.

 

[3dees]

being that it's a discus tank, I think you should be careful in your selection of plants. discus need warm water and many plants do not do well in them. also, the actinics are of no use in a planted tank.