Need tall background plants - 64w of t8 over 75g

[jschall]

Attached is a current (terrible iphone) picture of my 75. As you can see, it looks pretty boring and ugly. Being a bichir tank, it has to have sand instead of gravel because of impaction issues. I need to get it darker sand.

Anyway, I think background plants would help it immensely. As noted in the title, my lighting is not high.
What should I get? I'd prefer to stick to an african biotope but it's not that important. It needs to be tall, though. 12-18". I'd prefer if I could buy it already tall.

Apart from that, what other plants should I get? Every time I go shopping for plants, there are so many unlabeled plants and species I don't know about that it's just overwhelming and I end up with nothing. Give me a shopping list, and preferably a place to order online.

What do I do? It seems like I shouldn't have gone with a tank of this size on my budget, because I can't afford enough driftwood to fully hardscape it properly, I have the wrong kind of sand, I have rocks I picked up off the ground outside. I want it to look good, so please, help me figure out what I need so I can stop treading water. If it's expensive I can save up.

 

[Mr. Grumpy Gills]

could add some jungle grass for the background. It gets tall and grows good

 

[jschall]

could add some jungle grass for the background. It gets tall and grows good

Can you be more specific? Google does not know what you're talking about, so here's a bunny with a pancake on its head:

 

[Sab_Fan]

try googling "jungle vallisneria"

 

[jschall]

Would contortion val work?

 

[sbuse]

TRY AN ONION PLANT THEY GET LIKE 2.5-3' I HAVE ONE IT WAS $4 AND STRETCHES OUT OVER THE TOP OF THE TANK ASWELL AS COVERING THE BACK DROP...I WILL BE GETTING MORE SOON FOR MY 6' TANK...AS FOR THE SAND I HAVE BLACK SAND AND IT LOOKS AWSOME...MADE MY ROPEFISH LOOK SWEET UNTIL I HAD TO MOVE IT FOR MY CATS...

 

[Matt724]

You need higher wattage. I can't imagine anything that will grow that tall unless you get some massive Java ferns or something. Just upgrade to at least 2.5 wpg and then get vals, crypts, water wisteria, echinodorus, more anubius, etc... But usually, with bichir tank, IMO I like the empty feelings. Or maybe some floating plants will look nice if you don't want to upgrade your lighting. gl

 

[jschall]

You need higher wattage. I can't imagine anything that will grow that tall unless you get some massive Java ferns or something. Just upgrade to at least 2.5 wpg and then get vals, crypts, water wisteria, echinodorus, more anubius, etc... But usually, with bichir tank, IMO I like the empty feelings. Or maybe some floating plants will look nice if you don't want to upgrade your lighting. gl

I can't afford to upgrade my lighting. 4x 54w would be just over 2.5wpg and it costs $211 from bigalsonline, plus I'd need to replace my lid.

I have water lettuce already.

It LOOKS pretty bright to me already. Are you sure I NEED more?

 

[mgamer20o0]

http://www.fishneedit.com/t5ho-ligh.html

Cryptocoryne balansae
Cryptocoryne retrospiralis
Cryptocoryne crispatula

 

[jschall]

http://www.fishneedit.com/t5ho-ligh.html

So, 108w/75g... 1.4 wpg for $79. Two of them would be the same as the other 4x 54w and would still cost me $160 plus a new lid. I very simply cannot afford a new lighting system at this time, unless you want to buy this 2x 48" t8 fixture with 48x18" aqueon hood off me for $100.

retrospiralis sounds promising. I'll see about getting some.


Who came up with watts per gallon anyway? I dismissed it as bogus as soon as I heard of the guideline. It's just like having an inch of fish per gallon would have me putting an arapaima in my 75.
Watts of what? Incandescent? Fluorescent (t5, t8, t12, cfl, power compact?)? Metal halide? LED?
Per gallon? What about depth? Reflectors? What about the optimal wavelengths for photosynthesis?

So 60 watts worth of focused LEDs over a 10 gallon is the same as using a 60w incandescent desk lamp?

We just throw all of those important factors out the window and say "watts per gallon?" I don't understand it at all. It's a worthless guideline. I understand my aquarium is probably very poorly lit for plants, but the guideline is total junk.