I wanted real plants in my tank, but I didn't want to purchase any special lighting, substrate, ferts, CO2, etc. I decided to go with anubias nana and java fern which, based on my research, are low light, low maintenance, easy to grow and propagate well.
The problem is that they die (particularly the anubias), or they slowly brown up and don't look so great. I have a 150g tank that is 2.5' deep, with the java fern and anubias attached to driftwood everywhere from about 1' to 2' deep. Lighting is a single 48" 40W T-8 bulb, and the tank also gets quite a bit of natural lighting.
The java fern has quite a bit of brown, but is propagating fairly well. My initial batch of anubias died, and my new batch is starting to have leaves curl. I've started dosing with SeaChem Flourish and Flourish Excel just to see if it helps. It may be helping some, but it's hard to say.
Any thoughts? Do I need more lighting? Before purchasing these plants I read about how others have had success with anubias and java fern with extremely low lighting, so I didn't think it would be an issue.
Thanks!
The problem is that they die (particularly the anubias), or they slowly brown up and don't look so great. I have a 150g tank that is 2.5' deep, with the java fern and anubias attached to driftwood everywhere from about 1' to 2' deep. Lighting is a single 48" 40W T-8 bulb, and the tank also gets quite a bit of natural lighting.
The java fern has quite a bit of brown, but is propagating fairly well. My initial batch of anubias died, and my new batch is starting to have leaves curl. I've started dosing with SeaChem Flourish and Flourish Excel just to see if it helps. It may be helping some, but it's hard to say.
Any thoughts? Do I need more lighting? Before purchasing these plants I read about how others have had success with anubias and java fern with extremely low lighting, so I didn't think it would be an issue.
Thanks!
