What Ground Cover Should I Choose?

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jeffthefish

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Aug 8, 2006
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Seattle, WA
www.jeffthefish.com
I'm in the process of setting up a planted 20g long. I'm just waiting for the light to arrive in the mail and for my sister to ship me some white sand.

My question is a matter of aesthetics. I'll have enough light to grow any of these, but I'm not sure which I want, or if I want a combination. I'd like to have some kind of carpet, like dwarf hairgrass, or micro chain sword, or glossostigma. Or some combination thereof.

This is only a matter of aesthetics and maintenance, as I've heard that glosso needs to be trimmed frequently.

What would YOU choose?
 
What kind of lighting are you going to have on that tank? It may be enough for the plant to live, but many of those plants will not carpet except under high light and extensive amounts of co2 and ferts. The hair grass is a fairly slow grower. If you like hairgrass you may look at blyxa japonica. A much faster growing plant. With any of the grasses that are small tight leaves you are going to need to have co2 and ferts ready. IF you don't have the tank balenced the grasses will be traps for algae, and with high lighting and no fert or co2 you will have high algae levels, and in turn kill the grasses.
 
With that much lighting, and the ferts and co2 ready, make absolutely certain you know what your fert regime should be, and adjust from there. With the co2, moniter your pH to KH relationship carefully. What kind of ferts are you going to use?

Personally blyxa japonica is much easier to work with than hair grass, and looks better IMO.
 
Hairgrass is nice looking, but you have more problems with the smaller size of leaves. They will collect detritus and algaes, and won't look like pictures unless extreme amounts of care are put in. Flourish and excel are decent, but you will go through them faster than water. I recommend the use of Greg watson's ferts. They are more controlled, and much cheaper to use.
 
Your Lightning is too much for that tank, i would suggest to use only 1 Bulb and turn off the other one, also make sure your bulb is ranging 6700k to 10,000k. if you insist and you turn on 2 bulbs then take ready for you biggest algae battle.

I would suggest a 8 hours Photo Period, What do you mean by co2? Pressurized or this Seachem Excel? if you have a Pressurized co2 then you dont need to dose Seachem Excel.

For Ferts, you can buy Kno3, Kh2po4, Ks204 at www.gregwatson.com that would be your Macro ferts and for you Micro Ferts Seachem Flourish better. May i know what type of substrate are you using?

As for Low maintenace Foregroun Plant, i would suggest the Elantine Tiandra.

I'll give you a Dosing Regime once you answer my few question above :)
 
That is not too much light as long as you balance the equation. Too much light, CO2 or nutrients will cause an algae bloom. Elatine triandra is a good foreground plant, but it is far from low maintenance. You will have to clean leaves constantly as this plant will lose small bunches of leaves constantly. It is also a very bad idea for a tank that small.

Personally 8 hours has never worked well. It does keep algae down, but if you are on top of dosing proper amounts, and having proper co2 levels, then you will not encounter an algae problem. With limiting lighting to 8 hours you severely lessen the growth of the plants. Generally 10-12 hours is the standard.
 
WyldFya;604423; said:
That is not too much light as long as you balance the equation. Too much light, CO2 or nutrients will cause an algae bloom. Elatine triandra is a good foreground plant, but it is far from low maintenance. You will have to clean leaves constantly as this plant will lose small bunches of leaves constantly. It is also a very bad idea for a tank that small.

Personally 8 hours has never worked well. It does keep algae down, but if you are on top of dosing proper amounts, and having proper co2 levels, then you will not encounter an algae problem. With limiting lighting to 8 hours you severely lessen the growth of the plants. Generally 10-12 hours is the standard.
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Well if you go with 130 watts over 20 Gallon tank, then you will need a Pressurized co2. But 65watts is really the High Light setup on a 20 gallon high or 20 gallon long.

If you go with that Lightning, you need to have a 3 bps of co2 to increase the uptake of Nutrients by plants, i will also recommend a Fully Planted Tank so PLants will Compete the algae.

Elantine Tiandra needs a Lot of Nitrate Dosing, if the tank has a low nitrate level then leaves will rot and die, they are perfect on a 20 tank, i have it on a 20 long and its really beautiful.

For that kind of lightning i really recommend the 8 hours photo period
 
I have e. triandra as well, but in a 135 under high lighting, and it looks great, but it would take up more space than a 20 gallon long has for a foot print after only 2 months of growth. For a tank that small I have had lighting higher than that with a 2 liter co2 bottle, and no problems with co2 levels, nor algae.
 
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