I'm a little afraid of change but...

[Karackle]

So I've been thinking about trying a carpet plant in my 20g aquarium. It's a 20g High with only 15 watts of T8 (or T5?....i'll double check when i get home) fluorescent lighting over it. It's ~16" high, so I imagine not a TON of that light hits the bottom. HOWEVER i do have excellent growth of Wisteria, purple cabomba, anubias, crypt wendtii red (small), crypt (spiralis?) and what i've been calling wendtii green but am now thinking is another anubias. my small red cryot wendtii is shooting out new leaves like crazy, but it's very low to the ground and somewhat in the shade of my driftwood (it was ~3-4 leaves about a month ago now it is ~10+), and the 2 small pieces of wisteria were only single leaves that got broken off during a water change about 2 weeks ago. Here's a picture to show which i'm talking about:

circled in red is the small red crypt, in yellow are the small pieces of wisteria:


I think my tank gets either some direct or ambient sunlight during the day, it's the only reason i can think that the plants do so well despite a mere .75wpg. So my questions and concerns:

1) Is there any carpet plant/moss that would grow in such low light?

2) I could upgrade my lighting to
a) a second strip light
b) a coralife dual bulb fixture http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS...lestriplight30
BUT i'm worried about throwing the whole tank off balance (which worries me a little with adding the carpet anyway)

How does one gravel vac with a carpet?

would a carpet grow in just an aquarium gravel substrate?

Sorry for the lengthy, possibly nonsensical and very train of thought post.

And as always, thanks in advance!!! :-D

Tank Journal and Parameters:
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/ph...urnal-56k.html
20g High, low tech tank
regular aquarium gravel, 78 degrees, Penguin Biowheel 100 filter
Flora:
Purple Cabomba, Wisteria, Cryptocoryne wendtii red (small), Crypt wendtii green (large), Crypt spiralis, Anubias (nana i think)
Fauna:
3 female Bettas, 3 mollies, 3 neon tetras, 3 glolight tetras, 3 zebra danios, 1 female guppy, 1 clown pleco

[lauraleellbp]

You may be able to grow some plants in that gravel, but if you want a carpeting plant I'd at least try and replace the substrate in the front with something smaller.

Dwarf sagittaria, pygmy chain sword (E. tenellus) 'narrow' or Marselia minuta are some of the few plants that can still carpet in low light tanks.

If you upgrade to more than 2 wpg then you'll need to start either dosing Excel or adding CO2 (or both) + ferts.

[Karackle]

Oh that reminds me, I do actually dose Flourish Excel and Comprehensive ~once a week (or less), and can easily up that as I have to dose my 2.5wpg 5g tank as well anyway.

[Karackle]

Also, thanks for the plant suggestions! I looked them up and they all would look nice. I could definitely think about switching out the substrate in the front area where no plants are currently growing, I'm not ready to rescape the tank yet, so i'm not ready for a full substrate switch! I'm finally getting it to look nice, would be a shame to ruin it to switch all the gravel where roots have taken hold, but I could definitely think about switching where there are no roots in the way.

Lots of things to consider...i've been thinking about a carpet for a while but had to wait until i had $$ for it...now i just need to look at my options! And of course, decide whether i really do want a carpet....but i think i do

[Karackle]

also what about substrate? would i want/need to change it at all? at least in the front unplanted area i'm thinking of trying to carpet? If so do i just pull out the old and add the new? As always, thanks in advance!