[r3tic]

As the title states, I want to convert my 20H fish tank to a planted tank. I tossed some mint cuttings into my tank this fall and like to see the growth of the plants so I've decided to replace the plastic plants with live ones. Unfortunately I have constraints that I must work within. The substrate can't be substantially changed, nor can the fish be changed. The substrate is colored gravel. The fish include 3 white clouds, 1 female beta, 1 dwarf blue fire gourami, 1 upside-down catfish and a black moor goldfish.

I am currently upgrading my lighting to a twin tube f14t5 fixture with 6500k bulbs, found a great deal on ballasts on [Ebay Link Removed] I plan on making the DIY plant pellets I stumbled across on this site to feed the rooted plants.

With that in mind I am in the process of getting everything planted and growing. I am wondering what plant would be good ones to start with considering the above information? I do like some of the shorter grasses and mosses, but need some fast growing plants to help with a little bit of algae I have on the glass that doesn't come off very easily. Are there any good algae eaters that won't eat the plants as well? I understand that dosing co2 is a good idea but would it be needed given my lighting and other factors? I could build a DIY reactor if needed.

Dave

 

[Hoppy]

http://ripariumsupply.com/store-tank-planters.html seems to be specifically designed for your situation. You stand some chance of keeping plants alive and not eaten nor torn up by the fish with these. You need a lot of plants with those lights to avoid lots of algae from taking over. DIY CO2 could be made to work well on a 20 gallon tank, by using 2 or more bottles of yeast mix, with staggered start times. That would help the plants to grow healthy enough to keep algae from moving in.