Dwarf Sag carpet

I would get 5-6. If it likes your tank you will have a 100 in a month. Very invasive plant.

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Thanks OVT, I have 5 now floating in my hospital tank, just waiting on my substrate to be delivered this week to move it to the 55. Cant wait to get started on my first planted. Hopefully it will turn out looking as nice as some of the ones I've seen posted on the forum.

its a very undemanding plant. I'm sure it will carpet without much difficulty

I had like 150 that I took out of my 45 to plant in my 80 and its not enough to make a 'carpet'. It will fill in after a while though. It is a slow grower in low tech tanks.

Thanks guys. I appreciate the comments. I didnt buy a lot of dwarf sag but I have about 8 different types of plants. Hopefully I can arrange it fairly nice and it will fill in quickly.

I have a question about co2. Is a diy sufficient for a 55 gallon or should I buy something more substantial? I have the diy on my 20 gallon right now and it seems to be doing fine but thats a lot smaller tank. Its just a 1 gallon juice bottle with the air line running to a power head. The powerhead chops the bubbles up small enough that you can barely see them.

My personal opinion: either go pressurised (with a dual stage regulator) or go without.

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I haven't dabbled in CO2 yet, but from everything I've read on the subject 55g is too big for DIY CO2

thelub said:

I haven't dabbled in CO2 yet, but from everything I've read on the subject 55g is too big for DIY CO2

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I would say anything larger than a 30g, and DIY CO2 starts to become a hassle (since you start to need more than 1 bottle running)

Thanks everyone for the quick answers. Very helpful stuff. My plan is to get it all started Saturday since that's my only day off of work. Once I get it planted a little If it doesn't look too horrible Ill take a pic or two.

I also got a bunch of tools that look useful from the local hospital. I know someone that works in the surgical part where they keep all the tools. She brought me like 6 pairs of long curved scissors and some different types of long tweezers and things like that. Not sure how good they are yet but you can't beat free ( Just wanted to note that they aren't stolen, my wording makes it sound that way. They get thrown away for various reasons, instead of tossing them she just ran it through their sterilizer for me and resealed them all )

Bettatail said:

+1

started from 2 stems of dwarf sag...

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Wow, how long did it take 2 to spread like that? Looks good, if mine will spread and grow in that healthy I'll be happy.

And,, if I am not mistaken, that's a 300g tank lol.

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Also a nice looking tank. Thanks for the photos. I have one more question and I'll leave you guys alone. I'm gonna order some new lighting. I'm looking atFinnex FugeRay Planted+ 48" led lights. Are those a good option for me or is there something better in that price range? The led lights that came with the tank are def not gonna cut it for most plants.

This Finnex sub-forum has a bunch of discussions and data on their lights:
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=145

Other good LED brands are Current USA and buildmyled com

When it comes to selecting lights, one approach is to decide if you want low, medium or high light tank (based on the plants you want to keep) and then find brands / fixtures that deliver that level of light for your specific tank. 55g is a relatively tall tank, but dwarf sag does not require a ton of light.

Thanks OVT for all the tips and suggestions. I ordered a 48" Current USA Satellite Freshwater LED Plus. Has to be a huge improvement over the cheap LED's that came with the aquarium. Hopefully my Amazon Prime will get it to me before Saturday when i plan to get everything started.

Thanks again, I really appreciate the help I have received on the forum so far.

the thing with it is, it can take a bit to get adjusted to your tank. once it does it takes off and fills in fast. i pulled about a dozen out of a 5 gal for my 29. it just sat there for 2 months, then boom it took off and covered the tank within another month and a half. all my tanks are low tech, no ferts and stock lights that came with the hoods. my 20 was sand and gravel. not even root tabs. looked great too. give it time