Plant suggestions for 20g high tank?

1787 Views 7 Replies 6 Participants Last post by Jegli09, Aug 2, 2012

Shrim

Discussion Starter · Jul 15, 2012

We're planning on starting a 20g high planted tank.

Currently have a 10g with only one plant (moneywort) and a moss ball. Had originally wanted the 10g to be planted but we'd gotten the "aquatic combo" from PetCo which turned out to be houseplants which we ended up putting in pots.

Any suggestions on easy to care for plants for a 20g high tank?

We'd like to stay away from having to use C02.

We're new to keeping a tank so any info on lighting etc would be helpful, with specifics re brands/names of the bulbs to get.

So far for the 20g we plan to use Eco Complete substrate. Just got a Fluval 206 canister filter which is running in the 10g (will move to 20g once it's set up).

Fish will be the following:
~4 mollies
~3 platys
~6-8 zebra danios
2 bamboo shrimp
1 ghost shrimp

The fish are ~ because we've been inundated with fry and those that survive will go to the 20g tank

we'll move the moneywort and moss ball to the 20g too

any suggestions/comments would be greatly appreciated! i'd really like to get a few more shrimp for the 20g, with the above possible stocking would more shrimp be ok?

Thank you!

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pandamonium

· #2 · Jul 15, 2012

easy to care for plants for me are mainly frogbit (floater), brazilian pennywort (floater, rooted, or emersed) are two plants that grow very easily and quickly. they are both amazon native plants.
i use DIY lighting on my tank. you can check it in my tank journal in my signature. basically i wired up 4 13watt CFL bulbs to my old hood. they were sylvania and 6500K temperature rating. generally light around midday is 6500-6700 so i tried to get bulbs that imitated that.

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Indian fern

· #3 · Jul 17, 2012

Try water sprite, cardamine lyrata, java fern, cryptocoryne wendtii and java moss. They grow well in low light and grows fast. For floating, you can try azolla or water lettuce or hornwort.

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Shrim

Discussion Starter · #4 · Jul 21, 2012

Thank you both for the suggestions and the information on lighting! I'm compiling a list of possible plants and will add these to the list and do some research.

I have another question. We started our 10 gallon tank all wrong, we added the fish too early etc. and are struggling to get everyone through the cycling process alive.

We do not want to make this mistake again.

However, when we start out new larger tank, we know we want to do a fishless cycle. We have the canister filter on the 10g which we plan to move to the new tank to begin the cycle process. But that will leave us with the 10g with no filter. should we get another filter and run it no the 10g so it can sustain the 10g while the new tank is getting set up?

And if so, would a smaller Aqueon 10g filter be able to fulfill that job? If we started running it now and ran both filters until the cycle is complete, would we mess up the 10g tank by removing the larger canister filter but leaving the smaller filter running?

I don't want to put the fish in anymore peril than we already have.

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caoder

· #5 · Jul 21, 2012

as far as cycling goes, if your 10 has stabilized with the canister filter, take it and put it onto the 20g, it's already cycled. but you might want to squeeze a bit of the filter sponge's gunk into the 10g's filter which you should put back onto the 10g. When you move to the 20g, take all the fish with the filter. It is already loaded with the bacteria for the bioload the fish put on the filtering system. Its more or less cycled as long as you keep the filter material wet.

plants i would recommend hydrophillia polysperma, java fern, java moss, crypts, and anubias, and vals. These all grow great with low to med. light.

BTW what is the lighting setup on the 2 tanks? this is quite important for plants to survive in. You don't want too much or too little when dealing with plants.
for a 20H go with a 2 tube t8 or t5 normal output, this'll give ~med light. or you can hack n mod 2 cfls in there. Either putting them horizontally within the cover, or the better option is to have them hang vertically above the tank. I've found that vertically is MUCH better than horizontal. I currently use desk lamps to light 2 of my tanks and they are all doing wonderfully. The modded tank hood with 2 horizontal bulbs is only doing ok.

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Shrim

Discussion Starter · #6 · Jul 22, 2012

caoder said:
BTW what is the lighting setup on the 2 tanks? this is quite important for plants to survive in. You don't want too much or too little when dealing with plants.
for a 20H go with a 2 tube t8 or t5 normal output, this'll give ~med light. or you can hack n mod 2 cfls in there. Either putting them horizontally within the cover, or the better option is to have them hang vertically above the tank. I've found that vertically is MUCH better than horizontal. I currently use desk lamps to light 2 of my tanks and they are all doing wonderfully. The modded tank hood with 2 horizontal bulbs is only doing ok.

Thank you for the information re: the filters and plant suggestions!

The light on the 10g is a florescent bulb that came with the tank "kit" (Aqueon 10g tank kit). it's horizontal in the hood. I'm still researching lighting for the 20g (we haven't gotten any equipment yet [except the filter] for the 20g). I know very little about electrics so unfortunately will have to keep it simple with the light. Thank you for the advice on vertical vs. horizontal. I would love to be able to dim the lights to simulate a sunset and sunrise, but i think that's way above my skill level to achieve! :icon_redf

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gabysapha

· #7 · Jul 29, 2012

My 20g high has almost exactly the same set up as yours. The regular old hood lamp that came with the tank, eco-complete for substrate.

I find it's tough for plants to do well in a tank that is tall, like a 20g high or even worse, the 29g high ( I have 2 of those).

In my experience, crypts do fine in the light/substrate conditions you and I have. Vallisneria are great because they grow so tall, so use them as a background plant. I use jungle vals because I love the thick, green foliage. Floating plants look beautiful, I like pennywort and frogbit the best.
Java fern and anubias do well in VERY low light, so they will do fine in your tank too.

Dwarf sag grows slowly for me, but it stays green. It adds a nice contrast with its' grassy appearance.

So you have lots of options! Java fern and anubias and moss like christmas moss (prettier than java moss) can be attached to hardscape items, while crypts and vals can be planted in Eco-complete. Add root tabs for more growth.

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Jegli09

· #8 · Aug 2, 2012

Yea you might want to give the dwarf sag a try. It will probably grow taller for you

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