Low requirement carpet plants

[Abhishek]

Hi Guys,

I am in the process of setting up 2 new small shrimp tanks :cool:
Soil used will be ADA Amazonia 2 only, and light I can provide around 1.5-2wpg.

Can you please suggest me what plants I can use except moss, as a nice carpet plant, which will have low requirement(without co2).

[Anubia]

Hi...sadly most true carpetting plants ' that you see in planted aquascapes' survive and grow better with induced C02...the most popular and suitable for nano aquaria is - Heminathus callitrichiodes 'Cuba' although again I must state I would only recommend this with C02.

Other non C02 low tech planting but not typically carpetting are -

Pogostemon Helferi
Marsilea Hirsuta
Glossotigma
Hairgrass species - Eleocharis parvula

I've grown most of these within shrimp biotopes but have most success when inducing C02, although you can supplement the plants health without C02 by introducing a carbon nutrient ( Easy Carbo )....

Hope this helps.....

[Abhishek]

Hi Anubia,

Thanks for the answer, well I didnt have any experience with Pogostemon Helferi, but Glossotigma and Eleocharis Parvula would require high light and co2. Marsilea will be a nice one to start.
About carbon nutrient, didnt heard great about Seachem Excel side effects on shrimps, so little sceptical.

[Anubia]

I use Easy Carbo from ' Easy Life'...As long as you dose correctly it should be ok....

I use this within a CRS setup with S & SS+ grades and they have all been ok and have berried females.

[zacks]

marsilea will be a good choice.........

but i suggesting for these plants :

1. echinodorus Tenellus very easy don't need medium light and co2.......
2. any hydrocotyle species........because they're low light plant and doesn't need co2..........but they're not a full FG plant.......do you get what i mean?
3. for me the most ideal for shrimps tank should be fissiden us ....you can tied them at the wire.....why fissiden ? because they're very slow plant growth......you don't have doing trimming often and if you have already boring with that plant you can simply put out from the tank without ruining the substrate...so you don't have to worry about ammonia spike....and almost any type of moss plant is very easy to keep and just need requirement cold temperature only.......


hope it will help you .......:D

[Abhishek]

Thanks Bro,
I feel that echinodorus tenellus and fissidens will work great, as I have access to both of them :)

[Fento]

I agree with the partners. The lower requirements carpet plants are Marsilea hirsuta (or quadrifolia... or other marsilea species do also fine) Equinodorus tenellus, Sagitaria subulatta (with a good light it grows faster, but also smaller), even Criptocoryne parva works good on mature tanks. You got some epiphite plants too, like mosses, Anubia barteri var nana and Monoselenum tenerum, they may do an interesting carpet if you attach them to something (but I got monoselenum on the substrate and it grows good as long as you don't move it often).

[gothlord]

for these conditions my favourites would be Cryptocoryne parva and Utricularia graminifolia (at low pH), but have to add that I read here only beautiful good matching plants.

[Abhishek]

Thanks Buddies, never tried Monoselenum tenerum but will give it a try.
The only issue i am facing is of co2 injection :( and gothlord I suppose Utricularia graminifolia is one of the best looking plants around, but doesn't it require constant co2 injection?

[zacks]

Thanks Buddies, never tried Monoselenum tenerum but will give it a try.
The only issue i am facing is of co2 injection :( and gothlord I suppose Utricularia graminifolia is one of the best looking plants around, but doesn't it require constant co2 injection?
UG in my experience need very highlight and in a low temp will growing crazy....i never succes in medium light for UG.....and they're need co2 constant and some daphnia .....because they're a true carnivora plant........

for these conditions my favourites would be Cryptocoryne parva and Utricularia graminifolia (at low pH), but have to add that I read here only beautiful good matching plants.
parva would be hard to planting without co2.....they will stay just like it is....because in shrimp tank people usually set a low light....for keep the algae as low as they can

UG will not gonna success i think.........


here's UG at my tank..........only 2-3 months for full carpet......with highlight, 2-3 bps co2 with inline atomizer up created superb dissolve co2 in the water at low temp, and dosing fertilizer routine.......

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj182/zacks1981/The%20Yahoo%20river%20Journal/ug.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj182/zacks1981/The%20Yahoo%20river%20Journal/amandaewithug.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj182/zacks1981/The%20Yahoo%20river%20Journal/IMG00096-20101024-2316.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj182/zacks1981/The%20Yahoo%20river%20Journal/IMG00158-20100910-2314.jpg

before.....just see the UG and HC need only 2 month full later....

[Abhishek]

Wow Zacks it was really informative.
Now have to think about marselia and other ones :P