Ideal carpet plant?

I'm looking for suggestions for a good carpet plant.
My 55 Gallon aquarium has a gravel substrate (not one of the plant substrates, just plain old gravel), medium light, and CO2.

I tend to have the opposite of a green thumb - I have, in the past, managed to kill Java moss, corkscrew val, java ferns, and more "easy" plants. I have been moderately successful with dwarf lilies, and my cryptocoryne wendtii love me. My anubias are just sitting there, being anubias, not really getting bigger, but not dying either.

Any suggestions for a carpet plant that might require similar parameters as the crypt?
(I do use occasional root tabs, and liquid fertilizer at every water change)

Thanks!

 

S. repens is a nice stem plant that many people use as a carpet plant. It doesn't grow that tall.

Or stick with crypts. There are many varieties.

Are you using CO2 without any fertilizers? Perhaps add a liquid fertilizer or the lower the light and discard the CO2. None of those plants you listed really need CO2 to thrive.

Is your tap water soft or hard? Vals like hard water whereas crypts come from soft water environment. Maybe the issue is that you have soft water. If so that can be easily remedied.

 

S. repens is a nice stem plant that many people use as a carpet plant. It doesn't grow that tall.

I will definitely look into that one

Are you using CO2 without any fertilizers? Perhaps add a liquid fertilizer or the lower the light and discard the CO2. None of those plants you listed really need CO2 to thrive.

As I pointed out in the original post, I am using liquid fertilizer at every water change, and occasional root tabs. I know that everyone says that the plants that I have don't need CO2, but none of my plants were doing any growing at all until I added it, and now my lilies and crypt are thriving. The one corkscrew val I have left stopped dying when I added CO2, but it has yet to reproduce.

Is your tap water soft or hard? Vals like hard water whereas crypts come from soft water environment. Maybe the issue is that you have soft water. If so that can be easily remedied.

This is weird to me, as my water is definitely not soft. It's been a while since I tested it, but last time it was around 7 kh. That said, I have accepted the fact that some "easy" plant species just hate me, so I'm happy with my current setup and am just looking for carpet plants to try.

Maybe I will just add more crypt if nothing else works out.

 

As I pointed out in the original post, I am using liquid fertilizer at every water change, and occasional root tabs. I know that everyone says that the plants that I have don't need CO2, but none of my plants were doing any growing at all until I added it, and now my lilies and crypt are thriving. The one corkscrew val I have left stopped dying when I added CO2, but it has yet to reproduce.

Sorry I missed the part where you mentioned the liquid fertilizer.

I live in a very soft water area. My gH/kH is 0 out of the tap water. The only plants that had thrived for me were crypts. When I added crushed coral into my HOB filter it raised up my water hardness and I was able to grow hard water plants like jungle val. Also my soft water plants did much better in hard water.

I would check again to see because that might be the issue as your situation sounds very similar to mine. I have java fern and java moss as well and never had success with them until I raised my water hardness.

If you can't get val to grow try crypt spiralis. It grows long and tall like val and spreads via runners. I just got some yesterday to replace my jungle val.

 

Btw I came across this crypt. Its described as a carpeting plant in the following link.

Cryptocoryne Parva | Fish Tank Plants | Live Aquarium Plants for Sale

 

Dwarf sags or crypts but these plants can grow relatively tall. I have a carpet of crypt. Wendtii.

 

I’ve just got an answer order of dwarf saggiteria and I’m trying to grow a carpet of them they look quite nice and apparently a beginner plant

 

I’ve just got an answer order of dwarf saggiteria and I’m trying to grow a carpet of them they look quite nice and apparently a beginner plant

my sags having a problem in propagating because the light wasn't enough.. Im still waiting for my new LED light which is 50 watts.

 

I think microswords are super cool carpeting plant. Some websites say it WILL NOT spread in normal gravel and other sites say that they WILL spread into a carpet in normal gravel. I have regular old gravel and have already got some spread from my microswords. I’m sure it would grow faster and be thicker with better substrate and CO2.

 

I think microswords are super cool carpeting plant. Some websites say it WILL NOT spread in normal gravel and other sites say that they WILL spread into a carpet in normal gravel. I have regular old gravel and have already got some spread from my microswords. I’m sure it would grow faster and be thicker with better substrate and CO2.

Im thinking of minimizing the amount of vegetation atm because im having difficulties in maintaining the tank.