55 Gallon Tank Low light plant suggestions for shaded aquarium

Madchild57
  • #1
Currently planning a rescape of my low tech 55 gallon tank, and I've been taking it piece by piece. I'm onto the last half which is covered by a large (25-ish inch wide) floating water sprite. Needless to say, it doesn't let much light through even with trimming due to the sheer size of the thing.
I am using a Koval brand LED light currently- probably somewhere in the moderate lighting as it grew algae like crazy before I added the water sprite to suck up extra nutrients.
I wanted to do a crinum calamistratum since I heard they are low light as sort of a centerpiece of that side. I'm currently trying to pick a final plant that would go well in this shaded area. I wanted to steer away from the java ferns, anubias, & mosses since I already have those at nauseum, but I did want some kind of bushy plant to go in front of the crinum. My current ideas are some dense lemon bacopa, moneywort, hornwort, or hygro corymbosa (my preference right now), but there's very conflicting information as to whether those are low light or high light. Any ideas for bushy low light plants, stem or otherwise?
Just for reference, I have some lemon bacopa that is growing under the water sprite, lower leaves are dropping slightly but it is steadily growing.
 

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RedOnion
  • #2
Currently planning a rescape of my low tech 55 gallon tank, and I've been taking it piece by piece. I'm onto the last half which is covered by a large (25-ish inch wide) floating water sprite. Needless to say, it doesn't let much light through even with trimming due to the sheer size of the thing.
I am using a Koval brand LED light currently- probably somewhere in the moderate lighting as it grew algae like crazy before I added the water sprite to suck up extra nutrients.
I wanted to do a crinum calamistratum since I heard they are low light as sort of a centerpiece of that side. I'm currently trying to pick a final plant that would go well in this shaded area. I wanted to steer away from the java ferns, anubias, & mosses since I already have those at nauseum, but I did want some kind of bushy plant to go in front of the crinum. My current ideas are some dense lemon bacopa, moneywort, hornwort, or hygro corymbosa (my preference right now), but there's very conflicting information as to whether those are low light or high light. Any ideas for bushy low light plants, stem or otherwise?
Just for reference, I have some lemon bacopa that is growing under the water sprite, lower leaves are dropping slightly but it is steadily growing.
Bacopa did pretty well in low/med light for me. But what worked even better was my rotala. Grew dense into a nice bush even in my tank with no ferts and extremely low light, it did amazing!
 

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Ellebrius
  • #3
This is a corner of my low light 37 gallon. That huge bushy plant is pogostemon stellatus octopus. Very fast growing large bushy plant no CO2. I have to trim it every month to keep it in check. My rummynose tetras love it.
 

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Madchild57
  • Thread Starter
  • #4
Bacopa did pretty well in low/med light for me. But what worked even better was my rotala. Grew dense into a nice bush even in my tank with no ferts and extremely low light, it did amazing!
I've tried rotala in higher light before and it didn't work. Definitely trying some more bacopa, maybe trim the water sprite some more. It's tough because I can't just throw out plants like with smaller floaters since the whole plant is covering half the tank.
This is a corner of my low light 37 gallon. That huge bushy plant is pogostemon stellatus octopus. Very fast growing large bushy plant no CO2. I have to trim it every month to keep it in check. My rummynose tetras love it.
Got some of this along with the bacopa and some hygro corymbosa, I'll see what works.
 
Ellebrius
  • #5
Let us know how it works out for you.:)
 
Madchild57
  • Thread Starter
  • #6
Let us know how it works out for you.:)
After I trimmed the water sprite, the moneywort and hygro corymbosa worked well. I never got my hands on that crinum but I actually didn't have room for it anyway.
 
TClare
  • #7
I find that Hygrophila polysperma does well in heavily shaded areas, I never had any luck with H. corymbosa. Another that does well in low light is Heteranthera zosterifolia.
 

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