New 29 Gallon Plant Ideas

Hi, I'm starting a new 29 gallon shrimp/celestial pearl danio tank. It's gonna be low tech as I won't be using a co2 setup (I know this limits my viable plants, which is why I'm here) . I'm planning background: giant hairgrass and anacharis, midground: crypt wendti, ludwigia ovalis, and bunched proser-pinaca (mermaid weed), foreground: Staurogyne repens and fissidens fontanus, floating plant: phyllanthus fluitans. Any suggestion in the form of additions or subtractions? I apologize if I spelled any of the names wrong, thank you

 

Hair Grass won’t give you much height in a 29, assuming you want the pm to get most of the way up.
Some good options for height would be jungle val, hygrophilas (specifically polysperma varieties, however they are illegal to purchase... someone can give them to you as long as not being shipped across state lines), hornwort (weighted down by plant weight), some limnophilas could work as well.
Ludwigia ovalis is pretty large, and should be considered more of the back ground... you can use the giant Hair Grass as accents in the mid ground.
Fissidens like good lighting, and may not be ideal for the bottom of a low tech 29, I would consider other mosses.

Most importantly, consider that the 29 is tall, and narrow. Very hard to create fore/mid/back in a tank like this...

Last note, any floating plant will cause some issues blocking out some light, be sure you remove them often.

 

Hair Grass won’t give you much height in a 29, assuming you want the pm to get most of the way up.
Some good options for height would be jungle val, hygrophilas (specifically polysperma varieties, however they are illegal to purchase... someone can give them to you as long as not being shipped across state lines), hornwort (weighted down by plant weight), some limnophilas could work as well.
Ludwigia ovalis is pretty large, and should be considered more of the back ground... you can use the giant Hair Grass as accents in the mid ground.
Fissidens like good lighting, and may not be ideal for the bottom of a low tech 29, I would consider other mosses.

Most importantly, consider that the 29 is tall, and narrow. Very hard to create fore/mid/back in a tank like this...

Last note, any floating plant will cause some issues blocking out some light, be sure you remove them often.

Thank you, I will look into some of the plants you mentioned, I was planning to put the disciples into the pockets of a piece of dragon stone I plan to position pointing upwards to the top, do you still think it would be too dim, I'm using the nicrew 27" led

 

The nicrew light I have barely cut it on a ten gal, you might want to look for something a bit stronger for the 29...
Skip nicrew, beamswork on higher tanks....
Some you could consider for low tech tall tank...
lighting is the place you want to spend on, skimping here will lead to disaster later on.... no need to buy a crummy light, lose all your plants, and have To buy a new light and new plants

Micmol aqua Air 600 (dimmable/customizable. One of the Best color renditions I’ve seen)

Chihiros a series 601, with additional stainless stand, or the a plus
A plus might be a better option here, larger spread with the depth will be a good thing. Dimmable, likely would need around the 5th setting for 29)


Finnex planted plus CC, fluval fresh and plant are some other options (have only owned the old finnex, but both the new cc and the fluval have good reputations.


If you have any questions for me, feel free to tag me... don’t get on here too often lately and hard to find posts to keep track of without the tag

 

My Red Cherry shrimp love the Pearl Weed in my tank. It grows really well and you don't need CO2. It looks even better than Monte Carlo and I love it. It goes in all my tanks now.

 

Hi, I'm starting a new 29 gallon shrimp/celestial pearl danio tank. It's gonna be low tech as I won't be using a co2 setup (I know this limits my viable plants, which is why I'm here) . I'm planning background: giant hairgrass and anacharis, midground: crypt wendti, ludwigia ovalis, and bunched proser-pinaca (mermaid weed), foreground: Staurogyne repens and fissidens fontanus, floating plant: phyllanthus fluitans. Any suggestion in the form of additions or subtractions? I apologize if I spelled any of the names wrong, thank you

A nice carpet would look good. But something like Monte Carlo would take a while to fill in without co2.

 

As mentioned the dimensions of this tank would make it hard for you to create such an in depth planting, and I think you would be disapointed about how your vision turned out. my suggestion would be 'dumbing down' your planting as it were. Crypts make a perfect fore/mid ground plant and the wide selection of your mid grounds could be reduced to one or two crpt varieties as they go well with low tech setups, with something very small to fill gaps, and a tall val/ polysperma to the back. You would do better creating a well shaped simple planting guide then attempting something complex in such a small space and see it grow out of shape and have many of your plants scurffy or dead.

 

As mentioned the dimensions of this tank would make it hard for you to create such an in depth planting, and I think you would be disapointed about how your vision turned out. my suggestion would be 'dumbing down' your planting as it were. Crypts make a perfect fore/mid ground plant and the wide selection of your mid grounds could be reduced to one or two crpt varieties as they go well with low tech setups, with something very small to fill gaps, and a tall val/ polysperma to the back. You would do better creating a well shaped simple planting guide then attempting something complex in such a small space and see it grow out of shape and have many of your plants scurffy or dead.

Here's what I decided so far