New to Plants

[sarajwinter]

Hi there! I have a 50 gallon tank. It's well established, 7 years old. I have a gourami, beta, 6 black skirt tetras and a flag fish. I just recently got rid of all my artifical plants and want to start using plants. I love the carpeted look in tanks. How do I start that? Seeds? I truly have no idea. Any help is very much appreciated!!

 

[3Fishnight]

Buy plants online or look at your local fish store. Or get them from hobbyists. One of the easiest capreting plants in my opinion is dwarf saggitaria. Considered an easier plant. It looks like blades of grass under water. They send out runners and fill in the carpet pretty quick too. Other carpeting plants could be well trimmed pearl weed. You could try small Cryptocoryne varieties. Parva. Lucens, wendtii green. All these can be low light options.

 

[kansas]

Most people who get the carpet effect are using CO2.

If you try one plant and it won't grow in your water, try another. Use and all one fertilizer like Thrive or Easy Green.

 

[Thunder_o_b]

As kansas said most carpet plants need Co2 injection.

Raising aquatic plants is a garden just in water. Different plants have differing needs for food and light, some are root feeders, and some feed from the water column, some need bright light others need less light.

Here are some shots of aquarium plantings I have done. Size ranges from 29 gal to 150 tall aquariums.

I use 7 different Seachem products, along with plant specific LED lights.

I hope this is of some help.

 

[3Fishnight]

Dwarf sagittaria carpet no co2

 

[Fishfur]

You might try Pearlgrass - Hemianthus glomeratus. Small leaves & it will grow as a carpet but it tends to grow fairly fast and would require frequent trimming to stay short & fill in.

But it will root at every node so once it gets established it keeps going.

Also grows floating & is easily trimmed to create almost any shape you might desire.

Needs no CO2 nor fertilizer other than nitrates from fish but it benefits from a little iron & trace mix & if well fed, grows a little faster.

 

[BlackOsprey]

50g is definitely big enough to get a nice carpet effect while just using dwarf sag.

Very few people use seeds for aquarium plants. Purchase a bunch of live plants, enough to fill in the bottowm with a few inches between each plant. They'll spread themselves with runners and will eventually fill in the entire bottom of the tank

 

[Fishfur]

Another possible consideration could be one of the microswords - Lilaeopsis spp.

There are several different species of them - L.novaezealandiae, so far as I know, is naturally the shortest of them.

L.mauritiana & L.braziliensis are both a good bit taller but look extremely grass-like. Their downside is slow growth & thus it either takes ages to grow a carpet of any size or else you spend a fortune on starting it because you have to buy a ton of plants.

Another option would be one of the Helanthiums. H.tenellum Green only gets to about 3” tall and bears a resemblance to baby spider plants that are all green.

H.tenellum itself might work but gets taller - six inches or so. Sometimes labelled Echinodorus tenellum or E.latifolius. Used to be called Dwarf swordplant.

H.bolivianum or H.bolivianum Quadricostatus are in between heightwise. Wider leaf blades look remarkably like spider plant without the stripes.

All the Helanthiums spread by way of runners which produce new plantlets at regular intervals and are slow to moderately fast growers in terms of speed. You can direct the growing tip of the runner as desired & once plantlets have rooted firmly and are a reasonable size they can be severed from the runner & will produce their own, helping speed up the filling in.

Vallisnerias and Sagittaria spread in this way too. The most commonly seen Sagittaria is usually called ‘dwarf sag’ but it isn’t a dwarf plant. Depending on growing conditions it is capable of growing to over a foot in height though it doesn’t necessarily do so.

If you like it, there is nothing wrong with it but if you want something shorter that can’t grow taller, consider a Helanthium or Lilaeopsis.

 

[Thunder_o_b]

Dwarf sagittaria carpet no co2

I have thought about that plant. I use a Sachem product that harms them and vals. Might be worth it to not use it in one aquarium and see how it goes.

Looks like it grows nicely for you.

 

[tinylostwine]

A little depends on if you ahve hard or soft water; i did find with very soft acidic water (ec 20); i found that Echinorodus quadricostatus quickly carpeted the tank though it might be larger than you want - i have it in a 180 which is 24 inches tall. I never had great luck with dwarf saggitaria in tap water (gh 6 kh 3) without co2; it doesn't die but it never really gets dense enough to be consider carpeting. Haven't tried it in very soft water maybe one day..

 

[3Fishnight]

I have thought about that plant. I use a Sachem product that harms them and vals. Might be worth it to not use it in one aquarium and see how it goes.

Looks like it grows nicely for you.

Its cool it looks like a grassy field. It should do fine in just sand or gravel too. Although that tank is fluval stratum. Had a fluval plant 3.0 on it.