Suitable plants for lowlight/no CO2 tanks?

[cheeboonyong]

Hi,

does anyone have any experience with knowing what plants are suitable for tanks with lowlight and no CO2? I intend to grow duckweek at the top to block out most of the light.

Thinking of the following:
Moss (various)
A. Nana
Hairgrass or E. Tenellus
C. Balasae
C. Wendtii

Any more plant suggestions are welcome.

[|squee|]

You missed out the ever popular Java Fern

E.Tennellus grows ugly and tall in these conditions imho.

[flyinmysoup]

Hey, I was contemplating using duckweed to block out light too. But I imagined it to be really messy once they grow and gets trapped in moss and the finer leaved plants. I have a fan blowing and am running an Eheim 2213 on my tall 2 footer low-maintenance tank with a 36W Magnum II PL. Do you guys think its advisable for me to have duckweed?

BTW, I am having various crypts, taiwan moss on my driftwood, java ferns and E. tenellus in my tank. Working out fine so far.

[cheeboonyong]

Hey, I was contemplating using duckweed to block out light too. But I imagined it to be really messy once they grow and gets trapped in moss and the finer leaved plants. I have a fan blowing ...

I've got duckweed on the surface of my tank now. It helps if there isn't a fan blowing, somehow. I think it's because the fan will blow the duckweed to congregate in corners where the light is not as strong, so the duckweed doesn't grow well. Once I stopped the fan, it was growing like nobody's business.

Not sure why you are concerned about the duckweed possibly trapped in moss. The duckweed floats and so far does not sink and trap itself in other plants. I've not experienced any issues so far.

How does the tenellus grow? Does it really grow ugly?

By the way, my glosso is growing up and up, not sideways. Must be the lack of light. But the lack of CO2 doesn't seem to hurt them.

Squee, thanks for the Java Fern suggestion! How could I forget that?

[flyinmysoup]

So far, the tenellus grows taller, and they're not spreading as densely as they would in a high light and CO2 condition, but its alright, cos' I got crypts to fill up the rest of the space. I am concerned as I think the tank is a little strong on filtration (2213 on a 2 footer, current's pretty strong) and duckweeds being light tends to get swept into the water column at times, hence trapping themselves in the moss which is pretty high up, on the driftwood.

[barmby]

Tenellus fan, you may like to opt for Sagittaria subulata. I got mine from Vincent and Wynx. They can grow and spread like tenellus and very short due to low maint tank's nature..

[Justikanz]

Duckweed don't grow well, if at all, in running water, which will be the case of a fan blowing across the surface of the water. Some movement is ok but in my experience a constant motion of the water surface is bad for duckweed. My 2 cents...

[vinz]

Hydrocotyle leucocephala... but it needs lots of NO3. Good for tanks where you feed with lots of raw food like frozen bloodworms.

I've had Blyxa japonica grow in lowlight-no CO2 tanks before. Certain medium sized Echinodorus too, but they get remain half sized or smaller. Same for the blyxa.

Hygrophilas are ok too... especially H. polysperma and H. difformis.

The tiny duckweed are the devil's work. Almost impossible to completely get rid of them if you ever want to. Get frogbits or the larger variety of duckweed that we used to study in primary school.

[cheeboonyong]

I've had Blyxa japonica grow in lowlight-no CO2 tanks before.

Was just wondering about that. I've been planting that and it does seem to do ok in lowlight no CO2 tank. It does grow a bit taller as it loses some leaves at the bottom, thereby exposing the bottom part of its stem. But otherwise still quite healthy.

Does anyone dose fertilisers in lowlight/no Co2 tanks? I haven't dosed any in like 4 weeks already but seems like no harm done. Duckweed still grows very well. I generally don't feed a lot and no water change in this time period either.