Thinking Of Going Planted

My silk plants are currently covered in algae (pictures don't show it too well, but I fear it's BBA in which case they're going to need bleaching ) and I recently had the idea of turning the whole tank planted and getting rid of the silk plants altogether. Currently, my only live plants are some anubais on wood and two marimo moss balls.

This is my tank as it currently stands:



I thought of replacing the silk plants with some wood and planting it with java fern and possibly some kind of moss too. I had the idea of a moss wall on the back as well and maybe a carpet plant.
I also wondered about some/a larger plant/s to go behind the anubias, though I don't know what.

I was thinking glosso for a carpet, though I'm not sure about plants to go behind the anubias or what moss I could use for a moss wall. Any ideas?

I think my lighting is 11W. I currently do use ferts, but I'm not sure on a set schedule yet as I only bought them a few days ago (it says once fortnightly on the box). It's King British aquatic plant food. It say's it contains trace elements though no specifics are given. I'd be willing to change ferts if needed if I did decide to 'go planted'. I don't use CO2, though I would be willing to use 'liquid CO2' (Flourish Excel, which I hear is a substitute) if it was needed - I am unable to fit a diffuser onto the tank and they're a little too expensive for my price range + I don't have anywhere for DIY CO2.

My substrate is currently just plain sand, would glosso be alright? I'm willing (wow, I'm using that phrase a lot...)to use root tabs if needed

Thanks for the help

If you have bba I would not add anything. BBA is the toughest algae there is and once it takes root it's one of the most difficult to get rid off.

I'd address the imbalance that is causing the bba to grow and eradicate that first. Otherwise your plants will be algaed on arrival.

Yeah, I would make sure BBA was completely cleared before re-doing the tank - I wouldn't want further damage

Glosso would maybe survive in the setup, but would be unlikely to grow at more than a snails pace. I tried it in one of my tanks - it grew when dosed daily with TPN+ and liquid carbon (still not very quickly) but seemed to stop growing completely once I stopped dosing. Eventually I think the apple snail got bored of it and ate it lol.

Taller plants that won't take up too much floor space of your tank would be something like either vallis (straight or twisted dependant on preference) or a stem plant like cabomba. Plants like an amazon sword should grow well in your tank, but may get too big and start to take over. Crypts could also be a good choice for the size of tank.

Thanks for the info amd advice, would other carpet plants (eg dwarf hairgrass, pygmy chain sword or dwarf baby tears) survive better than the glosso? Would root tabs help?

Looked up the cabomba, vallis and some different crypt species. I quite like the vallis, both the spiral and the straight 'versions'. I found a species of crypt called lingua that I rather liked, would it be apropriate for my tank? I was thinking behind the anubias.

I'm not 100% sure if I'm going to plant it yet, but I must say it's looking good

Any ideas as to what moss might be nice for a moss wall? I quite liked the idea of one for a 'backdrop' to the setup, are they easy to grow/maintain?

Pygmy chain swords might be ok, or you can use smaller crypt species as a carpet. Another option is to use a type of moss as a carpet by attaching it to either slate, plastic mesh or rocks and sitting them on the substrate. All moss species will grow fine in a tank like yours. This is a picture of a moss carpet that I had growing in one of my tanks, once I took it out of the water to thin it out a bit:



With regards to that species of crypt, I have never grown it personally, but most crypt species are are pretty hardy and easy to grow.

As far as a moss wall goes, they can be a bit fiddly to set up initially, however once you've got it going, they do look very good. They need trimmed/thinned out occasionally to stop them from getting too thick, but otherwise are quite hassle free.

That moss carpet looks lovely infact, I was looking at moss carpets the other night. What moss species have you used?

I used weeping moss, thinking it would maybe stay a bit lower but you can really use any moss. Java moss is the easiest and cheapest to come by for trying it out initially, but there are many different species at different prices that you could try I personally love fissidens moss, but it is so hard to come by and is expensive

Primous said:

If you have bba I would not add anything. BBA is the toughest algae there is and once it takes root it's one of the most difficult to get rid off.

I'd address the imbalance that is causing the bba to grow and eradicate that first. Otherwise your plants will be algaed on arrival.

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+1 on that one mate. Sort the problem out first. Just removing the silk plants will not eradicate the cause. BUT, definitely go with live plants once you have worked it out

Well I'm hopefully going to pop into my lfs and get some hygro tomorrow and possibly crypt.lingua if they have any. Or, I may order some online. I'll have to see what they have