Need plant recommendations

I have a 55 litre planted nano tank and am struggling again with algae. The hair algae seemed to clear up and my rosaefolia was doing brilliantly, I had to continually trim it but now I have another algae outbreak and it’s affecting the plant.

Before, it was growing brilliantly and was bright red/purple but now the stems are all coated in a wispy/woolly green algae, the leaves are more brown than red and the leaves are a lot smaller. I’ve read that this plant can be problematic when it comes to algae so I’m thinking of taking it all out and replacing it with something else.

Obviously I need to sort the root cause of the algae (I’ve already reduced the hours of light, I always do weekly water changes, etc), but can anyone recommend a good variety of plant for a nano tank that grows well, easy to care for and provides hiding places for fish?

Also, if I strip out all the rosaefolia, will that cause an issue with the balance in the aquarium and cause algae to spike as there’s less plants competing for CO2? Should I remove and replace with a new plant on the same day?

Neonlights said:

Obviously I need to sort the root cause of the algae (I’ve already reduced the hours of light, I always do weekly water changes, etc), but can anyone recommend a good variety of plant for a nano tank that grows well, easy to care for and provides hiding places for fish?

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Epiphytes - Bolbitis, Java Fern, Anubias, and Bucephalandra are my go-to's. (No substrate required)
Stems - Limnophila, Hygrophila, Rotala, Elodea, and Hornwort grow great in my tanks (No C02)
Cryptocoryne - work well and are heavy root feeders (apart from the melting )
Aquatic mosses - pretty much unkillable in my experience

If it's a nano fish species you are keeping I'd say either Rotala, Limnophila and Hygrophila. I used all these species when growing out my sawbwa fry. Always made great hiding areas for the fry.

Neonlights said:

Also, if I strip out all the rosaefolia, will that cause an issue with the balance in the aquarium and cause algae to spike as there’s less plants competing for CO2? Should I remove and replace with a new plant on the same day?

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I've never had any issues doing that but others may disagree.

Any tank I got that green wooly algae in that kills my plants it was because I added fish too fast... I removed the plants from the algae tank and out them into my tank that's been running for years and the algae dissappear within a week. Most people online suggest lowering one thing at a time. Lower your co2 see what happens. Lower your light intensity by 20%. Does your tank have enough nitrates on your last test to keep the plants fed?

Magnos said:

Lower your co2 see what happens.

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From how I understand it, CO2 helps to reduce algae.

MattW3344 said:

Epiphytes - Bolbitis, Java Fern, Anubias, and Bucephalandra are my go-to's. (No substrate required)
Stems - Limnophila, Hygrophila, Rotala, Elodea, and Hornwort grow great in my tanks (No C02)
Cryptocoryne - work well and are heavy root feeders (apart from the melting )
Aquatic mosses - pretty much unkillable in my experience

If it's a nano fish species you are keeping I'd say either Rotala, Limnophila and Hygrophila. I used all these species when growing out my sawbwa fry. Always made great hiding areas for the fry.


I've never had any issues doing that but others may disagree.

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Thanks for all the tips, I’ll check them out this weekend.

Also if it’s a red plant you’d prefer I’d go for Rotala H’ra. Becomes more red as it gets close to the light.