Background Plants

[LoachLover!]

In my 200L, I currently have vallisneria as my background plant. Thing is, the rest of my tank is fairly dense (Midground), but the background is not so much.

I want a really dense plant that will grow a minimum of 40cm tall preferably.

I am dosing liquid Co2 and am looking into the EI dosing.

Lighting isn't great....2 T8 bulbs that combined are around 60w I think.

I would like a nice, dense, green plant to fill up the background...suggestions?

 

 

[J10OEC]

Have you ever considered Amazon swords?  Thats what i use to fill out the background of the tank.  Having a few problems getting them to grow as per my post in this section!
 
Good plant though and looks the part especially if you have South American species in the tank.

 

[Zikofski]

i find amazon swords grow out not up but one plant i would recommend is in my sig and thats Hygrophila Guanensis very nice tall plant very green you see it on the right and some on the left in my pic bellow, fans out nicely, my tank is 330L and it reaches the top of my tank nicely taller than 40cm i think but you can easily cut it down no problems
 
i am selling some as well if you would be interested

 

[LoachLover!]

I have just read that Hygrophila Guanensis require very high light?
 
I actually used to have an amazon sword, whicih when I rescaped my tank, I got rid of (Dunno why!!) It was over 50cm tall and had about 80 big leaves on it....They would probably fill it out nicely if I can find some nice ones

 

[Zikofski]

hm interesting i didn't know that i think its low to high they are easy growers i do have high light and they are growing so quickly in my tank its lovely to watch, nice ye my amazon sword i guess is a baby i would say it is 50cm tall but it like 50cm wide as well but only has a few like 5 to 10 leafs so far if yours had 80 i cant w8 till mine has that altho it may swamp the rest of my tank i hope not

 

[LoachLover!]

hm interesting i didn't know that i think its low to high they are easy growers i do have high light and they are growing so quickly in my tank its lovely to watch, nice ye my amazon sword i guess is a baby i would say it is 50cm tall but it like 50cm wide as well

but only has a few like 5 to 10 leafs so far if yours had 80 i cant w8 till mine has that

altho it may swamp the rest of my tank

i hope not

Yeah....the main reason i couldn't keep mine was because it swamped everything else!! 
 
I am still unsure though whether to get 1 for each side...that could look too symetrical and unnatural.  Any other ideas?

 

[PrairieSunflower]

I am newly in love with cabomba.  I planted the majority of my 60 litre cube shaped tank with it for a wild look..... but now love it so much I am considering planting a line of it along the back of my long aquarium instead of getting a background (which I have been meaning to do for a year now....)

 

[Zikofski]

omg i hate cabomba i have it in my tank nice looking plant don't get me wrong but omg it has grown to quickly and is more a pain in my eyes much prefer vallis
 
@Loachlover - yes i to am not a fan of symetrical tanks but there are plenty of ways to be symmetrical like with two amazon swords on each side but you can break it up with other plants or even hard scape this is what i have done, also the large wood in my tank breaks things up even more

 

[snazy]

Maybe consider some of the bulb species, like aponogeton crispus for example or any suitable for your light conditions.

 

[lefty07603]

Maybe consider some of the bulb species, like aponogeton crispus for example or any suitable for your light conditions.

i second this! very good plants!

 

[Lunar Jetman]

Maybe consider some of the bulb species, like aponogeton crispus for example or any suitable for your light conditions.

i second this! very good plants!

That's good to hear! I had some about 20 odd years ago and have just ordered some more to come at the end of the week!

To the OP, have you considered more Vallis or do you feel you have enough?