I Need Some Advice On What Plants I Should Add

[darknirvana217]

I have a 120 gallon that is 60 inches long. on top I have two coralife double t-5 light strips. Each has one 6700 k 18 watt plant bulb and one colormax, not sure what the wattage is. The problem is I basically have a woodcat tank. They hide all day in my wood and never come out, so I wanted to have some plants i could at least look at. I've tried Amazon swrods and they failed, I tried dwarf hairgrass but it doesn't look to great, the green tiger lotus is doing ok, and I just got some anachris to try. I didn't really want to do the whole CO2 system, but i do use root tabs and Seachem's Flourish plant supplement. Does any one knwo of some easy plants, preferablly amazonian, that would be good in my tank and wouldn't require CO2. I was also thinking about moss since I've heard they are easy to take care, anyone had any experience with moss? Thanks, any advice will be appreciated.

 

[mibson]

I have a 120 gallon that is 60 inches long. on top I have two coralife double t-5 light strips. Each has one 6700 k 18 watt plant bulb and one colormax, not sure what the wattage is. The problem is I basically have a woodcat tank. They hide all day in my wood and never come out, so I wanted to have some plants i could at least look at. I've tried Amazon swrods and they failed, I tried dwarf hairgrass but it doesn't look to great, the green tiger lotus is doing ok, and I just got some anachris to try. I didn't really want to do the whole CO2 system, but i do use root tabs and Seachem's Flourish plant supplement. Does any one knwo of some easy plants, preferablly amazonian, that would be good in my tank and wouldn't require CO2. I was also thinking about moss since I've heard they are easy to take care, anyone had any experience with moss? Thanks, any advice will be appreciated.

My first advice is reconsider co2. I add co2 to my 90g with four 2liter pop bottles and my co2 is stable at 18-22ppm. Very cheep and only requires changing bottles every 9-10 days. Co2 also can help make up for dim lighting....

That being said, without co2 you can do it but you will need to have your ferts dosed perfectly.

I would have your lights all on so you have maximum brightness for the plants for only 3-5 hours a day. Then when you want your fish to be more active just use dim lighting so that they will be more likely to come out into the open. I do this with all my tanks. It saves electricity and bulbs and also the fish that prefer a darker tank will be more comfortable.

I also use another tactic. I figure out exactly where the good hiding spots are within my drift wood (bog wood) and then slowly move the wood so that the hiding spots are visible thought the tank glass, this way I can see my fish even when they are hiding but they still feel safe and get to hide. I recently moved my drift wood close to the front and sides of the inside of the tank allowing me to see clearly into the hiding spots.

Cheers