Need plant recommendations

[Neonlights]

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?

 

[MattW]

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?

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.

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?

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

 

[Magnos]

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?

 

[Ram419]

Lower your co2 see what happens.

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

 

[Neonlights]

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.

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

 

[MattW]

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.