Re: Advice sought for sparsely planted tank

Alan Silver
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in
message news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Hello,
>
> I am just setting up a cichild tank and would like to add some plants.
> Given that cichlids view most plants as a salad, I am a bit restricted
> as to what I can put in. I am going to try Java Fern and Anubias as
> these can be fixed to the (fake) rock background, keeping them away from
> the fishes' digging habits and nearer the light.
>
> Any advice for healthy plants ? I have a heavily planted tank as well
> and don't have too much problem with that, but then I can whack in more
> nutrients and have more lighting. This new tank runs a danger of algae
> taking over due to the lower number of plants taking nutrients.
>
> The tank is a 24" cube. At the moment I have two 18" lights (15W each),
> one Interpet Beauty Light Plus and one Interpet Blue Moon Light (as
> these bring out the colours of the cichlids). Both tubes have a
> reflector. Is this going to be OK for my plants ?
>
> Any advice would be appreciated. I would like healthy plants, but I'm
> not bothered for huge growth, just keeping the plants free of algae
> would satisfy me !!

No guarantees, but you might want to try sagittaria subulata, particularly
the dwarf v., planted within rings - I use lava rock rings wrapped with java
moss.  Plant the sags thickly with their crowns covered by coarse gravel
below the level of the top of the ring.

Sags are excellent for water quality and do well in moderate or even
moderate-low lighting.  They will grow quite densely when confined in a
ring.

I've used floating water sprite, too.  Depending on the cichlid, it may
propagate faster than it gets demolished.

kush