# PLants that will grow with 1 wpg



## mr. luke (8 Jun 2009)

I have a tank that is 54l/11 gals and im using a single 14w t8 on the tank.
What sort of plants could i grow under that lighting?
I have something that i was sold as 'red rubin' which grows amazingly well in the tank.
Im ideally looking for a foreground plant and a midground.
Would weeping moss and various crypts work well in the tank?


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## Joecoral (8 Jun 2009)

Crypts, mosses, anubias, swords, I've grown all these under the exact same lighting you have


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## Nick16 (8 Jun 2009)

vallis will grow as well mate.   

i believe red rubin is a type of echinodorus. check TGM and see if they sell it, it will give you an idea of the conditions it needs. 
if you have a nutritious substrate your choice of plants may grow and the plants should be more healthy.


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## George Farmer (8 Jun 2009)

You may be surprised what you can grow in low lighting, especially with a good substrate, nutrients and circulation.

If you're not injecting CO2, then consider Easycarbo or similar, to acheive best results.  In smaller aquaria it's really quite good value.

This was my last 1wpg 'scape, planted with the classic low-light selection (crypts, ferns, Anubias) -


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## Fred Dulley (8 Jun 2009)

My 125 litre has 1WPG of t8 lighting and so far everything will grow fine. Dosing EI and there is also pressurized CO2 being injected. 25x the volume of the tank being circulated every hour. There is a blyxa japonica plant growing out of the substrate, which I didn't know was there. Looks healthy.
Even with 1WPG I need to keep CO2 and nutrients up otherwise I get loads of algae.


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## a1Matt (8 Jun 2009)

mr. luke said:
			
		

> Would weeping moss and various crypts work well in the tank?


Yes, very well.
and the red rubin is definitely a sword (echinodorus).

Lack of CO2\carbon addition is more of a limiting factor than the the light levels IMO\E.

I am growing the following in 1wpg (T5's), no CO2 or carbon and gravel substrate. All grow really well except for those in bold, which stay alive and healthy but growth is so slow it is almost non existent. I m confident that with CO2 these would take off, and that other species would grow 5x faster:

Cryptocoryne parva
Cryptocoryne wendtii
Cryptocoryne wendtii 'tropica green'
Cryptocoryne bullosa
Cryptocoryne balansae
Cryptocoryne nevillii
Cryptocoryne sp. 
Cryptocoryne sp. 

Echinodorus rubra
Echinodorus oriental
Echinodorus schluteri
Echinodorus barrthi

Bacopa australis
Staurogyne sp.
Pogostemon helferi
Hemianthus micranthemoides
*Hemianthus callitrichoides *

Lilaeopsis novea zealandia 
*Eleocharis sp. 'japan' 
Eleocharis parvula *


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## mr. luke (9 Jun 2009)

Thanks 
The echinodorus 'red rubin' grows crazily. Its gone fro maybe 10cm in diameter to having leaves touching both ends of the tank in a couple of months tops. 
Just did a replant by nicking plants from other tanks 
Tank now has a few different cryps and another species of echinodorus and some hairgrass.
Is the hairgrass likely to grow? i have both dwarf and tall verieties in there although im not sure on species 
I dose a carbon suplament and trace elements already, i havnt needed to dose macros (is that the one i mean?) yet as plant load is low and i have fairly nutrient rich tapwater in terms of nitrate and phosphate. Also need to make sure i dont copper OD or my assamensis will suffer  I also have some cheapo plant substrate that works really well. Is there a way to work out the flowrate? The filter is so old that the tag on it has all faded away.
That is one amazing looking tank there!
Im not going for a scape with mine, i need plenty of spaces for the shrimps to hide away from the parents


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## a1Matt (9 Jun 2009)

mr. luke said:
			
		

> Is the hairgrass likely to grow?



As you are adding carbon, then my guess is that it will.



			
				mr. luke said:
			
		

> I dose a carbon suplament and trace elements already, i havnt needed to dose macros (is that the one i mean?) yet as plant load is low and i have fairly nutrient rich tapwater in terms of nitrate and phosphate. Also need to make sure i dont copper OD or my assamensis will suffer  I also have some cheapo plant substrate that works really well.



You might need to add macros now that your biomass is higher.  If it was me then I would add them. (potassium nitrate and monopotassium phosphate dry powders covers all your macro needs. i.e. Nitrogen, Phoshporus and Potassium)



			
				mr. luke said:
			
		

> Is there a way to work out the flowrate? The filter is so old that the tag on it has all faded away.



The flow rate is probably not what the tag says (or said) anyway   
You can get a jug and time how long it takes to fill it to a certain point. Then do the maths to work out what that equates to per hour.


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## mr. luke (9 Jun 2009)

ahh, good plan. ill go do that now 
I should probably invest in some dry ferts as 3 of my tanks are now 'planted' so it would be usefull.
Thanks for all the help guys


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## mr. luke (9 Jun 2009)

1 litre took 12 seconds.
so i make that out to be 300lph?


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## mr. luke (9 Jun 2009)

Best i could do is 400lph from a fluval 2+.
Its my gf's but its a spare and she only has a 25l tank so it would plaster her fish across the walls and she has already offered it to me 
Would that be close to enough flow for a planted tank? Gotta think of the baby shrimps too though.


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## a1Matt (9 Jun 2009)

The maths on 300l sounds good to me.

How you protect your inlet will determine how much flow you lose. eg. stocking on a 400lph fluval might kill more flow than foam on a 300lph externals inlet.  You might find things are OK until your plant mass hits a certain level. (for me tetratec ex1200 on 160l is plenty with 1wpg no co2, but not quite enough flow with 1.5wpg high co2)

It is not the most scientific method but if money is tight and you already have equipment... You could suck it and see with what you already have. I find that if my flow is too low I get lots of dirt collecting on the substrate.  You could try that as a visual indicator.


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## mr. luke (9 Jun 2009)

I do get quite a bit of dirt on the substrate around the decor   but i syphon it off everynow and again.
ill se if there is a noticable difference when i use the 400lph filter as its there so i may aswell try it 
i dont have anything over the inlets on my current filter as im using pea gravel inside it (not a very scientific media but works a treat) so no shrimplets can fit between the grains


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## a1Matt (9 Jun 2009)

pea gravel    What a great bit of original thinking.


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## mr. luke (9 Jun 2009)

Works really well!
Back in the day we used to filter 6 tank exclusively with pea gravel and filter floss!
In our 2m tank we ran out of ceramics so we put in large grained gravel with a view to get more ceramics but it works fine so we left it in


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## mr. luke (10 Jun 2009)

Just increased the lighting dramatically by putting a bit of tinfoil over the tube!
Differene is incrediable


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## neelhound (20 Jun 2009)

hi, sorry for butting in but 
(using imperial gallons)
is a bit over 3wpg ok for lilaeopsis brasiliensis?
im using a 54w t5 starter and 2 juwel 36w t8s in my juwel rio 180
i know i probably should start a post but i think it fits in well here

thanks


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## mr. luke (22 Jun 2009)

3wpg is good for most plants, but im no expert 
Ive added the new fluval2+ to the tank and the substrate has cleared double time 
All new plants ive added seem to be doing really well apart from the pellia so thats going to go in my betta tank


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## ceg4048 (22 Jun 2009)

Hi,
     3wpg will ultimately kill you if you do not pay strict attention to CO2 and flow/distribution. If I were you I would plan on no more than 2wpg for now.

Cheers,


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