# low light plants



## 1rhom (Nov 6, 2009)

What low light plants can I put in my rhom tank? I keep the light very low using aluminum foil to cover most of the light . I also have driftwood and the water is very brown. I want something easy to care for.


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## KrBjostad (Jun 21, 2008)

what s the wattage on the bulbs and size of your tank plantgeek.com has been a huge help to me for finding low light plants. lots of crypts, vals, and sags are good low light plants from what I understand.


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## Tensa (Jul 28, 2008)

i would get a amazon sword to start with. it has some size and will fill out a tank.


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## notoriouslyKEN (Jul 31, 2003)

In my current low light tank, I have dwarf sagittaria subulata, vallisneria spiralis 'tiger', cryptocoryne wendtii, java fern, anubias barteri and amazon swords. The amazon swords have almost died off and I plan on replacing them with a tall background crypt like balansae or something similar. I don't think my light requirement is high enough for them as I have struggled with them in the past. I have no problems with any of the other plants. Anubias are your prototypical low light plants. They will grow (extremely slowly, I'd hardly call it growing, but they will live) in any light condition. My dwarf sag. has sprouted runners and is taking off. The Val is doing the same. The crypts are the plant I was most worried about going into the live plant transition, however they have been my fastest growing plant. I don't use any fertilizer outside of some root tabs I picked up when I originally got all the plants.


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## 1rhom (Nov 6, 2009)

how do you care for these plants?


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## Tensa (Jul 28, 2008)

depending on what plants you choose you could just drop them in your tank and cross your fingers or have to have strong lighting and dose fertilizers for them to grow appropriately. generally when people start off they start with low light plants because you dont have to do a lot to grow them. just keep lights on for 8 hours a day and your usually ok. start simple and research what you want then you can figureout what you need to get there. post the plant selection here and some experts will let you know there opinions on what you will need.


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## notoriouslyKEN (Jul 31, 2003)

I don't really care for my plants. I've had a little bit of a staghorn algae problem, but nothing too bad. I will go in there and trim the algae off of the leaves when I see it. My rhom has move a couple of the plants and I have to replant them, but outside of that, I leave them alone. I let the root tabs I put in during the initial planting do all the work.


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## Plowboy (Apr 9, 2008)

1rhom said:


> What low light plants can I put in my rhom tank? *I keep the light very low using aluminum foil to cover most of the light* . I also have driftwood and the water is very brown. I want something easy to care for.


I would take the aluminum foil off the lights too for a couple of reasons. Every watt counts for low light plants up to a point (commonly said to be up to 1.5wpg depending on light type). The second reason is, aluminum is a conductor. I know it would be hard for it to short out on a fluorescent light's socket, but I still wouldn't risk it. If you feel the need to wrap it use tape or just hit the bulb with some black paint.


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## 1rhom (Nov 6, 2009)

Plowboy said:


> What low light plants can I put in my rhom tank? *I keep the light very low using aluminum foil to cover most of the light* . I also have driftwood and the water is very brown. I want something easy to care for.


I would take the aluminum foil off the lights too for a couple of reasons. Every watt counts for low light plants up to a point (commonly said to be up to 1.5wpg depending on light type). The second reason is, aluminum is a conductor. I know it would be hard for it to short out on a fluorescent light's socket, but I still wouldn't risk it. If you feel the need to wrap it use tape or just hit the bulb with some black paint.
[/quote]
The foil is on the canopy,it's not in contact with the bulb.


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## Plowboy (Apr 9, 2008)

^^ oh never mind the shorting out bit then


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## JoeDizzleMPLS (Nov 5, 2007)

if you really want to grow plants, you should remove the foil... swords are not gonna do well in extremely low light conditions, you would basically be stuck with java moss, crypts, anubias, java ferns, etc. and even they may not do well depending on how much light is actually getting into the tank.


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## 1rhom (Nov 6, 2009)

I have a 20W flora glo.


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## notoriouslyKEN (Jul 31, 2003)

1rhom said:


> I have a 20W flora glo.


what size is your tank? Anything larger than 20 gallons will be a very low light tank. As previously said, anubias and crypts will be your best bet.


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## 1rhom (Nov 6, 2009)

notoriouslyKEN said:


> I have a 20W flora glo.


what size is your tank? Anything larger than 20 gallons will be a very low light tank. As previously said, anubias and crypts will be your best bet.
[/quote]
It's a 33G,the light is a 24" .


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