Craig Matthews
Member
Is a par rating of about 40 at substrate level good enough for plants and what types?
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Par
- Thread starter Craig Matthews
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three-fingers
Member
"Good enough", yep! That's pretty low light, but shade loving slow growers like Anubias and Java fern and most aquatic mosses would do fantastic. The reduced CO2 demand from the slower growth will make things easy and you should have relativity little algae growth.
Remember the plants will block out each others light as they grow and CO2/other nutrient competition is always something to consider in planted tanks, so I would stick to the above mentioned species and other easy low-light plants if you want to keep things easy. Dosing EI eliminates nutrient issues and you can add CO2 to low light tanks too if you really want to stick to the lowest possible light but still have the fastest possible plant growth.
Many other easy but faster growing weeds like Hygrophila polysperma should do OK too, but it just depends on all of the other conditions combined - don't feel scared to try new species, I'm often surprised at how well "difficult"/high-light aquatic plant species can grow in shaded conditions if all of the other factors are right.
The light will be brighter at the waters surface, so some floating plants like frogbit and Salvinia would also do great, but will block out the light so if you do get floating plants, I would stick to low-light plants (like the above species) below the surface. I would also avoid certain floating plants like water lettuce or Azolla as I find some like these don't do very well at low light levels and while they can survive, the reduced vigour allows algae to grow on their roots.
Remember the plants will block out each others light as they grow and CO2/other nutrient competition is always something to consider in planted tanks, so I would stick to the above mentioned species and other easy low-light plants if you want to keep things easy. Dosing EI eliminates nutrient issues and you can add CO2 to low light tanks too if you really want to stick to the lowest possible light but still have the fastest possible plant growth.
Many other easy but faster growing weeds like Hygrophila polysperma should do OK too, but it just depends on all of the other conditions combined - don't feel scared to try new species, I'm often surprised at how well "difficult"/high-light aquatic plant species can grow in shaded conditions if all of the other factors are right.
The light will be brighter at the waters surface, so some floating plants like frogbit and Salvinia would also do great, but will block out the light so if you do get floating plants, I would stick to low-light plants (like the above species) below the surface. I would also avoid certain floating plants like water lettuce or Azolla as I find some like these don't do very well at low light levels and while they can survive, the reduced vigour allows algae to grow on their roots.
Craig Matthews
Member
Thanks for that info, I currently have anubias, Amazon sword, creeping Jenny, money wort, Val's,water wisteria, lilaeopsis Brasilia and marselia. Growth is rather slow across the board especially the carpets. Val's,water wisteria,money wort are growing ok. Amazon swords are growing pretty well. I shall add another small light. I'm finding things are growing slowly and getting some algae because of this.
