# Plant advice 30g - Too many?



## silas k. (Apr 24, 2007)

I found a person selling a bunch of plants together. I need your help to determine if it's a good place to start. I asked him how it would all fit in a 30g (36" length) and he said it would be full but would work. what do you folks think?

5 stems of Althernanthera reineckii
5 stems of Bacopa caroliniana
10 stems of Cardamine lyrata
3 Plants of Ceratopteris siliquosa - Thread leaf Watersprite
10 Plants of Echinodorus tenellus - Chain Sword
20 stems of Glossostigma elatinoides - Glosso
10 stems of Hemianthus Micranthemoides - Pearl Weed
10 stems of Heteranthera dubia
10 stems of Mayaca fluviatilis
15 stems of Micranthemum umbrosum - Baby Tears
5 plants of Ludwigia arcuata
3 Plants of Nymphoides sp. 'Taiwan'
5 stems of Rotala sp. 'Green'
10 Plants of Sagittaria Subulata - Dwarf Sagittaria
5 plants of Shinnersia rivularis - Mexican Oakleaf
10 plants of Vallisneria americana v. 'Biwaensis'
1 golf ball portion of Taxiphyllum alternans - Taiwan Moss
1 golf ball portion of Riccia fluitans

thanks!


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## aquabillpers (Apr 13, 2006)

I think that there might be a few too many plants for a 30 gallon aquarium, especially considering that some of them will grow like weeds after they are planted.

But.

If the seller isn't asking too much money for the selection, this would be a great way to try a large number of plants to see which ones work for you. You don't have to plant every stem.

Good luck!

Bill


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## silas k. (Apr 24, 2007)

he's asking 30 + 8 for shipping. not sure if this is a value as i've never purchased plants before.

i do have a friend with a 55 gallon that might be able to take the excess if it starts growing out of control. he's not quite set up for plants at the moment though.


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## aquabillpers (Apr 13, 2006)

I'd take a shot at it.


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## mistergreen (Mar 3, 2007)

go for it. you can't have too much.
You'll find some plants don't do so well in a NPT and won't grow but will live.


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## newbie314 (Mar 2, 2007)

Agree. Take it and run.
Plant the talls in the back, the short in the front and go for it.
From my 20g-long, I now know I did not have enough plants for the bioload or taking nutrients out.
I think smaller tanks are easier since establishing a high plant to bioload ratio is really easy to do.

Some plants will die, and what ever is left over is good.
Make sure you are getting adequate lighting 2-3W/gallon.
Can sometimes be hard for the bigger aquariums.


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## SimplyOrange (Oct 5, 2007)

all that for 38 total? definitely take it.


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## silas k. (Apr 24, 2007)

2-3 wpg? i have 1.4 and sunlight. do i need that much wattage because of the number of plants?


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## SimplyOrange (Oct 5, 2007)

it's not the number of plants but the type of plants.
most plants require bright lighting and that falls around the 3wpg.
1.4 for a 30g is low and you may find many of those plants dying off.
sunlight especially in the home isnt as reliable and is likely too short to show significant growth.

check plantgeek.com there is an index of plants which are also categorized by placement, lighting, ease of care, etc. search the index to see what these plants require if they are listed.


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## silas k. (Apr 24, 2007)

i guess i'll have to be more picky with my plant selection then.

i'm going with a Natural tank which requires 1-2 wpg + sunlight. 
i'm trying to stay away from the more demanding setups that would require the 2-3 wpg.

if half these plants are going to die off then it's not worth it.

are most of the folks here able to stick with the 1-2 wpg + sunlight or are many straying toward more lighting once you start keeping a NPT?


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## cs_gardener (Apr 28, 2006)

During the summer I can manage just fine with 1-2 wpg + sunlight, but the winter is so dark for so long around here that I have to increase the amount of lighting I use to keep my plants healthy. Around here it can be over a month of dark gray clouds with occasional lighter clouds so there isn't enough sunlight to help out the tank. I also use more light on tanks that aren't close to windows (like a 20 gallon with 65 watts that is still easy/low care). I imagine that someone living in a sunnier location wouldn't have the same problem that I do with inadequate natural winter light.


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## silas k. (Apr 24, 2007)

thanks for the link to plantgeek.com. that is an invaluable tool that i can see will come in handy.
i know now where i would have went wrong with that bunch of plants. 
not a one of them was under medium light requirements.

while we're on that subject do you think that 3 wpg would be enough for a 55 gallon that isn't really close to a window? 
the friend of mine who has the 55 needs more light. 
i was thinking of suggesting a couple of 4 ft. shoplights with cool white and plant grow bulbs as Diana suggests. 

the shoplights are because of cost effectiveness. i'm concerned about the wattage and if shoplight fixtures are all that 
efficient at putting the light in the tank since they don't have a good reflector. 
usually the insides of them are simply painted glossy white.

thanks again for everyone's help!


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## SimplyOrange (Oct 5, 2007)

sorry to hear about the plants.

i had two dual 4ft shoplights over the 55g when i had it seriously planted. 160w (40w t12s) total and my plants grew great. i only had both shoplights on for a few hours (noon burst). the lights were over eggcrates. i tore down the planted tank but am using one dual shoplight with sunlight & cool/white light. the other shoplight is over two 10gs w/ just one GE plant/aquarium.

check the shoplights since some are capable of using t8s 32w if that is preferred.
some are bare shoplights without the reflectors those would be great for diy hoods/canopies.

Petco sells a dual lightstrip for around $80+ they used to sell a triple lightstrip but that's been discontinued.

there's another plant index site but i can't recall the name.


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## silas k. (Apr 24, 2007)

SimplyOrange said:


> i had two dual 4ft shoplights over the 55g when i had it seriously planted. 160w (40w t12s) total and my plants grew great. i only had both shoplights on for a few hours (noon burst). the lights were over eggcrates.
> 
> some are bare shoplights without the reflectors those would be great for diy hoods/canopies.


that's the same kind of setup i was thinking about for the 55 gallon. was your setup a low maintenance natural tank? what was your light schedule for the rest of the day? and were you using the shoplights with reflectors? when you say they were on eggcrate do you mean that was all they were on? no glass top on the aquarium? sorry for the barrage of questions but other people's personal experiences are the best resources. 



SimplyOrange said:


> Petco sells a dual lightstrip for around $80+ they used to sell a triple lightstrip but that's been discontinued.


that's exactly why i'd recommend going with the shoplights. much cheaper.


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## tropism (Jul 21, 2006)

It seems like you've already made up your mind about the original question, but...

I think you may have missed the "next pages" on the plantgeek lists (like I did at first)... I knew for a fact that some of those plants can be grown with medium light, but couldn't find them on their list until I realized there was more than one page. In fact, I've grown some of those plants that you listed in the first post with the same amount of light you have (42 watt coralife normal output t-5 fixture on a 36" long tank) but with no sunlight.

The only one of those plant that I have serious doubts about with only that much light would be the glosso (although I recently heard about someone growing even that with relatively low light). The Micranthemum umbrosum might have trouble, don't have enough experience with it in lower light to say. I'm not sure about the Heteranthera dubia, Nymphoides sp. 'Taiwan', or Rotala sp. 'Green'.

I could be wrong, but I don't think that light level would be too much of a problem for most of those plants. There may be other reasons for plants not to do well in a natural planted tank though, and it's likely that you won't know which ones will do well for you until you try them. Also, if you're worried about some of them "growing like weeds" and making the tank too high-maintenance, that may not be the case in a NPT, where they're not being driven by high light and injected CO2. My cabomba is growing at less than half the rate in my NPT as it is in my high-tech tank.


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## SimplyOrange (Oct 5, 2007)

silas k. said:


> that's the same kind of setup i was thinking about for the 55 gallon. was your setup a low maintenance natural tank? what was your light schedule for the rest of the day? and were you using the shoplights with reflectors? when you say they were on eggcrate do you mean that was all they were on? no glass top on the aquarium? sorry for the barrage of questions but other people's personal experiences are the best resources.
> that's exactly why i'd recommend going with the shoplights. much cheaper.


it was the lowest maintenance possible, lol. i just tossed the plants in. the ludwigia took over 3/4th of the tank. i only trimmed when it hit surface and then replanted. i was doing 10hrs days, front shoplight was on for 8a-3p, back shoplight came on at 11a-6p.

yes these shoplights have reflectors. i didnt have time to build a stand so i used various bolts, washers, and bowtie(?) locking nuts right on the center of the eggcrate and propped the two shoplights like a tee-pee. i dont know how much light i lost that way but it worked. if you build a stand you could level the shoplights and have it over the tank without covers.

actually other people can just give you ideas. you have to learn what works for you by trial and error. but it is all totally worth it.

i agree that plants can survive with less lighting but they wont grow as fast. i keep 2 small amazon swords stunted in a 2g hex with just ambient window light. i've had them for maybe close to 2yrs now.


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