From: jimh@ultra.com (Jim Hurley)
Newsgroups: rec.aquaria
Subject: Re: Recommendations for planting a 20L aquarium ...
Date: 13 Apr 92 17:24:08 GMT
Organization: Ultra Network Technologies

In <1992Apr13.032036.7374@news.cso.uiuc.edu> erno@mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu (Erno Pena) writes:

>What short growing plants would be recommended for planting in a 20L  
>aquarium? So far people's suggestions and pictures in books lead to:

>Echinodorus Tenellus

Is this 'pygmy chain sword'?
I have these and they were small until I added CO2 fertilization.
Now they are about 6" tall or more. They spread runners quite rapidly.

>Echinodorus Quadrapistatus (sp?)

Never heard of it (but I'm rather new at this, too - take all my suggestions
with a grain of salt).

>Anubias Barteri

I thought this gets a bit tall and has larger leaves. I believe
I have this variety in my tank and each new leaf gets larger
than the last - it would fill a 20L by itself in about a year.
Sometimes it's hard to identify plants, and fish stores
don't do a very good job of identifying them either.

>Anubias Nana

Stays small, but it's slow growing and tends to accumulate algae.

>Java Moss

This can get to be any size clump you want.

>Java Fern

This can be rather tall.

>What else?

A nice little plant is 'water cabbage' or 'water rose', it's
Samolus parvifolia (don't laugh, I can't remember the exact Latin
name, but it's something like that). It's suppose to like a lot
of light, but it hangs in there with 20 Watts in a 35g. It won't
get much bigger than 5 or 6" tall. It looks like a tiny head
of lettuce - cute.

Another tiny grassy plant is Lilaeopsis, but it also tends to accumulate
algae in my tank.

Anacharis is pretty easy to grow, but you might not
like a weed. I started with it as one of my plants but
quickly got tired of looking at it. 

You could also try some small, but tall grassy plants like Valisneria and Sag.,
stem plants like Hygrophilia, or variations like Hydrocotyle. They
won't take up much volume, only height.

>Before I indulge myself with a big plant tank setup, I think I'm going to  
>test out my knowledge first on a small scale with a 20L aquarium which is  
>currently sitting in my girlfriend's garage. I figure that I can better  
>handle the small aquarium with its smaller penalties for mistakes than with a  
>bigger, more expensive setup. If the 20L works out, I'll just move most of  
>the equipment over to a used 40 gallon breeder tank and start again on a  
>slightly larger scale, with bigger and more numerous plants.

20L seems awful small to me, you can only put in two or three small fish
and have room for just a few plants. Any failures here might discourage
you from trying something larger. You also can't put many lights
on a tank this size, but a 40 gallon has many more possibilities.
If you use sunlight for the 20L that will change things around a bit.

I can understand your reasoning, but I started my first plant tank
with a 100g and I didn't know anything at all about water plants
(or outdoor plants, for that matter). If you commit yourself
to making it work, any size can be a good start.

I don't think you should try any floating plants - they tend to grow
pretty fast and would shade the other plants too much in a small tank.

>Anyway, I'd appreciate any suggestions for plants for a 20L aquarium.

>Thanks

>--

>E r n e s t o   F.   B.   P e n a
>---------------------------------
>erno@uiuc.edu   NeXTmail accepted
-- 
Jim Hurley --> jimh@ultra.com  ...!ames!ultra!jimh  (408) 922-0100
Ultra Network Technologies / 101 Daggett Drive / San Jose CA 95134
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