Planting suggestions for a budget 30 tall?

[memorywrangler]

Well, I went to the store to get a 20h and came home with a 30-tall.  It’s a perfect fit for the space and it wasn’t that much more expensive, but it’s really tall and shallow (front to back):  24w x 24h x 12d.

I’m on a budget (which the coop light helped blow) and planning a live bearer tank:  platies, mollys, maybe some swordtails, and probably some plecos or something to help with cleanup. 

My main question is plants:  what can I get that’s compact and grows tall? And will look decent? And hide lots of fry?

 

Edited May 5 by memorywrangler

[MAC]

I'd go with some dwarf sagittaria and let spread its way across the tank. 

Maybe some water wisteria or water sprite as well. You could plant some in the substrate but also float portions.

 

Edited May 5 by MAC
Added water sprite

[Ninjoma]

I feel like a great many stem plants would meet your criteria. Here are some ones in particular you could consider:

-water sprite

-ludwigia (rubin and super red are my favorite) 

-rotala (blood red is my favorite) 

-wisteria

-corlina bacacopa

-hygrophila 

[nabokovfan87]

On 5/4/2023 at 7:53 PM, memorywrangler said:

but it’s really tall and shallow (front to back):  24w x 24h x 12d.

Basically, its very similar to a 29G tank or a 55G tank, 18.75" and 21" tall respectively. That might help for research simply because it is more common.

I would opt for 2 strategies.  The first is entirely dependent on your hardscape choices.

Option a:  Use plants that can tolerate higher light and can be placed closer to the top half of the tank via hardscape.  this would be things like moss, hygrophilia Pinnatifida, Hygrophila corymbosa, and other species which you would grow fast enough.  I am unaware if there are certain types of buce or other epiphytes that fit the bill.  This allows you to then have stems which need that higher power light intensity to be able to have enough light to grow.  Something like Pogostemon Erectus would be very good because it would grow fast, but it also is much more compact compared to something like the octopus variety.  Bacopa species I also like, but just be careful for the slower growing varieties.  Valisnaria is a great option as well for this setup, though you may need to work to keep it contained.

Option b:  Use floaters as well as very low demand plants.  This is something I am doing on my 29G which i will attach below.  Moss also fits the bill here because it does not need intense lighting (but can do well with it!).  Some plants can grow with as little as ambient lighting in a room.  This is a great option for taller tanks as it helps to reduce algae from pushing the lights too high just to attempt to reach the substrate.  A lot of your slower growing plants can be beautiful, but it just takes longer for those plants to develop.

This is mine.  It isn't anything fancy as it's meant to be more utilitarian right now, but the plants are doing great and filling in.  Eventually I will have more, including floaters, and a bit nicer setup. 


 

[Lennie]

I would utilize the height. That tank is really tall, so the light will have issues reaching the bottom side of the tank well. 

I would use bottom plants that can do okay with lower light like crypts on the middle/front, and I would use very tall plants on the background.

The problem I have experienced before is, when there is not a strong light going down, which is hard to have in such tall tank, the stem plants directly try to reach the light source, grow having lots of gaps between leaves so has a look that is not dense. It really does not look well on the background that way. I would do stuff like jungle val for this purpose. They will gradually cover the background, has a good height, and you won't bother looking at branches as it will cover the background with its beautiful tall green leaves.

[Guppysnail]

I have a few budget plants that are easy, usually inexpensive and easy to find, grow fast tall and do not get too bushy. Jungle Vallisneria, giant hair grass, and Anacharis elodea densa. The fry can easily hide and escape predation. They grow very fast under even low tech conditions so you only need to purchase a bit instead of many. 

 

[Flying fox 6523]

On 5/5/2023 at 8:01 AM, Guppysnail said:

I have a few budget plants that are easy, usually inexpensive and easy to find, grow fast tall and do not get too bushy. Jungle Vallisneria, giant hair grass, and Anacharis elodea densa. The fry can easily hide and escape predation. They grow very fast under even low tech conditions so you only need to purchase a bit instead of many. 

 

Hum ?🤔 this gives me an idea of what I would like to do with 
my 65 gal tank when I get it in a few weeks from now for the 
white clouds I'll be working on getting after it's set up for them.

Just let it take over the tank & when it's time to cut it back save 
all the runners & sell them to the fish store when I go every other 
month, I may put some octopus plant's in with them or bacopa.

[memorywrangler]

I asked this question a few places and some Valisinsria sounds like a good plan.  

Any reason to pick one species over another?  Lots of people have said jungle Val(Vallisneria americana).  My lfs has Val gigantea and Val spiralis, and I’ve read about Val nana.

Which do I choose?  

[Lennie]

On 5/6/2023 at 10:47 AM, memorywrangler said:

Which do I choose?  

I would say whichever you like to look at. However, the taller may be better to cover background as your tank is really tall. However, to ensure it not to block vision with its shoots, you will need to remove them gradually.

Gigentea -> Height: 12-20"

Spiralis -> Height: 8-12"

Americana/jungle val -> 8-12"

Nana: Height: 12-20"

Edited May 6 by Lennie

[nabokovfan87]

On 5/6/2023 at 12:47 AM, memorywrangler said:

Which do I choose?  

Spiralis is pretty cool. Pick the one you like the look of.

There are also some pretty cool hairgrass species that get tall.

[Guppysnail]

On 5/6/2023 at 3:47 AM, memorywrangler said:

Any reason to pick one species over another?

Yes. Height mainly. Some can grow FEET tall and some stay only inches tall. 
Leaf width. Some are very thin and others approaching an inch wide. Some are straight while others are curly. Some will send a thin spiral ring up that is not s leaf. 
Some are lime greenish while others hunter green and some have two tone green bearing a stripe up the middle. 
 

Many options and choices based on the look you desire but you would not want to end up with a plant that grows only 6-8 inches when you are looking for a tall plant in a deep tank. 
 

[FLFishChik]

I will always recommend Pogostemon Stellatus Octopus. It’s a fast grower, is good with low light, fills in quickly and is super easy to propagate. I have it in all of my 5 tanks (all trimmings from a single plant)as a background plant. Vallisneria is a good one, but I find it’s a slower grower in my 29g when starting because of light issues at the bottom, but it still grows and sends off shoots. Watersprite is fast too and can also be used as a floating plant.

[DaniV]

My 20 gallon is a tall hex tank, so I tried to play a little with height.  I've got Amazon Swords to fill in the back, and they come close to halfway up the tank.  Then I have smaller plants like Anubias, Crypts, Pogo Octopus, a Marimo Moss Ball, and Rosette Swords to fill out some of the empty space around the rocks and big piece of driftwood I have in there.  Later I added some Water Sprite to help with algae, and it's been doing pretty  well.  Lastly, a Dwarf Aquarium Lily that shoots up little pads, probably the most unique plant I have in the tank.  Granted, I've had to cut some pads in order to keep it from covering the light too much, but new pads grow within a week, so as long as I stay on top of it, it should be good.

Can't wait to see how it all comes together!

[Shrimpee]

Get some Jungle Vallisneria. I got a 5 ft tall one from my LFS and it is growing wonderfully in a 20 gal long so it would be crazy in your 30 gal high. For foreground I would suggest Dwarf Sagittaria. For mid ground I would suggest java fern and water sprite.

[Patrick_G]

That’s a cool and unusual tank! Since it’s tall and skinny it's going to present some challenges when planting and maintaining stem plants. I'm going to suggest an all epiphyte tank with wood going from top to bottom. 
I pulled this pic from the net. It’s not a great image but you get the picture I hope. 
 

Edited May 6 by Patrick_G

[Shrimpee]

On 5/6/2023 at 12:51 PM, FLFishChik said:

I will always recommend Pogostemon Stellatus Octopus. It’s a fast grower, is good with low light, fills in quickly and is super easy to propagate. I have it in all of my 5 tanks (all trimmings from a single plant)as a background plant. 

Pogostemon Stellatus Octopus is also one of my favorites because of the cool leaf designs and fast growth

[PineSong]

I have a 29g running a Hygger 20w light, so not quite as tall as your tank but since some of my taller plants grow to the top and curl back down, I thought I'd suggest them.

They are corkscrew vallisneria, red dwarf lilies from Aquarium Co-op, and aponogetons. I've grown both aponogeton ulvacious and boivinianus with great results in all my 20g+ tanks. 

With regard to hiding fry, though, the lily and the aponogeton are not rock stars unless you're growing lots of them. I rely on guppy grass in that tank. If you let it grow as dense as it wants to, the density of the corkscrew val does provide good fry cover, and I also get a lot of hidden fry in my amazon swords though they are big bully plants.

Below is a photo of the corkscrew val serving as fry cover in one of my tanks.

 

 

[memorywrangler]

Here’s the tank mostly together. It’s jungle val, dwarf sagittaria, one big crypt, some trident Java fern, pearl weed, and a bunch of Anubias nana petite I had in a piece of drift wood.

i ended up rescaping/cannibalizing a couple other tanks, so all had to buy was the jungle Val.

It’s a good thing. I had my seven year old daughter to help me out with.  Weirdly none of you mentioned that I clearly needed queen Elsa from frozen in there and the sprinkling of neon rainbow gravel.

 

 

[Lennie]

On 5/14/2023 at 10:00 AM, memorywrangler said:

Here’s the tank mostly together. It’s jungle val, dwarf sagittaria, one big crypt, some trident Java fern, pearl weed, and a bunch of Anubias nana petite I had in a piece of drift wood.

i ended up rescaping/cannibalizing a couple other tanks, so all had to buy was the jungle Val.

It’s a good thing. I had my seven year old daughter to help me out with.  Weirdly none of you mentioned that I clearly needed queen Elsa from frozen in there and the sprinkling of neon rainbow gravel.

 

 

How did you make the figures aquarium safe?

[memorywrangler]

One is aquarium decor.  They other is a cake topper so its food safe.