Will my plant wish-list need C02?

[clownbaby]

I am not running c02 in my 30 gallon. It is relatively "low tech" - some ferts, a root tab here and there, dirted tank, sand + clay "cap". 

I have saved up 75 buckers for aquarium plants for my 30 gal. However, I would like some insight before I buy them - can someone confirm whether or not these plants need c02? Here are the plants I plan to buy.

• Pogostemon stellatus octopus
• vallisneria americana
• cryptocoryne parva
• eleocharis acicularis (dwarf hairgrass) or sagittaria subulata (dwarf Sagittaria)
• staurogyne repens
• cabomba aquatica
• cryptocoryne wendtii 'green'
• juncus repens

okay thank you all so muchhhhhh you are amazinggggg

[Fish Folk]

If your substrate is sufficiently supplied with nutrients, and if your lighting is good, you’re probably fine without CO2. Dose Easy Green or the like regularly. The two repens might need some research. Others seem fine to me.

[JoeQ]

On 10/9/2024 at 7:53 PM, clownbaby said:

I am not running c02 in my 30 gallon. It is relatively "low tech" - some ferts, a root tab here and there, dirted tank, sand + clay "cap". 

I have saved up 75 buckers for aquarium plants for my 30 gal. However, I would like some insight before I buy them - can someone confirm whether or not these plants need c02? Here are the plants I plan to buy.

• Pogostemon stellatus octopus
• vallisneria americana
• cryptocoryne parva
• eleocharis acicularis (dwarf hairgrass) or sagittaria subulata (dwarf Sagittaria)
• staurogyne repens
• cabomba aquatica
• cryptocoryne wendtii 'green'
• juncus repens

okay thank you all so muchhhhhh you are amazinggggg

The pogo, val, cabomba & wedtii will grow good without co2, providing they are well fertilized. The wedtii will grow noticeably slower tho.

I have grown s repens without co2 but it grew tall instead of creeping & carpeting. This could also be from my low light at substrate.

Without co2 crypt parva will grow painfully slow. As well as dwarf sag to a lesser extent

I have not grown dwarf hairgrass without co2 but I have with low level DYI (sugar and yeast) co2

I am unfamilar with juncus repens.

 

[MWilk]

The hair grass will likely wither and die. It’s very good at that. 

[Odd Duck]

I’ll not give advice on anything I’ve not tried and I’ve never used CO2.  Buy about 4-5 times as much Crypt parva as you think you’ll need unless you’re prepared to wait a loooooong time for that carpet.  I love the group I have but it’s so tiny and slow growing.  It’s perfect for a carpet in a tiny tank, can look too small in a bigger or taller tank.  I’ve not been able to get St. repens to do anything for me.  Crypt wendtii will be fine.  All species of Val can be fickle and it will either love, tolerate, or hate your tank.  It can sometimes take a long time to settle in, or it may take off right away.  Sometimes it just sits there, then gradually fades away.  I’ve had it do all of the above, sometimes with no real idea of why it did any of the above in side by side, nearly identical tanks.  🤦🏻‍♀️ I need to try it again in a couple tanks.  🤷🏻‍♀️ I’m a glutton for punishment / failure sometimes.  I’ve not tried Cabomba in literally decades but it didn’t work for me back in the bad old days but lights and ferts have come a loooong ways since then.  I should try it again, it’s gorgeous when it works.

[clownbaby]

@Odd Duck @MWilk @JoeQ thank you all so much! Any recommendations for a carpeting plant then? I like the look of grassy-like plants (eleocharis, sag, etc). My substrate is pretty nutrient dense, would pygmy chain sword (e. tenellus) do well? Or do you have any other ideas? 

I don't mind slow growing plants, but if crypt parva is that tiny I don't know if I should use it in my tank, as it is a 30gal. For a "carpeting" (or just a short foreground plant, I don't mind if I have to buy multiple to fill it out), Ideally they'd grow under 6 inches, and again grass-like is preferred but heck if you have other recommendations feel free to add! The area in the foreground is pretty high light, if that helps at all.

Thank you thank you thank you!!!

[JoeQ]

I'm generally against a carpet since IMO it doesn't look natural. But if I were to try to scape one I'd probably use pearl weed and keep it trimmed crazy short. 

[knee]

I've grown all of those without co2 except for DHG but I just got a pot today and I'll be trying them out.

Juncus repens and crypt parva grew extremely slow but everything else grew faster and I was trimming them by the third or fourth week. My dwarf sag carpeted a 20 long without co2 and it got annoying. It needed trimming weekly to the point where I got fed up and I ended up taking it out. 

 

[Odd Duck]

On 10/10/2024 at 3:10 PM, clownbaby said:

@Odd Duck @MWilk @JoeQ thank you all so much! Any recommendations for a carpeting plant then? I like the look of grassy-like plants (eleocharis, sag, etc). My substrate is pretty nutrient dense, would pygmy chain sword (e. tenellus) do well? Or do you have any other ideas? 

I don't mind slow growing plants, but if crypt parva is that tiny I don't know if I should use it in my tank, as it is a 30gal. For a "carpeting" (or just a short foreground plant, I don't mind if I have to buy multiple to fill it out), Ideally they'd grow under 6 inches, and again grass-like is preferred but heck if you have other recommendations feel free to add! The area in the foreground is pretty high light, if that helps at all.

Thank you thank you thank you!!!

If you want a carpet, then dwarf sag is definitely a better bet than Crypt parva.  Or you could go with Crypt lutea or Crypt lucens.  Dwarf sag can get out of control, but Crypts rarely do.  Lutea and lucens are still small and grassy looking enough but get bigger than parva and grow and runner enough faster to make and maintain a better carpet.

Here’s close pic of parva and another of that whole tank on a good day.  This is a 2 gallon tank that is a 9” cube.  That should help with the scale of how truly tiny and adorable parva is.  It’s shifted quite a bit between the pics and the whole tank pic was taken a few weeks before I took out all the frogbit that was stealing too many nutrients and giving too much shade - it started knocking back the parva a bit so I took it all out even though I liked the overall look of the tank better with it.  I don’t have any great pics of my lucens and lutea since I’ve added those relatively recently to their tank and they aren’t very dense, yet.  The lutea is the taller of the 2 for me, although I find conflicting information on line on size.  Lutea gets about 4-5” tall for me and lucens about half that height with narrower leaves.  Both have similar, narrow leaves but lutea is slightly wider proportionately.  They both look a bit like they’re grown up parva but the wider parts of their leaves are closer to their stems.  They are all 3 very similar color - a nice bright green.

Ignore the bits of BBA.  😝 

Edited Friday at 03:52 AM by Odd Duck
Typo

[Odd Duck]

Turned the lights on to get pics of my rather scraggly lutea and lucens for you.  I really need to pull out about a hundred frogbit from this tank and fertilize more regularly.  😝 

The lutea is the smaller, brighter green among the more olive tone wendtii.  It has a bit of a bulge effect where the leaf meets the stem.  They are both definitely in need of more light and nutrients.  I look at the tanks daily but I really need to take pics regularly so I have the comparison.  It makes me better evaluate the tanks / plants progress more closely.  Both would likely have a bit longer leaves with more ferts and light, but many Crypts (except the very tall, lanky ones) tend to lay down a bit in brighter light so even if the leaves are longer, they tend to lay over so they aren’t taller unless they are growing very densely and the plants are keeping each other’s leaves more upright.

 

[clownbaby]

On 10/10/2024 at 8:43 PM, Odd Duck said:

If you want a carpet, then dwarf sag is definitely a better bet than Crypt parva.  Or you could go with Crypt lutea or Crypt lucens.  Dwarf sag can get out of control, but Crypts rarely do.  Lutea and lucens are still small and grassy looking enough but get bigger than parva and grow and runner enough faster to make and maintain a better carpet.

Here’s close pic of parva and another of that whole tank on a good day.  This is a 2 gallon tank that is a 9” cube.  That should help with the scale of how truly tiny and adorable parva is.  It’s shifted quite a bit between the pics and the whole tank pic was taken a few weeks before I took out all the frogbit that was stealing too many nutrients and giving too much shade - it started knocking back the parva a bit so I took it all out even though I liked the overall look of the tank better with it.  I don’t have any great pics of my lucens and lutea since I’ve added those relatively recently to their tank and they aren’t very dense, yet.  The lutea is the taller of the 2 for me, although I find conflicting information on line on size.  Lutea gets about 4-5” tall for me and lucens about half that height with narrower leaves.  Both have similar, narrow leaves but lutea is slightly wider proportionately.  They both look a bit like they’re grown up parva but the wider parts of their leaves are closer to their stems.  They are all 3 very similar color - a nice bright green.

Ignore the bits of BBA.  😝 

I actually love the look of crypt lucens! Very cute plant!!! And omg if that is a 2 gallon then parva would look TINY in my tank haha! How cute! 

Thank you for the recommendations!!! I think I might get lucens a try, and maybe dwarf sag if I find it for a good price (there is an aquarist local to me who seems to have every aquatic plant under the sun who sells em for super cheap. Cute old guy who loves to talk about his tanks, old and new. Really great mentor for me as well!). Thank you so much!!!!