Plants in low light, gravel only tank.

Hey everyone. I was looking for some opinions of what I should do with my tank. The tank is a 10 gallon. It has a 15 watt plant bulb (pretty generic, mind you) and is currently planted with java fern that has been doing well. I was wondering what other plants would go well in the tank and would do well in gravel or on driftwood. The fish are cherry and gold barbs. I was thinking about adding some anubias. Thanks for the advice. I have included a picture of the tank in its current state.

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Permalink Reply by Peter on August 22, 2012 at 10:02pm

u can try an anubias nana they can grow on driftwood or a crypt wendit they also can get grow on a rock or driftwood

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Permalink Reply by Dan Kostecki on August 22, 2012 at 10:26pm

Thanks, I was looking at both of those to try out.

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Permalink Reply by ŦůRbö ۰ Ҏяѻ ۰ on August 25, 2012 at 12:27am

Yeah thats what I started off with a long long time ago when i didnt know anything about live plants, I had them in the same set up, 10g 15w light. I dosed the tank with seachem's and couldnt kill them if i wanted. That was close to 15 years ago, and i still have plants that came from the OG plants.

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Permalink Reply by AquaNoob on August 23, 2012 at 12:09am

My brother has grown Rotala Indica in plain gravel before. I grow it in plant substrate, but it grows a lot faster than in plain gravel. So In theory, you wouldn't have to trim it when it gets too tall as often.

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Permalink Reply by Erik Molenaar on August 23, 2012 at 3:23pm

i have a 30 gallon tall tank, what i call the "epiphyte" tank. epiphytes are plants like orchids and bromeliads, that grow "on" trees and steep edges. i have sand and gravel mixed as a substrate...one 13w compact fluorescent bulb. mostly i have anubias, java fern, and java moss. all of them are attached to wood. added some hornwort into some rocks and wood, has a great mossy effect. needs to be kept trimmed. i also have floating anacharis and wisteria. with anacharis, i find it's best to cut off the brown ends as they die off. keeps things cleaner.

definetely look into pothos, which is most commonly a vine houseplant. a simple cutting hanging out the side of your tank will grow fast, and the roots work wonders for water quality. i use it in all of my tanks. i've even seen it grow in filter boxes.

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Permalink Reply by Robert Jango on August 26, 2012 at 12:20pm

Plants are pretty inexpensive. Throw something in and see what happens. Plants that float or emerge from the water usually don't need much light; so in this respect Erik's suggestion about Pothos sounds interesting. I'll have to google it and see what it looks like. You can collect many amphibious plants in your local waterways.