[phoenix91]

I have a 20g tall tank that has LED lighting. I'm having an issue with hardy plants melting away and would like suggestions of plants i could try with LED lighting.

So far i've tried: anacharis, wisteria, apongeton, i had ludwigia for a white and it grew great then one day it melted away,i've tried several types of vals. I have java fern but it doesn't appear to be doing anything. the hygrophilia i have is growing quite well. Also have 1 small anubias which also isn't growing. It's odd because i have an anubias in a 3 gallon with just stones as the substrate and it's getting pretty big, that tank also has LED's.

I'm stumped. Would some moss maybe work?

The substrate isn't ideal i will say that, the tank was set up as a rush and cycled with pre-cycled media. I have sand and pebbles as the substrate. I really should change the substrate but i'm not sure what to. I really want to be able to grow plants, my poor puffer deserves a nice tank and so far it's not looking that great.

Any suggestions?

 

[phoenix91]

IKD about the rest, I have most of the plants you mentioned but I wanted to tell you about a plant I absolutely LOVE!

I got a large onion plant a few months ago and it's stunning.
It grows very tall and when it's too tall for the tank, the leaves just spread out on the surface of the water. Very pretty and hardy... it's the best plant growing in my sorority.
I mention it bc I haven't seeing people talk about it at all and I just think it's a great plant.
I want to find some of the small variety to add, haven't seen them at the LPS

I liked the plants i had but i loved the ludwigia, mine was a vibrant purple for the whole time i had it, so pretty.

It's funny you should mention the onion plant, i bought a dwarf one from sweet aquatics and it never looked good, i think it got stressed and pretty much melted almost as soon as it was put into the tank. Could you post a pic of your large onion? I'd really like to try another.

I spent all of last night swapping out the substrate for something a bit more plant friendly, i put in flora max. I also got a clearance amazon sword which looks pretty healthy, it even ended up being 2 plants when i rinsed it so i got 2 for $2, not bad.

I'm not a plant expert by any means, but are you using fertilizer for your plants?

I've always sucked at aquatic plants, but when I started using fertilizer I haven't killed one yet. You can get liquid or root tabs depending on what kind of plant it is for.

Java Moss is a low-light loving plant but it just kinda floats there. Or at least mine floats there, hehe.

I have both kinds. I'm hoping the problem in the tank is the substrate which was sand and gravel, i've now changed it out for flora max (it took like 3 hours to do and i can tell you puffers don't like to be caught). I replanted the plants that are still kicking and added root tabs to the ones that need it.

I wanted to try java moss but everywhere i go to buy it is always sold out. My lfs never has any and when i bought from sweet aquatics they were sold out.

I have java fern in my other tank and it's going crazy, i put a few of the babies in the 20 g and they're not doing much of anything. Mostly they seem to be encouraging the blue green cyano growth :/

I hope i can get the plants flourishing.