LF: Plant Sugestions

[charmed1]

Hi everyone,

I have a 120g fresh water tank set up with 4 x 54w t5 lighting(individual reflectors), non co2 injected(and never gonna be) temp is 80 degrees, I have fake plants in there right now, but I was just wondering what plants would do well in a tank this size with that lighting and the fish that are in my signature? the 120g is a 4' x 2' x 2' foot print.

thanks in advance

[charmed1]

   wow I am overwhelmed with all the helpfull suggestions 

[fischkopp]

It's a very common question that has been asked quite a few times in this forum, searching through older posts will give you a general idea. I am not sure how plant friendly the fish in your tank are, because I don't keep them, but I can imagine that the parrots and geophagus like to dig a little, and plecos love plants for other reasons.

That said, pick easy plants to start, such as hygro, swords, ferns, wisteria. Your lights will grow a lot of plants, but in my experience it is a bit too powerful if you don't want to CO2.

[cichlidicted]

Hello

I have a 100g tank ... 5ft long with 1.4 watts per gallon, yours has 1.8 watts per gallon. Having this tank planted and injected with C02 is expensive and time consuming for me. The gouramis well do fine with plants, pleco's like to eat algea that grow on the leaves and might nibble on the corners sometimes, the cichlids as Fischkopp said likes to dig, relocate and nibble on plants as well  ....

Given the fish you have i would recommend java ferns and anubias... i also have hornwort in my tank, its a very fast growing plant but am not so sure if it'll survive the temp .... am also trying vals, swords, and christmas but not lucky so far... they reach to a level where they would need additional nutrients to promote their growth.

I dont know if this answers your question in anyw way but I also recommend searching for similar older posts .... it's a useful archieve.

Goodluck
Abed

[Toss]

Do you have any rock formation or driftwood in your tank? What kind of substrate do you have?
Maybe start with java fern, african fern and anubias like everyone else suggested. These are easy and slow growing plants that you can attach to rocks or wood. Since they are slow grower, you don't need to fertilize or inject CO2.
Vals and swords can come after. you need to protect their roots with some rocks or wood. I had a pair of parrots that spawn all the time in the planted tank before. You just need to be patient with replanting your plants because they do like to dig

[magnosis]

See my setup if this can provide any insight.  Keep in mind I am fairly new to this so take with a grain of salt 

I have goldfish, so I needed to carefully select plants they would not eat.

[charmed1]

Thanks guys, I was worried about the parrots, because they do move a lot of rock around 

I just have a natural colored gravel substrate in the tank, I do have four large pieces of drift wood in the tank,
and two small ones,

I realize my lights might be a little intense  , right now they are just 65k bulbs, but they grow plenty of algae for my pleco's to eat 

so, will I be wasting my time trying to grow plants in this tank? I am absolutely not interested in c02 injection at all.

everyone in the tank is healthy so I don't want to try plants if it might cause unwanted parameter swings.

But I absolutely love the look of planted tanks 

   

[sas]

I'd try African fern for sure, nobody touches that stuff, although it is very slow growing
and also try the Java fern for starters.
I've had no luck with Annubias for the long run in my African or Oscar tanks. It always has bite marks out of it
and ends up being shredded.