What is a great easy care matting plant?

[Marx]

Im looking for a easy care matting plant..

Hope i spelt that right lol..

can anyone point me in a good direction..

75gal
2wpg
no c02
will use co2 additive when needed..
till i can afford system..

Thanks..

[BigDaddy]

Matting plant?  Can you elaborate?

[Marx]

grows like grass... or turf type plant.. spreads along bottom of tank not to high..

[artw]

chain swords
dwarf sag
glosso

Anubias will chime in and correct me.

[BigDaddy]

I would take glosso out of that list.

In order for glosso to carpet the substrate, you have to have HIGH lighting... otherwise it grows up instead of out.

Dwarf sag or chain micro sword would be good choices for that lighting.

I've noticed that WPG will affect the dwarf sag though.  In my old 25 gallon with 55 watts of light, the sag grew 6 to 8 inches high.  The same plant in my 5 gallon with 20w only gets to 2 inches or so and definately "carpets" more.

[luvfishies]

Good ol' Java Moss can be used for this as well.

[Marx]

hehe great!!

[artw]

so can BGA hehe

[tanksalot]

Black Brush Algae, it's quite a low growing furry carpet in my tank
:oops:

does anyone else agree, that instead of fighting the stuff, we should view it as an easy-care quick growing plant!!? Am thinking of starting a coalition for the appreciation of BBA  :lol:

[gvv]

does anyone else agree, that instead of fighting the stuff, we should view it as an easy-care quick growing plant!!? Am thinking of starting a coalition for the appreciation of BBA  :lol:

O-oh it was great, but my "always hungry" Malawi's even ate it (together with the leaves on Anubias Nana I just bought)  :lol:
But to be serious, I really like how this BGA looks like. Unfortunately for me, not for a long time.

[BigDaddy]

Black Brush Algae, it's quite a low growing furry carpet in my tank
:oops:

does anyone else agree, that instead of fighting the stuff, we should view it as an easy-care quick growing plant!!? Am thinking of starting a coalition for the appreciation of BBA  :lol:

tanksalot:

Put some of your SAE's in that BBA infested tank and watch it disppear.  SAE's are one of the only fish that will touch the stuff.

While your at it... you might want to look at your fert schedule... BBA might be from too much iron or traces...

[dpatte]

Out of all my tanks, I only had one that consistantly had BBA. A few weeks ago when i cleaned it , i found a penny in its gravel. Wonder if BBA likes copper?

[tanksalot]

BigDaddy, my SAE'S are still 'snack size', so they can't go in that tank. I keep looking for full grown ones for sale :-(  

Thanks for the iron tip. I pretty much stopped all ferts months ago (plants are growing as fast as the algae with just light and C02) but I did buy some Kent Iron liquid fert which by the sounds of it I should stop as well.

On some things the BBA is quite attractive (like black velvet on driftwood) but when it covers the slower growing plants it is not nice. I was under the impression that once infested with BBA, there was no going back (is this wrong?).

It seems very selective as to where it likes to grow (almost-but not quite- everywhere), which is what makes me think if you can't beat it, work with it! (still working on that idea!)

I know this is getting way off topic (sorry)...I tried taking out some of the plants and gravel and soaking them in peroxide, after a week the BBA had changed colour but STILL hung on to the plants and gravel tenaciously! Even in death...(lol)

[Poustic]

BigDaddy, my SAE'S are still 'snack size', so they can't go in that tank. I keep looking for full grown ones for sale :-(

Different topic, but I've read at a couple different places that only younger SAE's eat BBA.  When they get older, they get picky and snub the BBA.  In any case, mine never touched it, small or big.

[gvv]

Different topic, but I've read at a couple different places that only younger SAE's eat BBA.  When they get older, they get picky and snub the BBA.  In any case, mine never touched it, small or big.

This is a difference between CAE's and SAE's

[Poustic]

This is a difference between CAE's and SAE's

Very true... Mine are SAEs (crossocheilus siamensis).  Aren't those the ones that are supposed to eat BBA?