plant recommendations?

[Nyx]

I need to find an easy-to-grow non-demanding low-light foreground plant that does not require CO2 or Excel supplementation. The tanks I need it for are:

1) A 6G Fluval Edge with the LED lighting and no access to supplemental window light - the only plants doing well but grown very slowly in this tank are bronze crypts and Phoenix moss, both of which are planted directly beneath the lighting.

2) A 12G Fluval Edge with LED lighting (it has the same footprint as 6G but is deeper). It does get supplemental lighting from a North facing window that is perpendicular to the tank.

A foreground plant would be on the periphery of the lighting of both tanks. Does anyone have any recommendations? I'd appreciate some help with this. Thanks.

[exv152]

Hair grass would probably do fine, eleocharis parvula, or any type of moss. Sagattaria subulata might also work but the lighting you have is very very low, even directly under the LED.

[CritterJ]

In my experience, most foreground plants need lots of light. I have never had much luck with grasses or plants like baby tears (HC or HM) without good soil and good light. Most of these plants grow in under a foot of water, or even emersed in the wild. This means that they have unlimited access to co2 and light.

To put it in perspective, a lot of the LED's coming out today are litterally 10x more powerful than those "edge" LED's. Like Marineland LED's, they are about 16 par at a 6" depth, while Hagen's new LED's and "CADlights" fixtures are 160 at 6"...

If you are using a rich enough soil (fluval stratum, eco complete or actual soil) something like dwarf chain sword would do. One of the guys I work with has the small "edge" completely covered in chain sword, using fluval stratum as a base. Sagitaria is similar, but I've seen even the medium variety reach 20" in my tanks. It happens spuratically at about the one year mark.

If you're set on trying something smaller, Hemianthus Miroanthemoides (large baby tears) seems to be the easiest. Its actually aquatic, unlike H.C. (hemianthius callitricoides). You simply have to keep trimming it and it will eventually form a carpet. I'm also having a lot of fun growing Stargrass. This is currently my favorite dwarf plant.

I hope that helps. If you decide on what to try, and are having a hard time finding it, let me know.

[fischkopp]

I found Marsilea sp. and Lilaeopsis brasiliensis cope well with pretty low light, though the latter will grow very slowly. Other that may work for you are Eleocharis parvula (as mentioned), Echinodorus tenellus (name has changed recently) and Cryptocoryne parva. The biggest issue with low light is that plants tend to grow taller to get closer to it. So while typical foreground plants stay compact in high light tanks, they will look very different if light levels decline.

[charlie]

You have received some good advice, the possible problem with grass like plants such as dwarf sag ,hair grass etc is that the can get up to 3 inches with good lighting & even taller in low lighting more & may not do well with the  peripheral lighting,  another thing to consider is the access to maintain the foreground plants.
I would suggest  the  Marsilea  Robert suggested with some type of supplementary led lighting above the front of the tank. or moss stones tiled in the front of the tank.
Errol

[charlie]

There is also the option of re doing your aquascape to have an island type plant arrangement in the middle of the tank as it is now ( small branchy drift wood , some small rocks & sand in the front of the tank simulating the beach front look, negating the need for carpet plants where the lighting is poor.
Errol

[charlie]

There is also the option of re doing your aquascape to have an island type plant arrangement in the middle of the tank as it is now ( small branchy drift wood , some small rocks & sand in the front of the tank simulating the beach front look, negating the need for carpet plants where the lighting is poor.
Errol

As they say  a picture is worth a thousand words 

[Nyx]

Thank you all for your help. I really appreciate it. I'm really, really hopeless with scientific plant names so I'll have to do some research. I pretty much need the aquatic equivalent to a mushroom - something that almost grows in the dark. *shrug* Unless we take the rock out of the 12G and redo it like the photo Errol posted. I really love the look of the Fluval Edge and the compactness of them but they aren't the best tanks for aquascaping, that's for sure. These are our last two tanks and I want to make them look a little nicer. Otherwise, it'll be too easy to take them down and then we'll be out of the hobby entirely. :\

[ajm1961]

When I last saw your tanks, they looked pretty cool!
Keep it up Claude - the hobby (and the club) can always use such a nice person!

[Nyx]

Aw, thank you, André. You are such a sweetie.

Forgot to say that my hubby, Gasp, has agreed to redo the aquascaping of the 12G to maximize utilization of the light, like in the photo Errol posted. Gasp has to do it because I just won't touch fishy water.    As for the 6G, we're going to figure which of the aforementioned foreground plants will work best and go from there.