Low Light Aquarium Plants – Easy to Grow Plants for Beginners

Adding aquarium or tank in living space in the house can be such refreshment. The sound of water and bubbles can be very relaxing. The fish that are swimming inside can be very unique that everybody likes; kids to elderly. To make it perfect and to bring the nature of fish, you can add some aquarium plants to give you some great. So, what plants? Here are low light aquarium plants you can add to your tank.

Benefits of Live Plants in Fish Tank

Beside enhance an aquarium’s look, plants in fish tank offer some benefits for your freshwater fish. Some plant gives fish a place to hide and rest. Also, can be used for shelter fry and eggs of fish. The plant is also very useful as a place to provide food and increase the oxygen content of water in an aquarium. Live aquatic plants are very healthier for fauna an aquarium, they can reduce harmful chemicals such as ammonia and Compete with algae.

Aquarium plants are divided into three categories; easy, medium and advanced plants. Each of those categories has different and unique characteristics that need different treatment as well. Here are some plants you can add to your aquarium.

The Easy Plants

Low light aquarium plants can grow and thrive very well in low-light tanks and aquariums. If you add this plant to your tank, you will need CO2 supply. It will ensure the plants will grow well as the low does. The other things you should add to this kind of low light tank plants is weekly liquid fertilizer and the right substrate. However, the easy plants for a low light aquarium like Anubias Barteri, Bacopa Caroliniana, Cabomba Caroliniana and more grow very slowly. The time expenditure per week of this plant is less than ½ hour.

One of the easy plants as low light aquarium plants is Anubias Barteri. Anubias has many varieties and one of the varieties is Coffefolia. This low cultivar variety of Anubias Barteri is totally beautiful. It can grow 15 to 25 cm for the height. The leaves are arching considerably between the new red-brown leaves and the leaf ribs. It has such an attractive look with the amazing leaf shape and the color combination. Even though the seeds are not produced under water, the flowers are blooming. Herbivorous fish do not eat this one of plants for the low light tank.

The Medium Plants

The next low light aquarium plants category is the medium plants. You will need to work harder when you are about planting this plant. To keep this plant thriving, you should prepare ½ watt per liter. The medium plant has good density and color. To keep them good, make sure that you have a good CO2 supply. Consider also the plant development and growth. Those things are important are determining weekly maintenance. It is about ½ to an hour. To keep this one of low light aquatic plants growing well, add some liquid fertilizers and the bottom substrate. For some individual cases, you will need special fertilizer.

One of the medium plants for the low tech aquarium is Alternanthera Reineckii “Pink”. It is originally from South America. The pink color brings a new perspective and a beautiful contrast to the green plant in a tank or aquarium scape, especially if they are in groups. It can grow 25-50 cm tall. You can change its pink leaves into red ones by providing a good lamp. You can easily propagate Alternanthera Reineckii “pink” by nipping the terminal bud off. Then, you can plant the bud in the substrate. The terminal bud propagating makes the mother plant becomes bushier as there will be more shoots are formed.

The Advanced Plants

The advanced plants are the most demanding low light aquarium plants. This plant needs more power of lighting can thrive fully with 1 watt per liter or more. Make sure that the supply of CO2 has a constant amount; 15-25 mg per liter. Keeping it on its rate is important. You will need 1 to 2 hours to maintain this one of low light tank plants per a week. Don’t forget to add liquid fertilizer and support substrate. The advanced plant requires special fertilizer to make it grow very well. Didiplis Diandra, Glossostigma Elatinoides, Hemianthus Callitrichoides “Cuba” are some varieties of the advanced plants for simple tech aquarium.

Didiplis Diandra is one of the advanced plants which is originally from North America. It is the best plant that grows in a small group. The stems are 2-5 cm wide and 10-15 cm tall. Some red shoot tips can be developed with good light. It will be a great contrast with a plant with green color. Soft water and a lot of light are required by this plant. Didiplis Diandra can grow better by adding CO2.

Java Moss is Perfect for Beginner

Java moss is very famous for freshwater aquariums plants. Java Moss is also perfect for your aquarium. This plant is best as low light aquarium plants for a beginner with simple maintenance that will make you easy to grow. Besides, Java Moss is growing quickly and hard to kill. It can crawl over the rock and reach your tank surface. As this plant likes to float, it would be better to add something to attach this plant.

Therefore, it can prevent float-away. Java Moss is a carpet-like and slow growth pattern. It can grow fast around 73 degrees. Any lighting works for Java Moss. However, the medium-high lighting condition supports its growth. You can use this one as low light plants as substrate stabilization and cover, carpeting, decoration, protection, and breeding of individual fish types.

Things to Keep in Mind

In this point, you have learned some categories and varieties of low light aquarium plants. There is an important thing that we should keep in our mind. It is the water parameter. By considering the water parameter, we can avoid the problems that may happen. Moreover, the ideal water condition can be maintained in an easier way. Relating to the water parameter, we have three aspects that we should really consider; pH, water hardness and water temperature. The ideal pH for the living plant is ranged between 6.5 to 7.5. On the other hand, some sensitive plants cannot live in that range; the pH should be narrower. Therefore, we should be very considerate in understanding the plant.

Water hardness is commonly stated in a degree of hardness or dG. The most plant can adapt and live in harder water condition or general hardness. However, some tropical plants for low tech tanks prefer softer water. Thus, it is important to conduct simple research to determine the proper water hardness for our simple light tank plant. Here are some of the research results; Cryptocoryne, Chain Swords, and Dwarf Sagittaria require the soft water has 3 DH. The moderately soft water has 3-6 DH. It is good for Anubias Barteri, Cabomba, and Rotala Indica. Micro Swords, Ludwigia, and Java Fern are living in the slightly soft water with 6-12 DH. Meanwhile, Anubias Nana, Anacharis, and Melon Swords are planted that can live in moderately hard water with 12-18 DH.

Besides water hardness, water temperature should also be kept in mind. 70-80 degrees are the ideal temperature for the most aquatic plants. However, the Japanese Dwarf Rush and Anacharis prefer water temperatures which are cooler. You should be really considerate in determining those three aspects of water parameter. Therefore, low light aquarium plants can live and beautify your aquarium and tank.