Quote Originally Posted by RockyGurly View Post
Hello, me again
I ordered some anubias, duckweed, amazon swords and mariamo moss balls for my new ACF. She's getting a couple of each, and I'll be able to pick which ones I'll take, so they should be here in a week or so 8)
I was wondering if anyone had any tips or suggestions (or a recommended care sheet, I'm finding some conflicting ones outside of here :S ) they could throw my way for these plants My tank is bare bottom right now, but I plan on using a few inches of playsand as sub, and I'll be tying (gently) the plants to large flat rocks to keep them anchored. Right now I have a 20 gallon with just the one fully grown frog, but no lights. Would lights be an absolute necessity, or would the natural lighting of the room be enough? Anything special I should be providing for the plants?
Thanks Sorry for the newbie questions, I'm just fumbling my way along here :P
Ambient room light isn't enough for anything other than the most undemanding plants even then there's serious risk they will rot and decay. Maybe if the tank received indirect sunlight somehow but I would get a fixture.

I've had good luck with Finnex lights. I use one of their more powerful LED fixtures on my 40B but it's probably overkill. They do produce a nice strip called a 'FugeRay' which has white and moonlight LEDs and is good for plants. I don't think it's too expensive, around 80 dollars?

Of the plants you listed the duckweed will do quite well no matter what, the mariamo balls aren't actually plants they're algae and I've never seen them rot.. amazon sword will require substrate of some sort.