# Foreground carpet plants for beginners?



## kuro (May 21, 2010)

If you have alot of patience why not try the dry start method? Let see for hairgrass, try E. Belem it won't grow tall but it grow really slow lol. I never tried Marsilea hirsuta but i have tried Marsilea minuta and this plant can survive anything even in low light. It spread slowly in my ebi then i put in a DIY CO2 for like a month and it spread like wildfire.


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## Optix (May 31, 2011)

DHG grows under low light as well...just slower (its a really easy plant)

glosso is easy once it adapts (takes 2wks - a month) BUT, its harder to get it to hug the substrate than it is to keep it alive...and yes, once its established in your tank and starts to take over everything else...its not leaving....EVER

marsilea sp. will survive the nuclear winter...but again, its a SLOW grower so either 1. start with A LOT and cover 90+% of you substrate...or 2. have A LOT of patience

riccia is too much trouble for my taste...but its another easy to grow plant (same as a moss carpet IMO)


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## daworldisblack (Jan 12, 2012)

Not sure if you have considered Dwarf Sagittaria? They are pretty decent in low light conditions as well and can stay short. I've also seen taller versions but probably not the dwarf variety.


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## scream-aim-fire (Nov 4, 2008)

daworldisblack said:


> Not sure if you have considered Dwarf Sagittaria? They are pretty decent in low light conditions as well and can stay short. I've also seen taller versions but probably not the dwarf variety.


dwarf sag can grow up to 12" depending on lighting, dont let the "dwarf" fool you lol. def not a low growing plant, but is a great beginner plant.


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## echoskybound (Apr 23, 2012)

scream-aim-fire said:


> dwarf sag can grow up to 12" depending on lighting, dont let the "dwarf" fool you lol. def not a low growing plant, but is a great beginner plant.


Haha, yeah. I was looking into dwarf sag, until I saw some 6" dwarf sag in the store. It looks great when it's small, but it seems like more of a mid-ground plant, and not very carpet-like.


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## jhays79 (Mar 28, 2012)

All of my Dwarf Sag is no taller than 4 inches, shoots off offshoots it seems almost daily. I love it! My tank is a 30 with hight light and CO2, and dirt.


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## daworldisblack (Jan 12, 2012)

jhays79 said:


> All of my Dwarf Sag is no taller than 4 inches, shoots off offshoots it seems almost daily. I love it! My tank is a 30 with hight light and CO2, and dirt.


Yeap my dwarf sag has never gotten taller then 4" in both low light with excel only and highlight with pressurized CO2 and ferts. I think they are just labelled wrong sometimes and they could be a different variety. They carpet real nice and they are easy to propogate - they do the work so you dont have to


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## talontsiawd (Oct 19, 2008)

I have only used DHG and Glosso. For non CO2, DHG grows much slower for me. It takes a long time to spread and doesn't look as good as other carpets before it has fully spread.

Glosso is better. In non high light/non co2, it may not carpet as well. However, it tends to be "trainable", meaning as you trim it, it tends to start to carpet. It will continue to carpet and then grow vertical again. Just trim it again. Eventually you can make a full carpet, even with vertical growth, trimming will allow it to carpet over time. I don't find this particularly slow without CO2 either, it's not nearly as fast as with CO2 but it's far from a slow grower.


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