Best Carpeting Plants For Your Low-Tech Aquarium

Many aquascapers love the look of a lushly grown aquarium plant carpet. However, many people struggle to find plants that grow well in low-tech tanks. This article dives into five plants that serve as excellent carpeting plants for your low-tech setup.

Dwarf sagittaria

Dwarf sagittaria is a beautifully messy-looking plant that looks great in jungle aquascapes. It is very undemanding and will grow well in a wide range of water parameters.

It will carpet your substrate by shooting out runners. We would recommend providing dwarf sagittaria with a nutrient rich substrate to maximize its growth potential.

Plant species	Dwarf sagittaria
pH	6.0-8.2
Temperature	68-82°F (20-28°C)
Water hardness	50-250ppm (3-14 dGH)
Fertilization	Root tab fertilization, active substrate, soil/dirt
Growth rate	Moderate
Light requirement	Low light
CO2 requirement	No CO2

Staurogyne repens

Staurogyne repens is one of our favorite low-tech plants in general. It also happens to be an excellent low-tech carpeting plant under the right conditions.

You’ll notice in the photo above that S. repens grows in a bushy-like shape. The key to having an S. repens carpet it to trim the stems are they grow a couple inches and replants them across your substrate.

This requires a little more manually work than other low-tech carpet plants on this list. But in our opinion, it creates a very pleasant carpeting effect.

Staurogyne repens tends to grow taller in very low-light tanks, as it tries to grow towards the light source. But in moderately lit tanks they will often remain shorter.

And what’s great is that staurogyne repens are a popular plant species that can be purchased from many plant retailers.

Plant species	Staurogyne repens
pH	6.0-8.2
Temperature	68-86°F (20-30°C)
Water hardness	50-250ppm (3-14 dGH)
Fertilization	Root tabs, nutrient rich substrate helps
Growth rate	Moderate
Light requirement	Low light
CO2 requirement	No CO2

Java moss

Java moss is an epiphyte plant that attaches to hardscape and substrate, but does not plant roots. It has a soft appearance with many tiny oval-shaped leaves, making it an excellent carpeting plant.

We believe java moss is a great carpeting plant because it’s one of the few low-tech options that grows densely. This gives it a more full and lush appearance.

It’s incredibly easy to maintain and will work in most, if not all, low-tech tanks.

Plant species	Java moss
pH	5.5-8.0
Temperature	59-82°F (15-28°C)
Water hardness	110-260ppm (6-15 dGH)
Fertilization	Liquid all-in-one fertilizer
Growth rate	Moderate
Light requirement	Low light
CO2 requirement	No CO2

Pygmy chain swords

Pygmy chain swords are a beautiful grass-like carpeting plant thatwill thrive in low-tech tanks.

The plant has around 10-15 stems per bunch, grows up to 4-inches tall, and propagates will runners across the substrate. This means it requires little to to maintenance or manual propagation to grow successfully.

It’s recommend to use a nutrient rich substrate for it to grow best. This means either an aqua soil or dirt base layer.

Plant species	Pygmy chain swords
pH	6.5-8.0
Temperature	72-80°F (22-27°C)
Water hardness	50-250ppm (3-14 dGH)
Fertilization	Root tabs, nutrient rich substrate recommended
Growth rate	Moderate
Light requirement	Moderate light
CO2 requirement	No CO2

Helanthium tenellum

Helanthium tenellum is another grass-looking substrate that will carpet most low-tech tanks. Like dwarf sagittaria, it shoots out runners across your substrate to propagate.

In our experience, helanthium tenellum grows rather slowly and does best in nutrient rich substrates. We did grow it successfully in a low-tech tank with inert Seachem Flourite substrate, but it quickly died off after we missed one root tab fertilization schedule.

A nutrient rich substrate would mitigate this issue and allow you to grow this beautiful plant more successfully.

Plant species	Helanthium tenellum
pH	6.0-8.0
Temperature	59-82°F (15-28°C)
Water hardness	50-250ppm (3-14 dGH)
Fertilization	Root tabs, nutrient rich substrate helps
Growth rate	Slow
Light requirement	Low light
CO2 requirement	CO2 helpful but not required

How to maximize the growth of low-tech carpet plants

A shallow tank will increase light intensity

A shallow tank reduces the distance that light waves have to travel before reaching your carpeting plants. This means that your carpeting plants can receive more photosynthetically active radiation without actually increasing your light intensity for your entire tank.

This extra light may help some low-tech carpeting plants grow a little more effectively if they don’t get enough light in normal tank setups.

Many carpet plants benefit from nutrient rich substrate

All aquatic pants take in their macro and micronutrients from both their roots and the water columns. But many carpeting plants take in a greater percentage of their nutrients from their roots.

As a result, a nutrient rich substrate is often beneficial for growing low-tech carpeting plants.

We’ve have particular success with 1-inch of garden soil caped with 2-inches of sand. But an aqua soil such as ADA Amazonia or Fluval Stratum are excellent choices as well.

Challenges of growing carpeting plants

Carpeting plants experience the same challenges as other low-tech plants. First of all, a low-tech environment typically has low concentrations of CO₂, which is a crucial nutrient for photosynthesis.

The lack of CO₂ in low-tech tanks is a limiting growth factor for all aquatic plants in your aquarium, not just carpeting plants.

Another disadvantage for carpeting plants is low light. Seeing as how most carpeting plants remain are the substrate level and do not grow taller than a few inches, they receive less PAR from your light source.

It’s also possible that your overgrown background plants are casting shade on your carpet, worsening this problem.

The best solution is to make sure nothing is blocking substantial light to your carpeting plants. Also, consider a shallow tank, like we mentioned above.