I manage a tropical fish dept, and I have a supplier who can provide me
with over a thousand types of plants, all identified by their scientific
names. I am not a specialty store, but I encourage the use of natural
plants and I want my customer's first experience with plants to be a good
one. Our water originates from the river, it's soft (2-3dgH, 2-3dkH),
slightly alkaline (7.5pH) and they typically have 0.8 to 1.4w/g of
fluorescent lighting available in tanks which are 16 to 18" deep.

I have six 60g plants tanks, so I can accommodate about 18-20 types of
plants. They need to be relatively easy to grow/maintain in my
conditions, and nothing too expensive. I am willing to group my
purchases so I have 2 tanks of low light, 3 tanks of average light and 1
tank of high light. Each tank (or light category) should include 1
foreground plant and 1 floating plant. I would like to carry a few
exotic plants, but I need to clearly identify them as such.

With the expertise in this group, I realize this is not a very exciting
post to answer, but it will benefit many people just being introduced to
aquatic plants ). I did try to research this myself, but had minimal
success, and even less confidence in my findings, so I am looking for
your experience for guidance.

LOW LIGHT, EASY
1) One foreground?
2) One floater?
3) 4 or 5 good growers

AVERAGE LIGHT, EASY
4) One foreground?
5) One floater?
6) 7 or 8 good growers

HIGH LIGHT, SOME CHALLENGE
7) One foreground?
8) One floater?
9) 1 or 2 exotics

For some floaters, I was thinking about a nitrate sponge (Hornwort?) and
something for Bettas/Gouramis (Water Lettuce?).

ps: it would help if you provided the sci. names, but I can do some
cross-referencing.
TIA
NetMax


I wish you were my LFS!! LOL!!

It's already been said, but lots of fast and easy growers, keeps customers
happy that their plants are doing well...

You didn't ask this, but IMO, if you had PLENTY of books on hand to sell,
you could reference them to new customers, maybe sell them a book a plant
and a fish too!!