Advice sought for sparsely planted tank
 

Hello,

I am just setting up a cichild tank and would like to add some plants.
Given that cichlids view most plants as a salad, I am a bit restricted
as to what I can put in. I am going to try Java Fern and Anubias as
these can be fixed to the (fake) rock background, keeping them away from
the fishes' digging habits and nearer the light.

Any advice for healthy plants ? I have a heavily planted tank as well
and don't have too much problem with that, but then I can whack in more
nutrients and have more lighting. This new tank runs a danger of algae
taking over due to the lower number of plants taking nutrients.

The tank is a 24" cube. At the moment I have two 18" lights (15W each),
one Interpet Beauty Light Plus and one Interpet Blue Moon Light (as
these bring out the colours of the cichlids). Both tubes have a
reflector. Is this going to be OK for my plants ?

Any advice would be appreciated. I would like healthy plants, but I'm
not bothered for huge growth, just keeping the plants free of algae
would satisfy me !!

TIA

--
Alan Silver