What type of aquatic plants should I consider when setting up a 15 gallon freshwater tank?

I plan to have neon tetras and longfin blue or leopard danios. I have been looking at: Philippine java fern, small rotala, dwarf hygro, black amazon sword, twisted val, needle sag and dwarf sag. How many plants is too much? How many fish should I have?

What type of aquatic plants should I consider when setting up a 15 gallon freshwater tank?
No amount of plants is too much, but make sure your tank is fully cycled before you add all of them. You should get 2 watts per gallon of 6500 K fluorescent lights, that will give you a low/medium tech tank. The more plants you give it the less likely you'll be to have algae outbreaks. If you do have algae and don't want to do CO2 diffusion, you can dose with Seachem's Flourish Excel to keep it away.





In addition to the plants you listed, also consider fast growers like water wisteria and water sprite to suck up the most toxins and nutrients, anubias for easy care plants, and crypts for their diverse textures, shapes, and subtle colours.





The most common stocking guideline is the inch per gallon rule. It applies to slim-bodied fish like you mentioned, and applies to the fishes' adult size.





Not everyone agrees with this rule, in fact it's more of a guideline, but it's the best way, in my opinion, to keep your nitrogen cycle healthy. The nitrogen cycle of course is the most important part of tank health.





Check out some of the planted tank photos at ratemyfishtank.com.
Reply:Well in a 15 gallon you need to consider the height the plants grow as well. I would try some plants like ludwigia or hornwort for a center piece with some java ferns and anubias. I would also try some dwarf grasses or ground covers for the front so you can see your fish sometimes. Amazon swords and vals might grow too tall for your tank. As well you need to consider buying something for CO2 and proper lighting, unless your plants all prefer low lights. For CO2 I would go with the hagen natural plant system, using your own mixture instead of the packets, we use white sugar to the first level in the canister, then we put 1/2 tsp of yeast, and if you have hard water you don't need baking soda, but if it is soft use about 1/4 tsp of that. Then fill it to the second level with luke warm water. We always give ours a good shake to mix it all together. The lower the light the less CO2 you will need, but when using CO2 also make sure there is sufficient O2 being produced as well. You can also try turning the CO2 off at night since plants don't consume it then. I would suggest doing so in a tank that size. As well you need to think about fertilizers, some plants require more of one mineral than others. So what I suggest is to use seachem flourish fertilizers. The Flourish excel is a great one and you can also use the iron and comprehensive to go along with it. Hope this helps and all of this will lead to healthier more beneficial plants.