Aquarium plants for medium light

The species, easiest first

1. 1

   Amazon Sword

   Echinodorus amazonicus

   • Easy
   • Medium light
   • No CO2 needed
   • Max 20"

   The Amazon Sword is the classic centerpiece plant: a big, hardy rosette that anchors the back of a community tank.

   $6.99 In stockCare profile →
2. 2

   Bacopa Caroliniana

   Bacopa caroliniana

   • Easy
   • Medium light
   • No CO2 needed
   • Max 12"

   Bacopa caroliniana is the slow-and-steady stem plant: thick succulent-like leaves on upright stalks that hold their shape between trims, ideal for orderly Dutch-style rows.

   $5.99 In stockCare profile →
3. 3

   Broad-Leaf Chain Sword

   Helanthium bolivianum 'Latifolius'

   • Easy
   • Medium light
   • No CO2 needed
   • Max 6"

   The Broad-Leaf Chain Sword is a small, grassy sword that spreads by runners into a low foreground-to-midground meadow, with leaves wider and a touch taller than its narrow-leaf relative.

   $6.99 In stockCare profile →
4. 4

   Dwarf Lily

   Nymphaea stellata

   • Easy
   • Medium light
   • CO2 beneficial
   • Max 16"

   The Dwarf Lily grows from a bulb into a rosette of arrow-shaped leaves that range from green to deep red and bronze depending on light.

   $5.99 Out of stockCare profile →
5. 5

   Dwarf Lobelia Cardinalis

   Lobelia cardinalis 'Dwarf'

   • Easy
   • Medium light
   • CO2 beneficial
   • Max 6"

   The dwarf cardinal plant grows rounded, almost succulent bright-green leaves on stout upright stems — the classic plant for the Dutch 'street', a diagonal walkway of identical plants through the foreground.

   $4.99 Out of stockCare profile →
6. 6

   Dwarf Sagittaria

   Sagittaria subulata

   • Easy
   • Medium light
   • No CO2 needed
   • Max 6"

   Dwarf Sagittaria is the low-tech answer to a grassy foreground: tougher than hairgrass, happy without CO2, and tolerant of hard, alkaline water.

   $6.99 Out of stockCare profile →
7. 7

   Golden Lloydiella

   Lysimachia nummularia 'Aurea'

   • Easy
   • Medium light
   • No CO2 needed
   • Max 12"

   Golden Lloydiella carries round, butter-yellow leaves up sturdy stems — an instant color contrast against standard green plants without any of the demands of red species.

   $5.99 In stockCare profile →
8. 8

   Green Ozelot Sword

   Echinodorus 'Ozelot Green'

   • Easy
   • Medium light
   • No CO2 needed
   • Max 18"

   The Green Ozelot Sword is a hardy hybrid sword with green leaves scattered with dark maroon-brown spots, giving a centerpiece plant a patterned, almost leopard-print look without demanding equipment.

   $7.99 In stockCare profile →
9. 9

   Helanthium Bolivianum 'Quadricostatus'

   Helanthium bolivianum 'Quadricostatus'

   • Easy
   • Medium light
   • CO2 beneficial
   • Max 6"

   Helanthium 'Quadricostatus' is a small chain-sword that sends out runners to form a bright green grassy carpet in the foreground or midground.

   $6.99 In stockCare profile →
10. 10

    Hygrophila Angustifolia

    Hygrophila corymbosa 'Angustifolia'

    • Easy
    • Medium light
    • No CO2 needed
    • Max 24"

    Willow Hygro grows long, narrow leaves that arch and sway in the current like a submerged willow — the easiest way to add motion to a tall background.

    $5.99 In stockCare profile →
11. 11

    Juncus Repens

    Juncus repens

    • Easy
    • Medium light
    • CO2 beneficial
    • Max 8"

    Juncus repens is a true aquatic rush — stiff, grassy blades that creep and angle through the midground, adding a wild meadow texture no stem or carpet plant replicates.

    $6.99 In stockCare profile →
12. 12

    Kleiner Bar Sword

    Echinodorus 'Kleiner Bar'

    • Easy
    • Medium light
    • CO2 beneficial
    • Max 12"

    Kleiner Bar is a compact, narrow-leaved sword whose new growth flushes red and copper, staying smaller than the big Amazon-type swords so it fits midground positions in moderate tanks.

    $8.99 In stockCare profile →
13. 13

    Ludwigia Palustris

    Ludwigia palustris

    • Easy
    • Medium light
    • CO2 beneficial
    • Max 10"

    Ludwigia palustris is a compact, small-leaved red stem that colors up at lower light than almost any other red plant — solid medium light produces rusty red tops even without CO2.

    $5.99 In stockCare profile →
14. 14

    Ludwigia Repens

    Ludwigia repens

    • Easy
    • Medium light
    • CO2 beneficial
    • Max 20"

    Ludwigia repens is the easiest red stem plant in the hobby — coppery-red undersides even in modest setups, deepening to full red as light increases.

    $5.99 In stockCare profile →
15. 15

    Marble Queen Radican Sword

    Echinodorus cordifolius 'Marble Queen'

    • Easy
    • Medium light
    • No CO2 needed
    • Max 18"

    The Marble Queen is a variegated radican sword, splashing cream and white across broad, spade-shaped green leaves — a centerpiece plant that needs no CO2, just deep substrate and steady root feeding.

    $9.89 In stockCare profile →
16. 16

    Moneywort

    Bacopa monnieri

    • Easy
    • Medium light
    • No CO2 needed
    • Max 12"

    Moneywort is a hardy, undemanding stem plant with small, rounded, succulent light-green leaves along upright stalks — a tidy, brighter-green alternative to Bacopa caroliniana.

    $5.99 In stockCare profile →
17. 17

    Narrow-Leaf Chain Sword

    Helanthium tenellum

    • Easy
    • Medium light
    • CO2 beneficial
    • Max 4"

    The narrow-leaf chain sword is the fastest natural lawn for a medium-light tank: grass-like rosettes that fire off runner after runner until the foreground is a meadow.

    $6.99 In stockCare profile →
18. 18

    Pearl Weed

    Hemianthus glomeratus

    • Easy
    • Medium light
    • CO2 beneficial
    • Max 8"

    Pearl Weed is the shape-shifter of aquascaping: trimmed hard it creeps into a tight carpet, left taller it builds dense bright-green mounds and hedges, all on tiny paired leaves.

    $6.99 In stockCare profile →
19. 19

    Red Ozelot Sword

    Echinodorus 'Ozelot'

    • Easy
    • Medium light
    • CO2 beneficial
    • Max 18"

    Red Ozelot Sword is prized for its dramatic foliage: reddish-brown leaves freckled with darker maroon spots, like an animal print, that hold up well even in moderate light.

    $7.99 In stockCare profile →
20. 20

    Red Root Floaters

    Phyllanthus fluitans

    • Easy
    • Medium light
    • No CO2 needed
    • Max 1"

    Red Root Floaters are the showpiece floating plant: under strong light the leaves flush deep red and the trailing crimson roots match.

    $10.99 In stockCare profile →
21. 21

    Red Rubin Sword

    Echinodorus 'Red Rubin'

    • Easy
    • Medium light
    • CO2 beneficial
    • Max 20"

    Red Rubin Sword is a large rosette plant whose broad lance-shaped leaves emerge deep wine-red and mature to a reddish-bronze, making it a striking centerpiece for bigger tanks.

    $8.99 In stockCare profile →
22. 22

    Red Tiger Lotus

    Nymphaea zenkeri

    • Easy
    • Medium light
    • No CO2 needed
    • Max 12"

    Red Tiger Lotus erupts from a bulb into a fountain of burgundy, tiger-streaked leaves — the easiest deep-red focal plant in the hobby, needing no CO2 to color up.

    $4.89 In stockCare profile →
23. 23

    Rotala Rotundifolia

    Rotala rotundifolia

    • Easy
    • Medium light
    • CO2 beneficial
    • Max 20"

    Rotala rotundifolia is the standard background stem of nature-style aquascaping: fast, forgiving, and quick to form the soft pink-orange bushes seen behind iwagumi stone work.

    $5.99 In stockCare profile →
24. 24

    Salvinia Cucullata

    Salvinia cucullata

    • Easy
    • Medium light
    • No CO2 needed
    • Max 1"

    Salvinia cucullata is a floating fern whose paired leaves fold upward into little cupped pockets, giving it a distinctive bead-like texture quite different from the flat, hairy Salvinia minima.

    $8.99 In stockCare profile →
25. 25

    Salvinia Minima

    Salvinia minima

    • Easy
    • Medium light
    • No CO2 needed
    • Max 1"

    Salvinia minima is a small floating fern whose fuzzy, water-repellent leaf pairs spread into a quilted surface mat — large enough to net out easily, unlike duckweed, but just as effective at shading and nitrate export.

    $6.99 In stockCare profile →
26. 26

    Staurogyne Repens

    Staurogyne repens

    • Easy
    • Medium light
    • CO2 beneficial
    • Max 4"

    Staurogyne repens is a compact, slow-growing bush plant that stays under a few inches — the easiest path to a structured green foreground without committing to a true carpet.

    $6.99 In stockCare profile →
27. 27

    Water Lettuce

    Pistia stratiotes

    • Easy
    • Medium light
    • No CO2 needed
    • Max 3"

    Water Lettuce floats velvety, ribbed rosettes with long feathery roots that fish fry and shrimp treat as nursery habitat, while the plant itself strips nitrates faster than almost anything else in the tank.

    $6.99 In stockCare profile →
28. 28

    Alternanthera Reineckii 'Rosanervig'

    Alternanthera reineckii 'Rosanervig'

    • Medium
    • Medium light
    • CO2 beneficial
    • Max 12"

    Rosanervig is the variegated form of Alternanthera reineckii: the same pink-to-magenta leaves, but threaded with pale, almost white veins that read like neon under good light.

    $6.99 In stockCare profile →
29. 29

    Aponogeton Ulvaceus

    Aponogeton ulvaceus

    • Medium
    • Medium light
    • CO2 beneficial
    • Max 24"

    Aponogeton ulvaceus grows from a bulb into a fountain of translucent, ruffled light-green leaves that can fill the back of a large tank quickly.

    $6.99 Out of stockCare profile →
30. 30

    Cryptocoryne Parva

    Cryptocoryne parva

    • Medium
    • Medium light
    • CO2 beneficial
    • Max 3"

    Cryptocoryne parva is the smallest of the crypts, forming tight little rosettes of narrow green leaves just a couple of inches tall — one of the few crypts usable as a true foreground plant.

    $6.99 Out of stockCare profile →
31. 31

    Dwarf Hairgrass

    Eleocharis parvula

    • Medium
    • Medium light
    • CO2 beneficial
    • Max 4"

    Dwarf Hairgrass forms the classic grassy lawn of iwagumi layouts, spreading by runners into a field of fine green blades.

    $4.99 In stockCare profile →
32. 32

    Echinodorus Fancy Twist

    Echinodorus 'Fancy Twist'

    • Medium
    • Medium light
    • No CO2 needed
    • Max 14"

    Fancy Twist is a hybrid sword grown for its dramatically curled and rippled leaves, with new growth flushing pink or red over a green, lightly speckled base.

    $7.99 In stockCare profile →
33. 33

    Hydrocotyle Tripartita

    Hydrocotyle tripartita

    • Medium
    • Medium light
    • CO2 beneficial
    • Max 4"

    Hydrocotyle tripartita is a fast, versatile creeper with small three-lobed, clover-like leaves on wiry stems that can be grown as a low foreground carpet, a midground bush, or trailing over hardscape.

    $6.99 Out of stockCare profile →
34. 34

    Micro Sword

    Lilaeopsis novae-zelandiae

    • Medium
    • Medium light
    • CO2 beneficial
    • Max 3"

    Micro Sword forms a grassy foreground carpet of short, flat blades — broader and a touch more lush-looking than hairgrass — spreading by runners across the substrate.

    $6.99 Out of stockCare profile →
35. 35

    Mint Charlie

    Micromeria brownei

    • Medium
    • Medium light
    • CO2 beneficial
    • Max 10"

    Mint Charlie is a bright-green stem plant with small, rounded, mint-scented leaves that bring a fresh light-green tone to the midground.

    $5.99 In stockCare profile →
36. 36

    Monte Carlo

    Micranthemum tweediei 'Monte Carlo'

    • Medium
    • Medium light
    • CO2 beneficial
    • Max 2"

    Monte Carlo is the most achievable true carpeting plant: round, bright-green leaves that creep along the substrate and form a dense lawn.

    $5.99 In stockCare profile →
37. 37

    Red Flame Sword

    Echinodorus 'Red Flame'

    • Medium
    • Medium light
    • CO2 beneficial
    • Max 14"

    The Red Flame Sword is a compact hybrid sword whose leaves are heavily mottled with deep red and burgundy over green, putting sword-plant color at a midground scale.

    $8.99 In stockCare profile →
38. 38

    Riccia

    Riccia fluitans

    • Medium
    • Medium light
    • CO2 beneficial
    • Max 2"

    Riccia is technically a liverwort, and it leads a double life: left alone it floats as a tangle of bright forked ribbons, but tied over flat stones under strong light and CO2 it becomes the famous pearling 'Riccia stone' carpet that Takashi Amano built nature aquascaping around.

    $6.99 Out of stockCare profile →
39. 39

    Madagascar Lace Plant

    Aponogeton madagascariensis

    • Advanced
    • Medium light
    • CO2 beneficial
    • Max 20"

    The Madagascar Lace Plant grows leaves that are pure latticework — a skeleton of veins with open windows between them, unlike anything else in the hobby.

    $7.99 In stockCare profile →