Easy Growth Plants

[Miles]

Hopefully HarleyK can help me out on this one


We are setting up our shop to the public, and we would like to have a part of the system be a live planted section, for community fish. We have a main system that is plumbed with about 560g in Total.. 4 out of 8 of these tanks I would like to have planted.

I planned on using a fertilizer substrate (Flourite) as a base layer, with a layer of large grain sand over the top of that.. I have heard alot of confusion and speculation about what substrates plants grow in best, but I really like the aesthetic of sand, and I believe wild-caught fish enjoy it too, especially sand sifters.

Each tank will have 80 watts of lighting on it, ie: A dual 4ft fixture with 2 plant growth bulbs in it. The lighting will be set low as possible, to penetrate the water. The tanks are roughly 16-18" tall, so they are not deep by any means.

I planned on having some low-light plants such as Java Fern, and Java Moss..

My question is: What other low light/low Co2 plants would you suggest? I would of liked to use Swords plants, but I am unsure if their will be enough co2 and lighting for them.. I plan on having the water outlet be slightly submersed, so it dosn't create a massive gas exchange causing a huge depletion of Co2.

I used this same method before, but it was only a single planted tank on a 420g system. The single planted tank had 160w of lighting on it, but the swords plants grew like crazy and kept the nitrates from rising. For a substrate in that 'veggie sump', I used a fine sand and simply mixed it with laterite. When I pulled up the sword plants, they had HUGE root systems, bigger then I have ever seen before.
So possibly this could work? Pros.. Cons?

I am also going to be adding alot of planted driftwood in other tanks, which will include java fern and java moss as well. I have about 100lbs of Flourite to work with, as well as a 12lb bag of Florabase that I am hoping will be of good use as well..

I would also like to find a nice floating plant. I understand that most floating lilys will clog up my overflows, but some tanks are divided so plants like water lettuce won't even have a chance to clog up.. Perhaps a mixture of floating plants? Water lettuce, Elodea, and Hornwart? What suggestions would you have for floating plants?

The floating plants will likely be kept in tanks with NO rooted plants.. These are the tanks that will house larger catfish and cichlids, so floating plants will be the primary vegetation in that section.


Any other suggestions, ideas, pros/cons?

 

[HarleyK]

Hopefully HarleyK can help me out on this one

Howdy Miles,

That sounds like a truely fun project. So you have 8 tanks (4 to be planted), total 560 gal, that makes it 70 gal each. Right?

First of all: Great choice on the fertilizer and sand. I love that combo Also, fluorescent lights are perfect for the height of the tanks, you won't have any problems with that, either. I had 160 Watts on my old 80 gal, which sometimes was too much (green algae, I ended up having only 80 Watts on most of the day). I think you'll do great with 80 Watts each, especially if you stick to easy-to-care-for plants (which are my favorits )

I would definitely try sword plants (Echinodorus). I had one in my 10 gal with just a light bulb, it did very well even there (although it didn't reproduce like the ones in my old 80 gal with a bit better lighting). They're also fine w/o CO2. Furthermore, Cryptocoryne (I love C. wendtii, but there are also taller varieties out there with more structured leaves) will do great. Both root deep enough (as you also described) so that they will not be uprooted by fish. Just give them a couple of weeks to anchor in the sand before you add diggers. There are root stimulator tablets (by Dupla) if you're in a hurry or want to be on the very safe side. Vallisneria would do fine, but don't get V. gigantea for your tanks. Stick to what they call "Italian vallisneria". Java moss is a hit or miss. I had it grow like crazy, I had it die. Try it out. The java fern might take a while to actually grow, but it'll look fantastic on driftwood - or - even better: Let it grow on floating cork bark. java fern can grow above the surface without problems! And a floating forest is quite the sight. I had that years ago back in Germany. My personal favorite is Anubia (e.g. nana). You can bind then to driftwood, rocks, whatever, and they'll grow and look very (!) nice. They'll grow slowly, but it's well worth it - especially when they start to branch out, and some even bloom!

When it comes to floating plants, look at them from below before you add them to your tank. Hyacinths for example have ugly roots. The roots of water lettuce grow quite long, 10-12''. I throw them out when they get too big and keep the small offshoots. Or just cut the roots. You could also try Ceratopteris cornuta. They are often sold submersed but are extremely pretty when floating! I guess it depends on availability which one to pick. At least here in Kansas, the choices are not too great. And don't forget the java fern on floating cork bark option!

There are enough varieties of Echinodorus out there to add color, but for a unique shape look into Nymphaea lotus var. rubra. They don't necessarily need CO2, but a good light spectrum (which you seem to offer). They are the most delicate out of the bunch that I suggested, but they look great when they like where they live

I hope that helped a bit. Again: That's a fun project

HarleyK

 

[Miles]

How bout you drive over from Kansas with a bag full of plants

Thanks for the Info!

Makes me rest easy, as I was worried about the lighting/co2 configuration.. Looks like if I choose my plants wisely, then I will be good..

For the floating grasses, do you think Elodea, Anacharis, Hornwart or Frill would be okay choices? We uses hornwart previously as a nitrate sponge, but it makes the tanks so damn messy.. I was thinking of going with Elodea..

Looks like I am going tohave to get in contact with a provider of cheap, quality plants.. I was thinking ordering one of those 'Low-Light/Low-Co2' plant packages from a company that does variety packs.. We will see.. eventually I want it to look like a jungle of plants, similiar to the stunning petstore I visited in Bellingham.. He had plants coming out his ears! The store was a little messy, but the display was AWESOME! Heres a sample;

 

[HarleyK]

For the floating grasses, do you think Elodea, Anacharis, Hornwart or Frill would be okay choices? We uses hornwart previously as a nitrate sponge, but it makes the tanks so damn messy.. I was thinking of going with Elodea.

Howdy,

as far as I know, Anacharis is just a synonym for Elodea!? Same as Egeria - they're all the same. Three names for one plant. Actually, they prefer it a bit cooler than tropical. They may grow, and they may grow well, but chances are they won't. I've never had any luck with them. They're good in unheated goldfish tanks, though.

I am not sure what plant "frill" is. My primary aquarium language is Latin. And I couldn't find a good hint in Google, either.

Horwort is effective, but has the disadvantages you just mentioned.

Generally, I don't care for free floating leaved stems. It never looks very nice, in my eyes. It looks like they were uprooted and noone cared enough to put them back into the soil.

I forgot to suggest Hydrocotyle leucocephala. It looks like miniature water lilly leaves, but connected by horizontal stems. Extremely nice and easy to care for. No long roots (1''), the perfect plant! They sell it submerged, but it does muuuuch better floating!

HarleyK

 

[TaratronVaeVictus]

Not a floating plant, but most apto bulbs look damn stunning once they take off!

 

[tom h]

as far as the co2 goes try seachem's flourish excell i've had a lot of sucess with this it's a lot cheaper than a full blown co2 system to start up with apparently this is basically a liquid versin of the whole co2 injection system it may not be as quite efffective as the compressed gas systems but it has worked for me. rule of thumb is that the bigger the leaves on the plant the slower the growth any ferns will be slow growing, but hardy the " high light plants" like hygrow or pinnate plants will grow and propigate faster but require more maintenance. a good boook to look at (and keep in your store ) is aquarium plants manual by barrons it's a good how to manual it focuses more on the science behind raising plants than as an encylcopedia of specieces as i've seen most of the books on the market as.