Good Emersed plants?

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street cypher
Posts: 3
Joined: Mar 31, 2006 1:54 am

Good Emersed plants?

Post by street cypher »

Hi all,

I'm VERY new to the world of plants. I only have a small plant (i have no idea what it is, i bought it at home depot) thats doing great, its on my desk in my room.

Anyways, my question is, i have a large aquarium, 180g 6' X 2' X 2', with a 60g sump running beside it. I would like to know what commonly available plants (i live in Vancouver BC), would work well in this application.

Some background info.
-The substrate will be lava rock,
-the lighting will be something along these lines
http://www.bigalsonline.ca/catalog/prod ... 843;pcid2=
-there will be no direct sunlight hitting the plant.

There will be high water flow ~700gph going through the substrate. I don't know what information to include to help, but let me know if i didn't provide anything important.
JoshS
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Joined: Oct 11, 2001 8:00 pm
USDA Zone: 4
Location: Independence, IA
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Post by JoshS »

I'm not well versed in aquarium plants, but 65 watts of light over a tank as large as this will result in very low light levels. I'm really not sure that is enough light to keep low light plants happy.

In any event, here are a couple articles on plants that do ok in low light intensity.

http://www.aquabotanic.com/lowlightlist.htm

http://www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_lowlight.php

I would suggest doing some research on planted aquariums before investing too much time and money into this. There are basic things all plants need to live and you will be much better off if you have at least a basic understanding of this to begin with. It will at least give you somewhere to start if/when you run into a problem.

Good luck!
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street cypher
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Joined: Mar 31, 2006 1:54 am

Post by street cypher »

Thanks Josh,

I don't think my initial post was very clear. The actual aquarium has many species of low light plants.

The plants i'm looking for will be going into the sump, where they will have access to air. Sort of a mini pond.
The main reason i want to add emersed plants is because AFAIK, they are better at soaking up pollutants created by the fish. Is Water hyacinth commonly available?
JoshS
Posts: 1134
Joined: Oct 11, 2001 8:00 pm
USDA Zone: 4
Location: Independence, IA
Contact:

Post by JoshS »

Ok...I think we are on the same page, now!

I'm still worried about the lighting, but you could try frog-bit, azolla, or salvinia...all small, floating plants. Water hyacinths are easily found at a pond store or good nursery, but they need good light. They are pretty difficult to keep alive indoors.

If you want to try a rooted plant, dwarf umbrella palms are fairly durable plants.

If you have shallow water (6" deep or less) parrot's feather would probably do well.

That should give you a start. I don't know as emergent plants are better at nutrient uptake than submerged plants. Emergent plants make up the majority of pond plantings and we still like to see people make use of submerged plants, like anacharis. Then again, floaters are extremely prolific and great nutrient mops. There is always a limiting factor that determines how many nutrients a plant can utilize and in turn, how fast a plant grows. In this case, I think light will be the limiting factor.
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street cypher
Posts: 3
Joined: Mar 31, 2006 1:54 am

Post by street cypher »

Wonderful,

I'll check out the plants suggested, thanks a lot!
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