I don't like my hornwort

[gale]

A while back I got some bunched hornwort from aquariumplants.com. I don't like it-my tank is full of those needles, both on top and on the gravel. My suck up tube keeps getting clogged with it and as fast as I clean it, it gets clogged again. When I do water changes I try to get as much of the needles as I can but can't get them all and when I do the next water change, it's bad again. Am I doing something wrong? Are the plants dying or is this normal? I am seriously thinking of taking them all out and getting just broadleaf plants. But I have dalmatian mollies that will probably have fry and I know the hornwort is good for them to hide in.

more info: the hornwort is bunched and I left it in bunches with the metal weights, and it is sitting on top of my gravel. Would it be better to take it out of all of the weights and let it float? I do have one bunch of it floating and it looks a little healthier but I suspect it still sheds leaves.

 

[Da_Oz]

you need yo unroll it. either let it float on top if no bottom plants. Or tie it down on the bottom end. You can also trim it to fit in your tank. If you look at it you can tell what is the top or the bottom by the way the leaves point they will point up. The problem is the middle is not getting any light, so it is dieing.

 

[gale]

Ok thanks. I'm going to take it all out, trim off the gross stuff, and just let it float in one corner and see how that works out. I might end up pitching half of it or maybe give it to the lfs.

 

[guppygirl]

Hmmm...
You may not have enough light. How big is your tank, and how many watts of light do you have??

 

[elgecko]

It is not normal for hornwort to loose its leaves.
I use hornwort in my tank and push the stem into the gravel. When it gets too long I just pull it out and trim the bottom and reinsert the stem back into the gravel. Since the plant grows no roots it does not disturb the plant at all.

 

[gale]

Hmmm...
You may not have enough light. How big is your tank, and how many watts of light do you have??

It's a 20 long but I don't know what the wattage is. I purposely got low light plants because I know there isn't much light in the tank or in the room that it's in. I am planning to get a light that is meant for planted tanks though-the one in there is just a plain flourescent lamp.

 

[guppygirl]

It's a 20 long but I don't know what the wattage is. I purposely got low light plants because I know there isn't much light in the tank or in the room that it's in. I am planning to get a light that is meant for planted tanks though-the one in there is just a plain flourescent lamp.

Do you know what wattage the bulb is? You could go by the watts-per-gallon rule, in which case 2-4 wpg is optimal. Low light plants are anything below that, more like 1-2 wpg. But the higher the better!
I think a 20 long is great for plants because there isn't much depth for the light to travel.
Usually losing the lower leaves is a sign of low light, and I guess your hornwort is telling you it needs more light.
HTH!!
Robin

 

[gale]

I looked but I will have to remove the bulb to find out. I'll have to do it when dh is around since it's a little awkward to hold the fixture plus take the bulb out. I'll probably do it when I go to replace it. I do know it's just a regular flourescent bulb from the light bulb aisle. Probably the cheap kind.

I removed all of my hornwort (it loosely filled a 3 gallon bucket almost half full. think I had too much? ) and then cut off some pieces to float in the tank. I vacuumed up as much of the dead stuff as I could doing a 25% water change. There's still more in there and I suspect it's contributing to my ammonia problem-it's been about .25 for a couple of days. Tomorrow I'll probably do a 15% change and vacuum more of the plant matter up. I might take the rest of the floating stuff out too. I just don't like it anymore. Expensive lesson learned-I bought it online and the shipping was spendy.