Growing Plants Out Of The Water

[saltwater]

I have a 20 gallon tank, hopefully it will be planted. I have very hard tap water with a pH around 8.2 so I plan on housing a figure 8 puffer as it wil do fine in freshwater so long as there is a high hardness and pH.

I plan on having the plants grow out of the top of the tank, what plants look the best when the grow over the top of the water line? What ones will flower? Will they absorb some c02 from the air? what do african tiger lotus look like when grown out of water?

 

[Graeme Edwards]

Most plants will reach for the surface so they can flower to reproduce, its not often seen in the planted hobby.
Off the top of my head Lilly of different sorts produce the pads and flowerer's but ive never grown Lilly's to flower, Nuphar japonica has a really nice flower but from what i understand it can be quite hard to grow, heres a few to look out for

Types of Lillys.......

Nuphar japonica
Nymphaea lotus (zenkeri)
Nymphaea pubescens
Barclaya longifolia

Floating........

Phyllanthus fluitans
Pistia stratiotes
Salvinia natans
Eichhornia crassipes


Others.......

Echinodorus martii (maior)
most Echinodorus sp will through up flowers to the surface if they are healthy.
Zosterella dubia
Cyperus helferi ( very nice rush!)


Really most plants will reach for the surface, I would say allot of stem plants are worth looking at, the only problem is that stem plants that reach for the surface tend to go very leggy and unattractive below the water.

When they grow immersed they take Co2 from the air as there is more available to them.