long term terrestrial plants out of your aquarium... what's your preferred method???

Magnum Man23 138

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I use several methods... hang on the side pots ( I loosely fill with ceramic filter media to hold the plant in place ), I have plastic clips that I started using for lucky bamboo, and graduated to using silicone bands, and "S" bent heavy stainless wire, and I have just stuck vines in the top loosely, and with the hoya vines I've been starting them, by slipping the stem, through the spring coil, on some stainless clips... I've been doing terrestrial plants for years, I was doing it in my tanks 30 years ago, before I got out of the hobby, and again, starting 3 years ago when I returned to the hobby... I have pothos vines that have grown across, and dropped roots into 3 or 4 different tanks... in fact, this is how it started 30 years ago, a potted house plant, dropping roots into an aquarium, and my terrestrial aquarium plant journey began...

I think it makes a big difference, between vining plants like pothos, philodendron, and hoya, ( BTW, I have variegated and normal pothos, and gold, variegated and normal philodendron, and 4 or 5 varieties of hoya )... and non vining plants , like peace lily's, chinese evergreen, lucky bamboo, and a dozen other non vining plants I've tried over the years...

no matter the plant of choice, if you grow them long enough, there will be maintenance involved... I added a bracket on the wall of my work area behind my main group of tanks, to pull out and hang my hang on pots on, for maintenance... I rarely use it, mostly because of lack of time, before I retired... but the bracket is pretty worthless for the vining plants, since they grow well, and have even transitioned floors of my house... maintenance has proven difficult for them, but at some point, they have to get hacked up, and started over... but non vining plants in hang on pots are much more serviceable although it still requires the time... this huge peace lily, badly needs to be dead headed and the roots trimmed...

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this is a 45 gallon tall, which is 24 inches deep, and this big peace lily has taken over half the aquarium, in a couple years...

this is a group of peace lilies, also in hang on pots, which also badly need to be dead headed, but a silver dollar in this tank, has kept the roots to a manageable length, so they'll be easier to work on...

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this is a standard 55 gallon tank... which also has pothos vines in it...

vining plants create their own issues, as mentioned above, as they have grown clear to the other side of the house, and while pothos vines have been generally accepted as a good aquarium plant, I have come to like the plant a lot less over several years... I don't like that they drop leaves in the middle of the vine, and never grow them back, leaving bare green vines in the middle of the plant... I don't have philodendron by itself, so I'm not sure, but think it shares the bald vine trait with the pothos... they are typically mixed in tanks with pothos... these 2 plants are very aggressive growers, which we think we want, when adding the 1st sprig, to a naked aquarium... they are good filters, and fish habitat, but you pay for that with maintenance needs... I'm slowly switching to hoya, because of that, this is pothos roots left unchecked or trimmed for a couple years...

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also a 45 gallon tall... I have added a shoal of silver dollars , to work on the roots, until I do a major chop on this tank... this tank, is the one, that the pothos vine, has grown half way across the house, and had gone though a cold air vent, and is growing on another floor of the house... I kind of think that's cool, so I'll try to be careful during it's impending hair cut...

I'm just curious to see what have others done, what are your methods, and maintenance, and what are you growing out of your fish tanks???
 
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I recently had to chop away the roots of a peace lily, as they'd taken over 1/3 of a 4 foot tank. I divided the plant in two and moved the two. I have lots of Pothos vines with their bases held in place by coated garden wire. I used to use containers, but the fish like to breed in the roots. So free range roots it is.
Chinese evergreen and snake plants thrive in HOB filters.
I've used Boston ferns in the past, but they produce a lot of debris.
I have 3 Nepenthes (pitcher plants), species unknown, in dirt pots in an inch or so of water in my bog tank. They have been going strong for a year, and put out a lot of traps. Their tank also has calla lilies, and hordes of Bacopa flowers out the back of the tank by a window, hanging down.
I used to have yellow tickseed (Coreopsis) blooming all winter, but my tries in this house haven't been successful.
I've grown basil several times, roots in leaves out.
 
I use home made glass pots with a long slit. I put hygrolon fabric through the slit to soak water into the pot with mineral substrate. I clip some moss or water fern onto the hygrolon for a better look. Fish love to hide behind the fabric:
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Some plants simply hang on an edge
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we didn't plant this here, the plant is behind an end table, in the living room, and 8-10 feet from an east patio door... it just showed up one day
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@Gertrudae ... is that an umbrella tree / money plant, in the 2nd picture???
 
I currently have three 3-D printed "pothos pots" that are in my 120. They are basically 2"x3"x3" perforated pots that sit on the top edge of the tank, keeping the roots in the water.

Tomorrow I will be setting up a large HOB on my 120 and filling it with a dwarf papyrus plant.
I will be doing the same in my 60 gallon with a slightly smaller HOB and a dwarf papyrus, and will be repeating on my 33 gallon with a HOB and my white pickerel rush plant.
The papyrus and rush are pond plants (still counts as terrestrial as they can't grow fully submerged) as I wanted plants that are pet safe since the 120 and 60 are easily accessible by my cats. The 125 isn't as easily accessible so they don't try to mouth the pothos.

My first time trying HOB as plant holders instead of filters. Figured it should work as the motors will provide water flow and the container will keep the plants in place without affecting the lids like the 3D printed containers do as they sit on the inside of the tank vs the outside like the HOB' do..
 
I have some apparent dwarf papyrus given as a gift in a potted arrangement for Costco, of all sellers. I'm thinking that as the season advances, I may bring it off the back deck and try to make it part of a tank. I may use the shell of a dearly departed slender Hob hung inside the tank, with the motor and works removed.

What do people think if I just put the roots directly into a shallow tank instead, as I would a small bamboo (they thrive here)? I have about a week before I have to think about saving this flower arrangement, and I'd like to get some spots chosen. It seems too tall for the usual hang on pots.
 
I have one lucky bamboo stalk growing out of my nano tank, in a corner window ( I originally used it to attach the heater cord, and air line for the sponge filter, to keep them in place ) the plant has grown to within 1 foot of the ceiling in that room, and the flag fish have made a nice den in the roots at the bottom of the tank…

not sure if @GaryE … meant real bamboo or not??? I did try a few different varieties of real bamboo in hobs in my hillstream tank, and they didn’t last… unsure if they wouldn’t adapt to those conditions, if there was not enough overhead light, or not enough fertilizer ( I don’t like to add fertilizers to my fish tanks )… so I have maintained the lucky bamboo, which leaves out both above and below the water
 

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