Plant Selection Questions

[Miss Wiggle]

changing around the planting in my 10g just got a few questions and looking for suggestions.

at present i have a load of crypto wendetti with a red tiger lotus growing out of the middle covering most of the front right of the tank, a nice bit of bogwood and a small carpet of pogostemon helferi at the front left.

i have a clay based substrate called aqua grit (probably pants, but cheap cheap ) i just put in a load of seachem flourish root tabs and i dose daily with flourish excel and weekly with flourish.

behind the crypts is quite high flow so i need something fairly robust, i was looking at hygrophila corymbosa 'siamensis' on the AE website.... does anyone have experience with this plant? would it stand up to a decent flow?

i'm also looking for suggestions for a plant to go behind the pogostomen helferi.... something that would contrast nicely with the colour and is fairly bushy to hide the heater filter etc behind it.

thanking you in advance

 

[afroturf]

If as you say the flow rate is quite strong it is likely to cause the stem to bend in the direction of the flow and especially with the larger leaved stem plants eg Hygro corymbosa. I think it wolud be better to go with the flow rather than fight against it with a robust plants as i'm sure a they wouln't really like being battered by the flow.

You could either try and reduce the flow rate or use a rosette type plant such as a vallis, crypt balansae etc. i think that these would cope better in the conditions you surgest.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

If as you say the flow rate is quite strong it is likely to cause the stem to bend in the direction of the flow and especially with the larger leaved stem plants eg Hygro corymbosa. I think it wolud be better to go with the flow rather than fight against it with a robust plants as i'm sure a they wouln't really like being battered by the flow.

You could either try and reduce the flow rate or use a rosette type plant such as a vallis, crypt balansae etc. i think that these would cope better in the conditions you surgest.

hmmm could be right there.

the filter is a trickle filter built into the hood, the input comes through a powerhead which i can block off. so i only have two options,

1 - block the powerhead and then the trickle filter is really noisy but has bugger all flow

2 - unblock it and the filter's silent but there's quite a lot of flow across the back of the tank

it's been in set up 1 for ages as the tank used to house a betta but i found there was virtually no water movement at all and i was having problems with debris accumulating all over the tank, also it's on my bedside table so the constant trickling caused a problem! so i'd really rather have it in set up 2 with lots of flow.

vallis doesn't do well in my tank, it doesn't like the pH. I've also got a lot of crypts in already, would rather something a bit different.

could maybe go with something like an amazon sword (or rather a couple of them) if i could find a variety that stay quite small.... how do you think that would cope?

i could then put the hygro behind the pogostemon helferi there's much less flow there.

 

[afroturf]

A amazon sword or two would work fine to and there will certainly be one that fits your needs ie height. do you have any photos?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

only old ones

the fish sadly passed on and it's now home to microrasbora, the substrates been changed, the chain swords been replaced with the pgostemon helferi, crypts and lilly are still there but the crypts keep having babies so that's a bit fuller now, the rotalia and the other plant on the left (i forget the name) have now gone and i'm looking for replacements for them.

 

[Themuleous]

Thats a mad coloured betta! Almost looks computer generated in that pic!

Sam

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Thats a mad coloured betta! Almost looks computer generated in that pic!

Sam

he was beautiful

but sadly i think a prime example of why we should not inbreed fish to get fancy varieties.... he was very weak, would get poorly at the drop of a hat and eventually developed dropsy after the tank got moved and passed away. he only lived to about a year

 

[afroturf]

Now i've seen the tank i think that an anozon sword would be the best bet it would give a bifferent type of leaf shape to the other rather small leaved plants.

 

[Sibelius]

Have you considered Bacopa Australis or Limnophila Sessiflora?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Now i've seen the tank i think that an anozon sword would be the best bet it would give a bifferent type of leaf shape to the other rather small leaved plants.

what sort of amazon sword? I was looking through the tropica catalogue with Ian last night, most of the ones I like get massive!! also remember the only plants still in there from that pic is the crypts and lilly, none of which have especially small leaves!!

Have you considered Bacopa Australis or Limnophila Sessiflora?

the bacopa's a lot like the plant on the left in the pic, I had problems with that one as it got so tangle up in itself all the time, was a complete PITA tbh so I want to steer away from anything like that!! Not heard of the limnophila before, not mad keen on the look of it though, will do some research though.

(and yes i am always this picky )

 

[Dave Spencer]

How about Hemianthus Micranthemoides? It has a very small leaf that will make your tank appear larger.

Dave.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

How about Hemianthus Micranthemoides? It has a very small leaf that will make your tank appear larger.

Dave.

yeha i looked at that one, it's sort of like HC cuba but a stem plant right?

where would you put it? in the high flow bit on the right or low flow bit on the left?

i was also thinking about just using 1 plant to cover all of the back, thought it might be a bit simpler and therefore look bigger and better?? what do you think?

 

[Themuleous]

yeha i looked at that one, it's sort of like HC cuba but a stem plant right?

Dont say that Llj will have your guts for a garter! HC is a stem plant! Sorry its Friday! But yes MH is very much like HC just taller, just the leaves are slightly longer and thinner.

Sam

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeha i looked at that one, it's sort of like HC cuba but a stem plant right?

Dont say that Llj will have your guts for a garter! HC is a stem plant! Sorry its Friday! But yes MH is very much like HC just taller, just the leaves are slightly longer and thinner.

Sam

come on Sam, as if you really expect me to know that....... the sum total of my knowledge of HC is it's very small and has cost Ian a small fortune!

 

[Themuleous]

has cost Ian a small fortune!

Ditto!