Small, Basic Plant Questions

[Nosphaer]

Hey there,

I'm going to set up a freshwater tank soon, and I had a few questions, as a beginner to owning an aquarium and talking of aquatic plants altogether.

-What are some trustworthy brands of "super" glue that I can use for adhering plants to other materials, like driftwood? (In the sense that the glues are both waterproof and plant/creature friendly)

-Are plants, when in a healthy state, typically prone to giving off many drastically pH altering substances that could pose a threat to an aquarium's water and life, even after cycling?

-Excluding the "moss ball", are there a few nice looking FW-aquatic mosses that I could be pointed to?

-Are snails effective (or "too effective") for controlling the spread of plant growth?

-Because I'm a little bit of a fungus nerd, I have to ask just for kicks, does anyone think that, with the recent discovery of psathyrella aquatica, we may someday see mushrooms growing in aquariums, either alone or among aquatic creatures?


My thanks, to everyone who reads and hopefully replies. I'm new to all of this, and I think it's lovely to stock up on information before endeavoring to start a little aquatic ecosystem of my own. ^^

I'll just edit some little dashes on there, for separation.

 

[Jen]

Welcome! There is a wealth of knowledge on this site, I hope some more people chime in and give you some more opinions. I don't have all your answers, but I'll give it a go.

You can buy aquarium silicone that works well for adhering hard scape stuff together (creating a pile of rocks, gluing sand to pvc pipe.) I wouldn't recommend gluing plants down though. There are some plants that need to be attached to plants or wood to survive, but most people tie it down with fishing line or cotton thread until the roots attach and then it's on there good (Anubias, java fern and other mosses). I would think that using glue would suffocate the roots. To my knowledge, all other plants need to have their roots in the sand/gravel to be able to spread and grow. You couldn't attach a tomato plant to the brick of your house... it needs the nutrients provided by the soil.

Think of aquatic plants like any other plant... they take in nutrients to grow, and give off gas to aid us. Aquatic plants suck up the stuff in the water left over from fish waste and rotting food (and fertilizer) and give of oxygen. They don't affect the ph at all.

There are 3 mosses that are the most popular over here; Java moss, Christmas tree moss, and Fontinalis.

I haven't really used snails too much. I had an apple/mystery snail, but for looks not purpose. I found it did more for eating algae than eating plants. Fish will do that at a more noticeable rate. Perhaps others have had that though.

That is a very interesting idea. I can really see that looking beautiful in an aquarium. I hadn't heard of that discovery at all (not being a fungus nerd )

Hope that helps you out a bit

 

[Nosphaer]

Welcome! There is a wealth of knowledge on this site, I hope some more people chime in and give you some more opinions. I don't have all your answers, but I'll give it a go.

You can buy aquarium silicone that works well for adhering hard scape stuff together (creating a pile of rocks, gluing sand to pvc pipe.) I wouldn't recommend gluing plants down though. There are some plants that need to be attached to plants or wood to survive, but most people tie it down with fishing line or cotton thread until the roots attach and then it's on there good (Anubias, java fern and other mosses). I would think that using glue would suffocate the roots. To my knowledge, all other plants need to have their roots in the sand/gravel to be able to spread and grow. You couldn't attach a tomato plant to the brick of your house... it needs the nutrients provided by the soil.

Think of aquatic plants like any other plant... they take in nutrients to grow, and give off gas to aid us. Aquatic plants suck up the stuff in the water left over from fish waste and rotting food (and fertilizer) and give of oxygen. They don't affect the ph at all.

There are 3 mosses that are the most popular over here; Java moss, Christmas tree moss, and Fontinalis.

I haven't really used snails too much. I had an apple/mystery snail, but for looks not purpose. I found it did more for eating algae than eating plants. Fish will do that at a more noticeable rate. Perhaps others have had that though.

That is a very interesting idea. I can really see that looking beautiful in an aquarium. I hadn't heard of that discovery at all (not being a fungus nerd )

Hope that helps you out a bit

Thank you for replying!

I'd been seeing such use of thread throughout user posts here after posting this, and I'm glad you can affirm that for me... I always prefer to see nature working its magic rather than seeing my own alterations taking effect, so I'll probably go with natural means of helping my plants adhere.

I'd still potentially like snails to try keeping an ecosystem with khuli loaches, and to look rather cute at that, but I'm glad to have a little bit more knowledge of them, for I was looking at mystery and apple snails for my tank specifically o:

Thank you for pointing out those varieties of moss to me... I'll certainly be keeping an eye open for them.

 

[Jen]

I'm glad you hear you are a natural guy... you had me worried with talk of super glue!

Have a look on the net for the mosses. They are all a little different. I find christmas moss to look a little neater, where java gets messy and grows like a weed. You can achieve a great affect with mosses and plastic craft mesh

Khuli loaches are fantastic. I have 6 or 7 of them in my tank. They are however bottom feeders, and eat food remnants more than plants. They will turn over sand, but that's about all. I have never seen them up in my plants... they stay hidden most of the day and come out to eat

Keep in mind that I only had one snail at any given time. Do a bit of research on them and see if you can get them to do what you want.

 

[Nosphaer]

Oh, this is awesome. I had been wondering what the Christmas Tree Moss' name was, ever since I saw a picture of some. I instantly thought of pine. XD

And the khuli loaches will essentially eat the offspring of the snails, if I researched correctly, so they would be benefiting me through each other, unless that seems cruel. I'll keep at my research before I jump to any conclusions... Thank you!

 

[SO19Firearms]

You can use any Cyanoacrylate glue so long as it's just that. Java fern and Anubias are the obvious glueable candidates.

HTH

 

[Nosphaer]

You can use any Cyanoacrylate glue so long as it's just that. Java fern and Anubias are the obvious glueable candidates.

HTH

Ah, this is a good term to know. Thank you, and I'm sorry for the confusion. I should have specified that I knew that gluing is not for every plant in the top post.