BW plants???

[Mynn]

So far in my brackish, my prettiest and favorite of all time is the tiger lotus. If you have brackish you should look in to getting this plant. I bought mine at aquariumplants.com. Mine arrived as little bulbs and once they started sprouting in a few weeks, they did not stop! So pretty!!

Also Dwarf Sagittaria has made nice ground cover and is constantly sprouting runners.

I've also had great luck with Cryptocoryne wendtii and have had the same plant for many, many years. It survived a move from a 10 gal, to a 20 gal and is now making babies in my 75gal. This plant was originally fresh and is now brackish and has survived 2 pH crashes. Really hardy!!

I have 2 wpg and never dosed carbon until recently in the 75g I've been using Excel carbon.

[my name is mike]

Mynn --- what is your SG ??? -- thanks for the new plants i have not considered those , but would love to have a gound cover plant! -- how long have you had success with these?

[mikeosoft]

I'm also in the planning process of a brackish planted tank. The plant expert at my LFS recommended Tiger Lotus as a possibility, after some research, it seems to be true. I'm also curious to your SG, I'm considering the very low end, like 1.003.

[Mynn]

I generally run at about 1.006.

The lotus and dwarf sag grow like crazy at 2wpg and both are awesome plants!!!

[Mynn]

This tank is about a year old. The lotus and dwarf sag I've had for about 6 mos? The crypt as stated I've had forever!! It's probably the prettiest plant in my tank.

You really need to check out plantgeek.net. It's an excellent resource for planted tanks!

I bought my tiger lotus and sag online at aquariumplants.net. The crypt I bought at petsmart I believe.

[my name is mike]

thank mynn -- i am excited about those new plants -- tried to look for them this weekend but no luck ,, guess ill have to order online -- i have also ordered from that site and its awesome -- everything i got looked great -- do you have any pics of your tank >>?

mikeosoft -- if you are going for 1.003, i believe you have a few more options - check out these 2 sites if you havent already found them :

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/BrackishSubW ... plants.htm

http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=143235

[Mynn]

Good luck! Brackish is so fun!

I have the most recent pics on my camera phone. After I re-aquascape this aquarium I'll be sure to post some pics. It's ADA style with black aquasoil in the left back corner and in the right back corner. In the middle is just plain sand. It turned out nicely and gives fish open area to swim. The dwarf sag keeps expanding in to the sand and I'm trying to keep that area clear! I swear there's a new runner every day.

My biggest problem is background plants. My water sprite was AMAZING but eventually grew into pretty much a stem plant that wasn't very interesting to look at. It took up half my tank! I trimmed it back and it died. I still have tiny bits of it i'm trying to regrow. The wisteria does the same thing -- it grows out to the top of the tank and the bottom leaves fall off so it looks very sticky. I guess I need more work on my pruning to keep my plants from getting too tall.

[mikeosoft]

I've seen those sites, unfortunately there's not a whole lot out there in terms of literature on BW plants. I'm going to be setting up a 50gal brackish planted (36x18x19) with a 96watt Coralife fixture and DIY CO2. I was hoping to get started this week but our Seahorses bred for the first time and caring for the fry is a full time job.

Here's another good site that I found, they have a pretty extensive listing on plants that will tolerate brackish conditions.
http://www.plantgeek.net/plantguide.php

[Mynn]

Oh, I forogt to add that I put flourite below the aquasoil. The problem is that sometimes the flourite gets mixed in with the aquasoil and it looks funny!! The plants seem to really like it though!!

OMG seashorse fry!!! I bet they are sooo cute!!!

[mikeosoft]

They're very cute, only about 5mm long. I've been doing 50% water changes twice per day and hatching baby brine shrimp every 24 hours trying to keep them alive! We've lost 8 of them so far, but there's still 40 or 50 left. From my research it seems the weak ones usually die off within the first couple weeks, much of the time less than 25% actually live (if any). We weren't expecting it yet so I'll be thrilled if any make it.

Anyways, back on topic!

I bought a bunch of that eco-complete substrate to use. Hopefully its as good as I've heard.

[Iliveinazoo]

This is an old topic i know but it seems to be the best post for my question.

I have a figure 8 tank that varies between 1.004 and 1.006 (usually 1.006) with Bacopa Monnieri, Java Fern, Java Moss, Tiger Lotus, Samalous Valerandi and Apongenton Crispus. I dose dry salts for Macros and Micros and DIY CO2 (gas depot) with 1.5WPG.
All of the plants are growing slowly (recently had to cut back on the nitrate dosing because the plants weren't taking up very much of it and the levels rocketed!) and seem ok apart from the Crispus and the tiger lotus leaves have pin holes in them (i have upped the pottassium to hopefully combat it).

My GH test does not work in the tank because of the salinity but i recently tested the KH and was shocked to see that it has reduced so much; my test kit states that the optimum level is between 105 and 125 but it has dropped to 70 and my. I add calcium and magnesium every week but it hasn't halted the slow down! Does anyone else have this problem in their planted brackish tanks? The reason that i'm worrying so much is that I have fiddler crabs in another tank that i have just set up with samalous valerandi and a grass type plant that i can't quite remember the name of (brassilineas I think - will have to look it up!) and KH is directly related to calcium which the crabs need. I don't want the crabs to suffer because I like the look of planted tanks.

Does anybody have a brackish planted tank and suffered a drop in KH? how was it overcome?

[my name is mike]

i am embarassed to say that i have never tested my KH -- my tank has done best when i have left it alone and just done 50% water changes once a week -- dosing ferts, adding co2 and all that stuff just gave me crazy algae problems (probably because i wasnt testing the right stuff, like KH) --

i have also found that when my SG gets over 1.005 a lot of the plants struggle. i am keeping figure 8s so i want to keep it close to 1.005, but i err on lower side (1.003-1.004ish)

im not familiar with all the plants in your list, but i dont see any of the typical fast growers, this will help suck up your nitrates and out compete algae - hornwort, vallis and anarchis

[Iliveinazoo]

Appaaently the Crispus is a fast grower but it isn't particularly in mine, just steady i'd say.
I might order Hornwort next time. I almost did a couple of months ago but the pictures of it that i have seen don't do it much justice. does it look good in an aquarium or is it there solely to eat up nitrates?

Do your plants grow well without any sort of fertilisers?

[my name is mike]

yeah, hornwort isnt amazing looking -- i found that if you try to anchor it to the bottom, the bottom part starts to die, so i just let if float, or anchor in some rockwork near the top of the aquarium -- its good for my smaller, over-lit 20 gal tank with 65 watts of CF lighting on it (the hornwort sucks up nutrients and provides some shade)

my plants dont grow great, but steady -- when i was using ferts, i would have some plants doing great, but then out of nowhere id have a crazy algae bloom. so, ive kinda given up on good growth for the moment -- that has included cutting ferts and also cutting my lights to just a few hours a day (maybe 6) -- they are compact flourescents with reflectors, so the light is fairly intense (and the main reason for my algae battles i think)

everyone else though says to use ferts and co2 and all that good stuff -- and if you are dedicated to monitoring them, i think it can work great - i was just unsucessful --

[xmikebrock]

i have hornwort in my brackish tank, my SGs at a 1.007
it browned a little, but it grows so fast you can just trim it