Substrate for BW & Live plants

MOsborne05 · Post by **MOsborne05** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 11:15 am

Has anyone successfully kept live plants in brackish water, and if so, what kind of substrate did you use? I know I should use aragonite for brackish water, but flourite for live plants. Can live plants live in aragonite, or should I just use flourish??? Or can I mix the two?

Steelgeek · Post by **Steelgeek** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 2:02 pm

1) define the SG of brackish you are talking about. 1.002? 1.015? Big difference there.
2) While there are plenty of plants that can survive in brackish in the wild, all the ones available for hobbyists are FW. Some will survive, but not thrive (as in no new growth) in low brackish, but anything beyond 1.005 is unlikely.

To sum up many other people who have tried this experiment - Disappointing.

Jayhawk · Post by **Jayhawk** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 5:02 pm

My BW is at 1.005, and I'm having mixed success with plants.

Water sprite (the floating type) and duckweed both grow very well and I periodically have to throw some out. The duckweed looks totally normal (I like duckweed because it likes nitrates), but the water sprite, despite it's quick growth, looks a bit brownish on the older leaves.

Java moss is growing very slowly for me but looks good, and my java fern is also growning very slowly and WOULD look good if my figure 8 didn't keep biting hunks out of it.

I added corkscrew vals several weeks ago (maybe a month?). At first, they had significant die off, but they seem to be turning the corner and the new growth looks good and green...again though, they're not growing very fast.

YMMV,

Eric

Tihsho · Post by **Tihsho** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 6:19 pm

I have java fern with my GSPs who are in a 1.020 SG and its thriving really well

MOsborne05 · Post by **MOsborne05** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 8:12 pm

Low brackish, I'm planning on keeping a couple of figure 8's and bumblebee gobies. I was thinking of having ambulia, anubius nana, and dwarf hairgrass.

Jayhawk · Post by **Jayhawk** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 9:11 pm

I'd give it a try. I've tried one other plant but I don't know it's name that simply melted in the BW. All you can do is experiment.

Eric

MOsborne05 · Post by **MOsborne05** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 11:28 pm

What kind of substrate do you use, or would you suggest?? Aragonite? Flourite? Or a mixture of both, if its possible????

Jayhawk · Post by **Jayhawk** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 12:41 am

I use aragonite because I want to buffer my water. I really don't think you're going to have thriving plants in BW...and the fish appreciate the harder water.

Eric

MOsborne05 · Post by **MOsborne05** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 8:36 am

I actually don't want my plants to 'thrive', I mean I don't want them to grown out of control where I'd have to cut them back a lot. I like the look of live plants much better than plastic. I think that they would grow just enough to cover my tank, but not too fast.

Jayhawk · Post by **Jayhawk** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 10:16 am

That's about what I'm getting...although I bought small plants so it's taking a while. I need to cull some java fern from my FW tank, so I'll likely be "spiffing" up the BW tank with some of that.

Eric

MOsborne05 · Post by **MOsborne05** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 6:18 pm

I ordered some aragonite from Drs Foster & Smith, so that is what I am going to use. I got a new light today from the lfs, and I'm going to use liquid fertilizers. Hopefully it will work and my puffers won't eat them!

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Substrate for BW & Live plants

Substrate for BW & Live plants