water hyacinths

[roliva]

I found this interesting article:

http://www.koivet.com/plants/hyacinth.html

(Sorry, I didn't know how to paste it as a link)

Anyway, sounds like a pretty hardy plant in an outdoor tropical pond (or indoor pond) requiring full sun and would make a good biological filter for an aquarium!!!

Has anyone ever tried to grow these in an aquarium and how much lighting would you need?

roliva

[roliva]

Oh it did post it as a link...good.

[kveeti]

“Full sun” is the key here. In full sun, outside, I had one plant overtake a half-barrel in less than a month. In some shade, they did not multiply as readily, nor bloom. I tried to over-winter them once inside and was unsuccessful as far as the plant goes. On the brighter side, I had used vacuumed gravel water from my tank for nutrients for it, and that yielded a whole whack of zebra danio fry, that did very well in the yucky, unfiltered, unheated water the hyacinths were in. The tank I tried the plants in did not have enough light. My best guess is you would need at least 3 wpg.

A problem I see in aquariums is that the tank would have to be very big (+70 gals) because the root system on those things are massive and dense, it would certainly cut down on free swimming space. It would have to be open-top or have a high canopy if you wanted them to bloom; they sit pretty high up on the water.

[RTR]

I have had no luck with over-wintering this plant in tanks, even under a 4-tube fixture over a 40-long tank. It was still not enough light IMHO.