Hornwort on lead OK

[CWO4GUNNER]

I have been waiting for the only plant I know how to grow when I was 16 and after getting back into the hobby after 34 years my LFS finally has some nice budding Hortwort in stock so I bought a bunch for $2.

Rather then let it float like when I was a kid up against 100W incandescent bulbs, I decided to take advantage of the big lead staple on the bottom it came with and stick it in the sand next to the glass side of my tank that gets indirect window light from a western window.

It is the only spot on the aquarium where algae grows a small hand size patch, so I cleaned of the patch of algae off and plated the Hornwort in that spot in the sand thinking it would have good enough light to grow and that the big lead staple wouldent hurt the fish.

Anyone in the know have any recomendations?

 

[Hollygirl]

My personal experience with hornwort when planted is that it tended to rot at the base. What I did instead was to buy a feeder ring (the kind of the suction cup), and anchor the suction cup near the bottom of the tank. Then string the hornwort through the ring. The plant will then get plenty of circulation.

 

[bushwhacker]

nice idea hollygirl

 

[Hollygirl]

It works well with any of the floaters

 

[CWO4GUNNER]

Wow I think I have a couple feeder rigs I gave up on, never liked the way they worked. OK Ill try that if I can find them, now lets see aquarium junk drawer...

 

[kj5kb]

I never had any luck with it buried either. I weight mine down with a cable-tie thru a couple of those bio-media hex tubes (fluval rings)

 

[rainbowcharmer]

Great idea w/ the feeding rings! I just tried it and it works great! I was sick of the hornwort in my tank flying around and getting caught on things (specifically the intake on the filter). I had two feeding rings in my 46 gal that never get used, so I stuck them in the big tank with hornwort fed through them and now I do not have flying hornwort! Thanks for the awesome tip!

 

[Tonalea]

Same as everyone else. I had two pieces of hornwort. The planted one pretty much disintegrated and the other one that I left floating is doing marvelously.

 

[CWO4GUNNER]

Well the floating ring worked so-so maybe becasue I diden't use it as a float but rather as an anchor near the bottom where the window sunlight beams in during the day. No way my 20 watt florescent tubes will help it and I don t intend on using electric lights to make it grow.

So I had to change out the feeding ring for a vegi-clip I had around when I had Pleco's (eeek) and tied off the stems loosely with dental floss and tied the dental floss to the rivet hole on the vegi-clip and placed the vegi-clip near the bottom where that daily bright sun beam comes in.

This is probubly why I have never had and probubly never will have a live planted tanks, although IO do get complements from everyone that my plants all look so healthy, how can I burst their bubble by telling them they are silk and plastic LOL. OK we'll see what happens.