i've had it with hortwort!

[NowherMan6]

this plant is driving me nuts!

i had my tank fairly heavily planted with hornwort, but by and by it's become too much of a pain and im getting rid of it all. it either breaks up and gets stuck in the filter, or floats out of place or just makes things look bad in general. what are some other plants that absorb nutrients quickly like hornwort though? elodea? water sprite? wisteria? will any of the above stay fairly "small", meaning under 20 inches? i want it to go along the back of my tank but underneath my filter, so if it's too high im afriad of it getting sucked up or broken up. ive got 1.3wpg, what can take the place of this horrid plant?? :rant:

 

[chkltcow]

Water Sprite will get very annoying very quick, just like hornwort. Over the weekend, I just ripped out the last of my water sprite and gave it to my LFS because it was choking my filter intake and just overrunning my tank. When hornwort grows up like that, it's one stem... and easy to trim. When water sprite does it, it's bushy growth and very irritating to try to groom. Between the two, I'd just stick with hornwort.

Oh, and you should see how much my hornwot has grown in this new tank with 55watts on a 20g long.... probably 4-5" over the weekend!

 

[djlen]

Stem plants don't generally stay small. They either grow well, fill out and get tall, or in lower light grow long lanky and don't fill out well and/or fall apart as in your case.
Two examples of nice Stems that would probably do OK under your lighting are Ludwegia Repens and Rotala Indica. They are both usually readily available and not very expensive. They also do a good job on nutrients.
Wisteria is also a good grower in your lighting.
Trying to get Stems to grow short and full, however requires a lot of light......probably more than what you are supplying. The new growth tends to shade the bottoms of the plants and cause legginess.
What ever you get, don't remove the plants, now planted in the tank until the new plants start growing for you. I would pull the Hornwort and let it float a week or two to continue helping out with nutrients until the new plants get established.

Len

 

[NowherMan6]

what if i raised my wpg to over 2? then what could i do to replace it? ive been thinking of going for compact lighting for a little while now, and if it allows me to expand away from hornwort that much im willing to do it...