new to the forum - plant questions

B

bleepster

Registered Member
Feb 28, 2006
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hello - great site. hope you all can help me out.

very new to plants. I have had a 20 gallon (long style) aquarium. with a standard hood with 2 regular aquarium light bulbs (non colored), heater, whisper PF-40 filter.

we have had this aquarium for over 3 years with great success, and had fake plants and what not in it the whole time.

we did a complete cleaning, replaced the gravel in the bottom, and we bought 2 new plants to go in it.

we bought 1 - Pennywort (Hydrocotyle leucocephala)
and 1 - Anacharis (Egeria Densa)

why buy them? they look pretty :)

anyway - the Pennywort, seems to get roots that sprout out the shafts of the plant. then after a day or two, the plant breaks off, and that stem is floating around my tank. is this normal? we just grab the loose stems and replant them in the gravel, with little success.

the Anacharis looks healthy, but the fringes of the plant have a rust, brown tinge color to them.

since i am new to all of this, am i starving my plays of CO2, fertilizers, etc???
(when we bought the plants, they came in what appears to be a slotted pot. we left them in the pot and buried the pot in the gravel, was this correct to do?)

the fish i have are:
5-neons
2-clown loaches
2-silver & black catfish (both about 3" long)

like i said - i am new to all of this, and i may have this all setup wrong.

if you ask "why do i have these fish?" or "why did you pick these plants?" the answer will be "because the my kids and i thought they looked cool" - sorry - buts that's the only answers i have at this time.

i am looking for suggestion and recommendations from you experts :)

thanks
 
read up on your plants' requirement here: www.plantgeek.net

i know your anubias should not be in the substrate but tied withthread to some sort of porus decour- rock or wood.

if it's penny wort you can leave it foating until it shoots some little roots out aquatic plants can be brittle and some fish like to mess with them so they need good root structure to stay put (clown loaches are stinkers- you should try some of the larger crypts that do well at low light)

if it's moneywort -mine is brittle like that too - leave it float until you have enough roots that you can just tuck them in the gravel and leave the stem just above the substrate
 
One of the things that are more important than CO2 or ferts at this time is lighting. Are thre lights you have incandescent or flourescent ? If they aren't flourescent i think even plants with low light requirements won't do good.
The Pennywort might be ok - but anacharis i don't think so.
 
If the hood uses screw-in incandescent bulbs, you can buy screw-in compact fluorescent bulbs that could easily be swapped and work well for growing plants. Some aquarium stores sell them, and you may be able to get them at Home Depot and places like that. Just make sure they say "6700 k" or higher on the box.
 
kyle3 said:
i know your anubias should not be in the substrate but tied withthread to some sort of porus decour- rock or wood.

if it's moneywort -mine is brittle like that too - leave it float until you have enough roots that you can just tuck them in the gravel and leave the stem just above the substrate
Click to expand...

I think he has Anacharis, not Anubias. I leave my moneywort floating all the time. In a low light tank, perhaps it might do better floating. It is one of the fastest growing plants in my tank.
 
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