Riccia for newbie

[Hannys_Papa]

As mentioned in many other threads i have a 10G with lots of silk plants and 1 betta (only). As i do now and then was "planning" for my next (bigger) tank a little and studied and read into plants.
So i came across Riccia (Riccia fluitans) while reading a thread about duckweed which i was about to get - but the invasiveness of it made me decide otherwise.

So i wondered if it would be a "good" idea to add Riccia to my tank as a floating plant to give the tank a little more naturalism, give the betta a place for his bubblenest and help with algae control.

So far i only have 2x 15W incandecents in the hood - if i replaced one of them with a CF screw in (10W = 50W incandecent) - would that be bright enough ? Again i dont want to submerse the Riccia - but float it on top (basically right under the light - on the side of the tank that doesnt have the filter - and where the betta usually tries to build his bubblenest before it slowly floats away).

If untill now you think its worth trying... what else would i need to "get" or consider ? Does one betta even produce enough nitrate (meaning his cycled waste products) to grow any plants ? Would i need fertilizers ? If yes.. what ?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

P.S.: If i get some from ebay or aquabid - what steps should i take not to introduce any disease, parasites or problems with the plant ?

 

[Roan Art]

Hannys Papa,

Here's my 2 month old planted betta tank:

I have 1 betta in there and a couple of weeks ago added a pleco for house cleaning. He's only there temporarily to clean up some algae that accumulated big time on Buddha. He hasn't been there long enough to make a big impact on the plant growth as yet. I did have a corycat in there for a while, but Jakers harassed him constantly so I put him in the 36 gallon.

It's a standard Eclipse 6 System (6 gallons) with close to 5" of flourite as the substrate. I use the light that came with the system. The plants are growing *extremely* well and I've had to separate the java fern as well as trim the anacharis weekly. I was fertilizing bi-weekly with Kent Pro-Plant and FW Plant Supplement -- but I stopped that and the growth rate et al hasn't changed.

I don't know what my tap water parameters are insofar as ammonia and nitrates/nitrates (haven't tested but I will now that I've thought of it) but my pH is 7.8 out of the tap and 7.4 after two days in the aquarium. KH is 13.

Dunno if this helps,
Roan

 

[beviking]

I'm not sure Riccia is the plant you want to try for algae control. I've never experimented with lower light with it either so I don't know if that light will be sufficient. It might be and it's sure worth a shot if 'someone' sends you some to try out. IME, riccia is more invasive than duckweed. Mainly b/c I have a dense foreground and any little bits of riccia that break loose, get caught in it and start to grow. Duckweed just always seem to bounce back to the surface. As with any surface plant, if there's too much, just net it out!
Anacharis is a nice plant (imo, and Roan's too apparently) that I think is more suited for your purpose. You can "plant it" in the gravel, just keep it weighted down with leads, or let it float. Much less demanding than riccia.
If only 'someone' had anacharis and riccia
As for sterilizing the plants, it sure would be nice if 'someone' sent you a gram or two of potassium permanganate
HTH

p.s. do I have to say check your pm...again?

 

[phanmc]

Riccia will grow in a lower light setting as long as its floating. However, it can be just as messy as duckweed. At lower light levels, duckweed isn't very invasive. Its when you get to around the 2wpg that any floaters begin to multiply like crazy.

 

[Hannys_Papa]

Well maybe i didnt put it in the right words. It wont bother me if it covers the top of the tank or i have to fish out a lot... the rest of the plants are silk so if it takes some light away from them they wont die. lol
But what i read about duckweed is that you can fish it all out - and 2 days later its there again. I didnt read that about Riccia - but then again maybe just didnt do enough research.

Now it looks like i might end up with some anarchis and riccia... - should i order some flourish, flourish excel or anything else when i get my CF lights online ????

Oh i totally forgot - thanks everyone for your great advice - highly appreciated.

 

[phanmc]

the thing with duckweed is that they're tiny and are easily missed. A single leaf stuck to the side of the tank can grow into a large mass if given the proper growth conditions. Riccia is easier to spot as they form large strands.

At the lower light levels, you may not need to do additional fertilizing if you keep up your weekly water changes. Flourish Excel may have a negative impact on the anacharis, I believe even Seachem recognizes that possibilty. And the riccia will be able to take CO2 from the air if left floating so Excel isn't necessary for it.

However, its a good idea to have trace elements (Flourish) and macro nutrients (nitrogen/potassium/phosphates) on hand in case you find your plants aren't looking too healthy.

 

[Roan Art]

If you get the ricca, would you please take some pics and post them? Anacharis is easy for me to get, which is the main reason why I use it, but I'm open to anything that looks nice and does the job.

Roan

 

[Hannys_Papa]

Sure i will post some pics if i can get it to grow and dont kill it - after all this will be my first exp. with live plants.

By the way - i really like that betta tank. Nice aquascaping (i like the buddha theme) - how much light and what type do you have in that exclipse 6 ?

 

[Roan Art]

Sure i will post some pics if i can get it to grow and dont kill it - after all this will be my first exp. with live plants.

Cool, thanks!

By the way - i really like that betta tank. Nice aquascaping (i like the buddha theme)

Thank you! I figured that since the fish was "Siamese", I'd go for something along that line. Had a devil of a time finding a Thai old-style Buddha and the background is just an enlarged pic I got off the web. I laminated it and stuck it to the back

- how much light and what type do you have in that exclipse 6 ?

This was the reason why I posted; you said you didn't know if you could grow plants etc.,. This Eclipse tank was my first planted tank and it came out great. As for the light, it's just the light that came with the Eclipse 6. The replacement part description at Marineland's site says: "12" Fluorescent Lamp, T5 8 Watt", and the manual says "natural daylight full spectrum lamp". Dats all it says. My aquarium software calculates (dimensions are 16.25W(front), 12.25H, 7.75D, 13.5W(back) it's a bowfront, so has funky measurements) the volume as 3.9 gallons with 3.5" of substrate (geez, it looks closer to 5" to me, but 3.5 it is). So, with the 8 Watt bulb that came with it, I've got about 2 watts per gallon (which is the minimum everyone recommends) with the 3.5" deep flourite substrate.

Dats the scoop!

Roan

 

[Hannys_Papa]

Thanks for your reply.
Well i am gonna get 1 or 2 screw in CF - they fit in my incandecent bulb hood. I tried a regular "household" 60W CF and wow was that bright compared to the incandecents.
Now i just have to figure out what type of bulb to get - they have 50/50, regular (6500K) or colormax 6700K.
In the 2 months the tank has been running i havent seen any algae yet (except a little brown algea in the first 2 weeks). And i just hope upgrading the lights or possibly the wrong type of bulb will get the algae going like crazy.....