Who grows aquatic plants outside?

[ManEatingShrimp]

Over the past two summers I have left a 10 gallon tank outside to try to grow plants. It is just a regular 10 gallon tank with dirt from the woods capped with pool filter sand. It grows stem plants pretty well, as well as anubias and crypts. I keep it in a corner of my back yard so it only receives light in the morning. It is not direct sunlight and the tank is behind a bush as well as against the house. Anacharis goes crazy and most of the other plants do fine, but i tried hair grass and downoi and they did not grow. I don't know if this is because there was not enough light or not enough CO2. I also had some moss in the tank that grew very well, but sadly it was covered by a ton of green hair algae.
I also had a 7" tall rubbermaid bin about 3 feet away from the ten gallon that got a lot more light that was also more direct because there was no bush in front of it and it did not have a mesh cover. It was set up just like the 10 gallon, but it got a crazy amount of algae. It looked like BGA and it covered all of the plants, walls, and a lot of the substrate. The salvinia minima was sinking just as fast as it was growing and I think the algae was weighing it down until the leaves became waterlogged and they sank. I managed to get some healthy mini pellia out of the bin, but everything else was pretty much choked out by the algae.

My question for those of you that have outdoor tanks and ponds is how much light is good and how direct should it be? Also do you get severe algae? And if not how do you prevent it? I am especially interested in growing moss outside, but all the moss I put outside gets infested with a ton of hair algae.
Another problem is with moving the plants to another tank. When I moved the anubias to a new tank it completely melted away over a few weeks. I don't know if it was just the new tanks parameters were too different or if anubias is just really sensitive to changes.

 

[WhiskeySunday]

I have not yet attempted to grow aquarium plants outdoors but am very interested in this thread. Well that's not totally true. I have attempted to grow some in a big flower pot with potting soil for substrate and there was not enough growth to warrant me keeping it. The only plant I did have great success at was Hornwart. The Hornwart grew at a fast pace and had the brightest color green I have seen in them. I think the hair grass growth issue is due to lack of enough CO2. I too have tried to grow a sprout or too of hair grass in that set up and it did not spread as it does in my tank with CO2. My guess is too much light is the culprit for algae growth. I have a theory or something you may want to try and that is getting deep plastic round tub, one that is 2ft deep, from Target or some store like that. I think if the plants are deeper the sun light won't be as intense but still plenty. You could also experiment by making tiers within the tub and see how the plants grow at different depths.

 

[lozt]

I fly to Arizona from time to time and had thought about setting up a plant farm here with kiddie pools, but the heat here is so hot.
This was just an idea, but never made an attempt yet, so everything is just in theory.

The problem with too much sun can be resolved by using solar screens. The high quality ones can block out about 90% of sunlight. I know that does sound like a lot of sun, but maybe the remaining 10% is actually be just enough if its in direct sunlight. This might prevent the water from heating up too much as well. If there is still algae build up, I guess a solar powered UV filter would do the trick.

 

[ManEatingShrimp]

What I am not sure about is what the optimal amount of light, the intensity of it, and how long the tank gets it. I could increase or decrease the light by moving the tank and adding a screen, but I am not even sure if there was too much light on the tank and bin or if there was another issue causing the algae. I am going to set up a few more bins with different conditions but I would like to hear experience from others. I read something recently, I think it was here, that someone had great success growing moss in kiddie pools next to attic windows. They used sponge filters because there were fish and I wonder how important water movement and air circulation are.