Sjb1987

very nice...if only my wife understood the "hobby"

Seattle_Aquarist

Hi Sjb1987,

lol, my emersed setup is relegated to the garage. She puts up with a few tanks in the house but somehow she feels the emersed setup doesn't go with the decor!

Seattle_Aquarist

Hi All,

I decided to do a quick inventory of what I am growing emersed and this is what I have in the mad plant-scientist lab currently.

Currently I am growing the following plants in my emersed set-up.
Anubias minima
Anubias barteri var. nana 'Petite'
Bacopa salzmannii
Ceratopteris cornuta
Cryptocoryne parva
Cryptocoryne nurii
Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Bronze'
Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Florida Sunset'
Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Red'
Cryptocoryne usterianna x walkeri
Eriocaulon parkeri
Eleocharis sp. (tall)
Eleocharis sp. 'Belem'
Hemianthus callitrichoides
Hemianthus callitrichoides 'Cuba'
Helanthium tenellum
Hydrocotyle sp 'Japan'
Hygrophila lancea
Hygrophila pinnatifida
Hygrophila polysperma 'Sunset'
Hygrophila polysperma 'Tiger'
Hygrophila polysperma 'Sunset'
Lindernia rotundifolia 'Variegated'
Ludwigia brevipes x arcuata
Ludwigia glandulosa
Ludwigia sp. 'Red'
Marsilea minuta
Penthorum sedoides
Pogostemon erectus
Pogostemon helferi
Ranunculus inundatus
Riccia fluitans
Staurogyne repens

lol...so many plants so little time!

chrislewistx

Now that's a list of plants...

Good job. Out of curiosity, have you run into any plants that you could not convert from submersed to emersed growth? I know not all aquatics can be grown emersed, but have you ran into any that were just extra hard to convert.

Seattle_Aquarist

Hi chrislewistx,

Absolutely, there are some plants that do not grow emersed. In addition there are some plants that grow much better submerged than emersed. For example, I grow Nymphoides sp. 'Taiwan' in my tank(s) but it will not grow emersed. Marselea minuta and Ceratopteris cornuta grow much better submerged than emersed as does Echinodorus vesuvius.

Nymphoides sp. 'Taiwan'

Seattle_Aquarist

Hi All,

Growing plants emersed it great, but what happens when I move them from an emersed environment to submerged? To test what happens I set up a 10 gallon with 2X 10 watt 'mini florescent' 6700K bulbs, inert SafeTSorb #7941 substrate, no CO2, and I use only Seachem Flourish Comprehensive and Seachem Flourish Excel (and a small piece of Flourish Tabs under the Crypt).

Here are eight species that I grew emersed and are now in a submerged environment. The Pogostemon erectus, Ludwigia sp 'Red', Hygrophila lancea, and Oldenlandia salzmannii have been in the tank about 4 weeks. The H. lancea grew so much I have had to cut it back once already. None of these have 'melted'.

The Penthorum sedoides, Cryptocorne wendtii 'Bronze', Staurogyne sp. 'Low Grow' (Starougyne repens / Tropica 049), and Hemianthus callitrichoides were all planted earlier this week. It is my intent to update this thread periodically so we can see how the plants do (I am especially curious if the Crypt 'melts').

10 Gallon 8/23/12

Jubs

Looking good Roy!

shane98270

Seattle aquarist, are any of these for sale? I live by Seattle, and would be interested in some of your crypts, hygro, and marsilea if possible. Just starting up a fluval spec v for some shrimp, unsure which type yet though.

Sent from my *rooted* evo design using Tapatalk 2

chrislewistx

Hi Roy,

Good looking experiment you have. Did the leaves go through any kind of change from emersed to submerged growth yet? Out of curisotiy how deep did you make the SafTsorb substrate?

K Randall

Vanishingly few aquarium plants "melt" when going from emersed to submersed conditions. That would be unproductive from an ecological perspective. When we more often see melt is when the plants are moved from one type of water to a very different type of water. Some plants can recover and adapt, for others, it's the end.

Tropica was one of the first nurseries to realize that they were actually giving their customers a plant with the best chance to adapt to local water conditions by selling emerse grown plants. Of course, there are other good reasons for growing them this way too. (they grow faster, no algae, no snails, ship better...) There are some plants that are true aquatics, and just can't be grown emersed, but for the MANY amphibious plants that we use in our aquariums, there is no advantage to submersed propagation. (except that people are sometimes surprised by the often DRAMATIC changes in leaf shape, size and habit when the plant reverts to its submersed form!!!)