Aquatic Plant Central - View Single Post - Plant Box for Semi-Aquatics

ZeeZ · 01-29-2012, 05:17 PM

Have you ever been bamboozled into purchasing an "aquatic" plant from a store? It's completely submerged in the water, so you think, okay, it'll work in my tank. It has what I want or need.

But then you find out it's not aquatic at all. It likes water but it needs air. It's a bog plant, semi-aquatic. For example, Dracena. It will be fine in a tank as long as its leaves are exposed to the air. Which is usually the case with most other plants like it. So you have three options:

Take it back.

Take it out and plant it in a pot in your house.

Just let it drown in the tank. It'll live a couple months. It'll be cool. Just a plant.

But I wanted my plants still IN the aquarium. I saw how to make Moss Walls, which I intend to do at a later date but I'm leaving my Java Moss alone for the juvenile shrimp to hide in until they grow larger. Anyway, this inspired me to have an idea: create a plant box.

So I did.

My plants kept falling over each other in the box so I LOOSELY secured them via zip ties.

I've had this in my 20 High shrimp breeder tank for about a year now and it still works just as good as the day I created it. I've been thinking about using AKADAMA, which is bonsai soil, or hydroponics substrate with root tabs so I can grow emersed plants such as the lucky bamboo or pothos or something like that.

01-29-2012, 05:17 PM	#1 (permalink)
ZeeZ Member Join Date: Nov 2011 Posts: 81 iTrader Ratings: 4 iTrader Positive Rating: 100% Plant Points:	Plant Box for Semi-Aquatics Have you ever been bamboozled into purchasing an "aquatic" plant from a store? It's completely submerged in the water, so you think, okay, it'll work in my tank. It has what I want or need. But then you find out it's not aquatic at all. It likes water but it needs air. It's a bog plant, semi-aquatic. For example, Dracena. It will be fine in a tank as long as its leaves are exposed to the air. Which is usually the case with most other plants like it. So you have three options: Take it back. Take it out and plant it in a pot in your house. Just let it drown in the tank. It'll live a couple months. It'll be cool. Just a plant. But I wanted my plants still IN the aquarium. I saw how to make Moss Walls, which I intend to do at a later date but I'm leaving my Java Moss alone for the juvenile shrimp to hide in until they grow larger. Anyway, this inspired me to have an idea: create a plant box. So I did. My plants kept falling over each other in the box so I LOOSELY secured them via zip ties. I've had this in my 20 High shrimp breeder tank for about a year now and it still works just as good as the day I created it. I've been thinking about using AKADAMA, which is bonsai soil, or hydroponics substrate with root tabs so I can grow emersed plants such as the lucky bamboo or pothos or something like that.