[dwalstad]

Brought up yet another interesting point. People with deep tanks mistakenly use light-loving species for 'carpets' and 'foregrounds' at the bottom. They don't do well.
For deep tanks, I would use smaller plants that don't need much light (Subwassertang, Bolbitis, Java Fern, Java Moss, etc.) Recently, I got a dwarf variety of Bolbitis that I just love. A fellow club member who gave it to me said it was a poor grower, but that thing is doing just great in my tanks--lashed to small lava rocks.

 

[mistergreen]

Sometimes it’s just taller plants or floating plants blocking the necessary light for the foreground plants.

 

[Michael]

Those taller and floating plants do a great job of adjusting light levels if you need to control algae, in addition to their other benefits. I have frogbit, Nymphaea, or vallisneria in all of my tanks. On some tanks I have stronger light fixtures than are needed for Walstad tanks, but don't have dimmers. Too much light, let the plants grow. Too little light, trim or remove.

 

[PlentyCoup]

I have yet to figure out if the lack of growth in my 36 gal with the d. Sag is due to light or the soil.
I am sure that the micro sword which is completly gone, was due to a combination of the depth of the tank, its basically 18" deep, and the shade from the knot weed and frogbit.

I just had to cull and trim the frogbit, guppy weed and rotala in my betta tank because the excessive shade was smothering the c. parva, and phang mutated.

I will have to look into the plants Diana mentioned.
A plant list like this is great especially when it includes sizes, growth habits and other peoples experiences.

No two tanks or plants are going to preform the same way but it at least gives people a good idea for layout so the plants and tank can have the best chance of success.
The knot weed that is growing out of control (it now has almost 3 in of emergant growth and i am debating on removing the tank hood) combined with the complete lack of height from the vals has really thrown off how i thought the tank was going to look. The knot, despite being advertised as one, is NOT a mid-ground plant.

 

[johnwesley0]

A snapshot of my 20 month old hardy lily, the only scientific name I've ever seen for which is simply nymphaea. IIf anyone has a more specific one, I'd love to know it:

 

[SuitableUserName]

I have found after 1 year in my unheated 20g that Sagittaria platyphylla (which also seems to be sold as S. graminea and S. chilensis) has been great, constantly growing and staying underwater, also flowering. Definitely my easiest, best performing plant and very attractive.

American Water Willow (Justicia americana) does well too and is very sturdy and rooty. Sometimes I have to cut it to prevent it from growing into the air but it's generally happy submersed, I would recommend this one.My

Echinodorus cordifolia 'Harbich' was doing great but then decided it wanted to grow out of the water. I don't want this so I've cut all the emersed leaves off and hope it will start again (Kasselmann says daylengths of 12 hrs or over can trigger this in Echinodorus and to go for 11hr daylength but all recommendations here seem to be strongly for min. 12 hrs so I am loathe to reduce them.)

One stem I like is Polygonum hydropiperoides, it's easy and sturdy. (I have found all other stems like Ludwigia, Bacopa, Cabomba, Myriophyllum, Potamogeton to be a pain b/c they require such frequent cutting and replanting to look nice and tend to get progressively more flimsy and fragile- irritatingly different behavior than in the swimming hole here where they look compact and great almost all the time! If I increase lighting to try for this I get algae.) B/c I'm lazy I'm increasing Helanthium tenellum, Echinodorus, Sagittaria and Justicia in my tank and removing stems.

Hydrocotyle verticillata has some nice leaves underwater on short stems and then a bunch of crazy floaters on stems up to 2ft long, winding all over the aquarium. I wish it would all stay small.

 

[dwalstad]

I have found after 1 year in my unheated 20g that Sagittaria platyphylla (which also seems to be sold as S. graminea and S. chilensis) has been great, constantly growing and staying underwater, also flowering. Definitely my easiest, best performing plant and very attractive.

American Water Willow (Justicia americana) does well too and is very sturdy and rooty. Sometimes I have to cut it to prevent it from growing into the air but it's generally happy submersed, I would recommend this one.My

Echinodorus cordifolia 'Harbich' was doing great but then decided it wanted to grow out of the water. I don't want this so I've cut all the emersed leaves off and hope it will start again (Kasselmann says daylengths of 12 hrs or over can trigger this in Echinodorus and to go for 11hr daylength but all recommendations here seem to be strongly for min. 12 hrs so I am loathe to reduce them.)

One stem I like is Polygonum hydropiperoides, it's easy and sturdy. (I have found all other stems like Ludwigia, Bacopa, Cabomba, Myriophyllum, Potamogeton to be a pain b/c they require such frequent cutting and replanting to look nice and tend to get progressively more flimsy and fragile- irritatingly different behavior than in the swimming hole here where they look compact and great almost all the time! If I increase lighting to try for this I get algae.) B/c I'm lazy I'm increasing Helanthium tenellum, Echinodorus, Sagittaria and Justicia in my tank and removing stems.

Hydrocotyle verticillata has some nice leaves underwater on short stems and then a bunch of crazy floaters on stems up to 2ft long, winding all over the aquarium. I wish it would all stay small.

That's interesting about Justicia americana. Grows in all the rivers and lakes around here (in NC). I'll have to try it someday as an aquarium plant! Thanks for the tips about it.
As to S. Graminea, this is a great mid-size aquarium plant. I brought home it from a native plant collecting trip years ago and it adapted splendidly in my aquariums.
It sounds like you have oodles of experience.
Thanks for your input.

 

[SuitableUserName]

That's interesting about Justicia americana. Grows in all the rivers and lakes around here (in NC). I'll have to try it someday as an aquarium plant! Thanks for the tips about it.
As to S. Graminea, this is a great mid-size aquarium plant. I brought home it from a native plant collecting trip years ago and it adapted splendidly in my aquariums.
It sounds like you have oodles of experience.
Thanks for your input.

I'm really fortunate to live on a ranch with a river on it and lots of places to collect in the region, so I just collect things and try them. I noticed the Justicia grows submersed here occasionally so took my cue from that.

I also find that the native Lobelia cardinalis, as opposed to the little form the aquarists like, is much more successful for me submersed - altogether more vigorous.

I love the Sagittaria. I see a lot of discussion on the finer points of leaf shape (pointed or rounded etc.), height and so on to distinguish graminea from platyphylla but I collected a short, stubby, wide-leaved specimen with round leaf tips from a spring-pond and it is now a tall, thinner-leaved specimen with pointy leaves in my aquarium, so I think there's a lot of plasticity w/in the species and much of our agonizing may be pointless on ID sometimes.

Would you care to advise me on reducing my photoperiod to 11hrs to prevent my Echinodorus cordifolius from naking a break for the air? It's not just one leaf - once it decides to do it, all the leaves have very thick petioles and grow rapidly out of the water, leaving no submersed foliage.

Thank you as always for this forum.

 

[dwalstad]

Would you care to advise me on reducing my photoperiod to 11hrs to prevent my Echinodorus cordifolius from making a break for the air? It's not just one leaf - once it decides to do it, all the leaves have very thick petioles and grow rapidly out of the water, leaving no submersed foliage.

I will address this question in a new thread 'Controlling Emergent Growth'.
Thanks for all this marvelous information "from the ranch."

 

[SuitableUserName]

I will address this question in a new thread 'Controlling Emergent Growth'.
Thanks for all this marvelous information "from the ranch."

Thanks so much.

 

[Gooblikon]

I'm testing monstera adonsonii and syngoniums in my new tank right now and they seem to be doing well, the adonsonii doesn't like being relocated and is losing leaves near the water level but new growth is constant and the syngonium is loving the aquatic life. A preface to the following information: plant experience I have but fish I do not.
Virtually any epiphytic plant should do well with their feet wet. A method one could use is using a hanging basket of sorts on the tank to partially submerge the plant and have the roots reach towards the bottom and eventually dive into the substrate. Another method is mounting: use coated wire, don't want minerals contamination on the roots or in the tank or rust, and bind the root ball to a piece of drift wood or a stump, space provided, and have a more natural look instead of the basket. Finally, an option is to have a taller plant, such as an anthurium, which already has the leaves well above the water line to be partially submerged as well.
The only problems with most of these use cases is: a lid can't really be used for the tanks, this means either larger tanks with lower water levels to have the "epic jungle feel" or to have a hovering lid of sorts which allows the plants to creep out the side as they grow larger. Of course this depends on fish and other configuration issues as well, but my 10 gallon rimless housing neon tetras, otocinclus and ghost shrimp haven't had an incident thus far. Benefits of mid to bottom feeders I imagine.
Once I feel comfortable with this 10 gallon being stable and functional I plan on shifting towards a 45 gallon and doing much larger plants with driftwood, stumps and maybe expanding foam. Plant selection thus far include: anthurium, spathiphyllum and chlorophytum. I will be testing dieffenbachia, philodendrons and calathea to see how they play in wet feet configurations.

If any of you would like to keep an orchid near the tank simply hang it above your tank with a few roots in the water or mount it on the rim somehow and watch them thrive!

 

[Gooblikon]

Brought up yet another interesting point. People with deep tanks mistakenly use light-loving species for 'carpets' and 'foregrounds' at the bottom. They don't do well.
For deep tanks, I would use smaller plants that don't need much light (Subwassertang, Bolbitis, Java Fern, Java Moss, etc.) Recently, I got a dwarf variety of Bolbitis that I just love. A fellow club member who gave it to me said it was a poor grower, but that thing is doing just great in my tanks--lashed to small lava rocks.

There's always the option of mounting lights on the side. Blast the leds on top and the sides to have all the plants grow as best as they can promoting full growth top to bottom.

 

[Michael]

Gooblikon, I'm curious about you experiences with anthurium. I've grown them as house plants for a long time but never as emersed plants in an aquarium.

 

[Gooblikon]

Gooblikon, I'm curious about you experiences with anthurium. I've grown them as house plants for a long time but never as emersed plants in an aquarium.

I've always kept mine quite wet and root bound so it constantly has wet feet, despite this it keeps shooting out aerial roots for more! As for other plants: if the root ball is not submerged virtually any plant can be mounted in an aquarium. As for personally testing the anthurium fully submerged, I have not done this; however, I don't see an issue since: the stalks are quite tall all the leaves would be well out of any tank, at lest mine are this big, when I build the 45 I'll do a test of substrate planted anthurium and a mounted anthurium for comparison.

 

[maico996]

Welcome to the forum! Some advice regarding your 45G adventure, and maybe you already know this, but any hardscape like rocks, logs, etc. should be resting on the glass bottom and substrate placed around them. Don't place them directly on top of the substrate or you're likely to get anaerobic conditions in the soil. Also, keep your substrate simple...1 inch of dirt and up to 1 inch of gravel. Don't be tempted to add anything to the recipe, or try something different. Keep it simple.

 

[Gooblikon]

Welcome to the forum! Some advice regarding your 45G adventure, and maybe you already know this, but any hardscape like rocks, logs, etc. should be resting on the glass bottom and substrate placed around them. Don't place them directly on top of the substrate or you're likely to get anaerobic conditions in the soil. Also, keep your substrate simple...1 inch of dirt and up to 1 inch of gravel. Don't be tempted to add anything to the recipe, or try something different. Keep it simple.

Thank you for the tips! Good thing my original plan is a natural look which would require the pieces to be submerged. Keeping substrate simple is certainly the plan. I'm very familiar with how out of control poor substrate blends can be outside of aquariums let alone in them!

 

[Gooblikon]

Gooblikon, I'm curious about you experiences with anthurium. I've grown them as house plants for a long time but never as emersed plants in an aquarium.

Testing has begun!

 

[jibbajab14]

Really interesting discussion here about how to make deep tanks work. I tried a 20 gallon high once and have avoided tall tanks ever since. None of the plants in that tank thrived.

Additional species I’ve had success with (hard water, pH 8):

Pogostemon stellatus
Myriophyllum aquaticum (Parrot feather)
Ludwigia ovalis

 

[maico996]

Really interesting discussion here about how to make deep tanks work. I tried a 20 gallon high once and have avoided tall tanks ever since. None of the plants in that tank thrived.

You can always lower the water level for better plant growth. Nothing says you have to fill it all the way.

 

[dwalstad]

Really interesting discussion here about how to make deep tanks work. I tried a 20 gallon high once and have avoided tall tanks ever since. None of the plants in that tank thrived.

Additional species I’ve had success with (hard water, pH 8):

Pogostemon stellatus
Myriophyllum aquaticum (Parrot feather)
Ludwigia ovalis

Thanks for additional plants plant species.
Do you think it's the reduced lighting due to the greater tank height? I had a 29 gal (18 inches tall) next to a south facing window where plants received good light through the side. Plants did very well, despite poor overhead lighting. Tank also had a soil layer and a HOB.