[freemike]

What would be the best way to grow these plants? I'm not looking to do real high tech, but right now my plants the ones listed are having mediocre results. I use aqueon plant food and they get 8 hours of light a day. The light they get is all artificial, it's a 6500k 15watt fluorescent light. Two on the 10 gallon tanks and one on the 5 gallon. I do get some growth, but it seems to die faster than it grows. Right now I have more dying stems than new ones on the Wisteria. The Java Moss seems to explode in growth, but then it dies back. The Java Fern I have one narrow and broad seems to be chilling and these two aren't dying, and growing but slowly. I'm looking into getting the Seachem products such as flourish, but I'm not really sure which ones to get for the plants. I'm also open to other brands, but from reviews these seem to be the best. I'm just not sure which way to use them as I don't want to kill my fish/frogs/snail to grow my plants. I also have a moss ball in one of the tanks.

Species of animals I have with the plants:
Betta
Axelrod Corydoras
Albino Cory
Assassin Snail
African Dwarf Frog

 

[ravenwinds]

What kind of substrate do you have? Do you have hard or soft water? Are they planted or loose or??

Java fern is a slow grower, likes low to moderate light. Don't plant this...will die. Mine seem to like being anchored to driftwood but you can tie them onto just about anything with monofilament fishing line or cotton/polyester thread.

Java moss, like most mosses like to be anchored as well...check out aquamoss.com, I think its called, for suggestions and parameters. Mine are growing quite well on manzanita branch and in a mesh wall divider.

Water wisteria likes moderate light. Mine is growing out of control in back of one 10g divided tank, it is planted in substrate and gets moderate light from window and regular hood lights(2 of those longish incandescent bulbs....just switched to 2 6500kw fluorescence bulbs, so I guess I will see how well they work). I haven't had much luck with letting this plant float...

All but 2 of my tanks are Natural Planted Tanks, NPTs, with real dirt as lower layer of substrate covered by a 1 inch cap of sand. I am having a lot of good luck growing plants this way. I don't fertilize, except occasionally with trace minerals. I try to stay true to Walstad method in which aquarium becomes a mini ecosystem(like) with plants creating O2 for fish and fish feeding plants with their waste, and plants filtering water by using up excess ammonia and nitrates. I deviate slightly because I use HOB filters on most of my tanks...
Keep in mind that my tanks are heavily planted.
I am still learning about aquariums, NPTs, and aquatic plants, but I hope this helps a bit.

 

[freemike]

I have sand substrate. My water I'm not really sure about hardness of it. It's just a few plants hardly a NPT. Also sunlight is out of the question.

 

[BeckyFish97]

If you're wanting plants to grow well, don't get any plant with two or more colours in them as they last about a week, it is some sort of "deformity/weakness" in them that the two colours merge together to create a rather weak and unreliable plant!

 

[ravenwinds]

Becky is right in that your variegated plants, especially any plant that is red/purple, needs more light and will stunt and lose a lot of or all of its red/purple. Also, keep in mind a few things:
1. Sand is ok but it might compact as it gets older..
2. There is a plant, mainly sold at Petco and petsmart that is sold under name of water wistera that is not aquatic, or even semi- aquatic. This plant will keep getting smaller and smaller and begin to lose its color. Eventually, it will melt but by the time it does, it will be a very pale greenish brown color.
3. If you don't plan on having a bunch of plants, sand will do and I would dose regularly with Flourish(seachem) and look into getting Flourish Excel which supposedly will add CO2 to your tank for the plants to utilize...it gets praise by many aquatic plant gardeners and hobbyists.

 

[ravenwinds]

Becky is right in that your variegated plants, especially any plant that is red/purple, needs more light and will stunt and lose a lot of or all of its red/purple. Also, keep in mind a few things:
1. Sand is ok but it might compact as it gets older..
2. There is a plant, mainly sold at Petco and petsmart that is sold under name of water wistera that is not aquatic, or even semi- aquatic. This plant will keep getting smaller and smaller and begin to lose its color. Eventually, it will melt but by the time it does, it will be a very pale greenish brown color.
3. If you don't plan on having a bunch of plants, sand will do and I would dose regularly with Flourish(seachem) and look into getting Flourish Excel which supposedly will add CO2 to your tank for the plants to utilize...it gets praise by many aquatic plant gardeners and hobbyists.

 

[ravenwinds]

Sorry for the double post...the server was acting up...I wasn't even sure if the message/comment went through.