Easy Plants

[catfish4ever]

I want to begin using live plants, easy ones preferably, so far I know of these apparently easily maintainable plant species
- Elodea
-Java Fern
-Mossball

I am ordering a mossball tonight, do I plant them in the gravel or attach to bogwood? Also how long does the light have to be on for these plants.

 

[Ch4rlie]

All these plants ARE very easy to maintain.
 
Java Fern should be attached to wood, rock or decor, use fishline line, thread or superglue (100% cyanoacrylate)
 
Elodea can be either planted in substrate or as a floating plant.
 
Mossball, does not need planting or attached to anything, just leave alone, turn over as there prone to rot on bottom if not turned over and squeezed every once a month.
 
They're all low light plants so does not really matter how long to leave lights on, hover if you have lights on too long, you may get algae issues.

 

[catfish4ever]

All these plants ARE very easy to maintain.
 
Java Fern should be attached to wood, rock or decor, use fishline line, thread or superglue (100% cyanoacrylate)
 
Elodea can be either planted in substrate or as a floating plant.
 
Mossball, does not need planting or attached to anything, just leave alone, turn over as there prone to rot on bottom if not turned over and squeezed every once a month.
 
They're all low light plants so does not really matter how long to leave lights on, hover if you have lights on too long, you may get algae issues.

Thank you, do you happen to know how large the plants get and can mossballs spread around by themselves?

 

[fluttermoth]

All these plants do well in my low tech tanks (no special lights, no fertilisers, no CO2);
 
cryptocorynes; plant in the substrate; different species have differing leaf shapes/colours
 
anubias; needs to be attached to rock or wood like Java fern. Again different species have different leaf shapes, so you get some variety.
 
bolbitis; another one for attaching to rock or wood; lovely and fern-like
 
aponogeton; nice wavy edged, strap shaped leaves. Plant in the substrate
 
Vallis (long, grass like, plant in substrate) is worth trying; it likes harder water on the whole, but does well in some soft water tanks
 
sagittaria; there's a giant one, like a huge vallis and a dwarf one that makes a good 'lawn' for low tech tanks (okay, a lawn that needs mowing, but 'proper' lawn type plants do need high light and CO2)
 
Java fern; two interesting variations to look our for are 'trident', that has deeply divided leaves and 'windelov', which gets moss like extensions on the leaf ends.
 
You want your lights on for between six and eight hours; any longer and, as Ch4rlie rightly says, you'll encourage algae.

Thank you, do you happen to know how large the plants get and can mossballs spread around by themselves?

Plants, in general, just get bigger and bigger. Elodea will get long, and Java fern will make big clumps. If they get too big for your tank, you can trim them. With elodea you cut the tops off, Java fern can be split by cutting through the rhizome (that's the thick stem that the roots and leaves grow from).

Moss balls won't spread, no, although you can pull them into pieces and roll them back up to make smaller ones.

 

[catfish4ever]

thanks and whats the differnece between marimo mossball and java mossball
 

 
All these plants do well in my low tech tanks (no special lights, no fertilisers, no CO2);
 
cryptocorynes; plant in the substrate; different species have differing leaf shapes/colours
 
anubias; needs to be attached to rock or wood like Java fern. Again different species have different leaf shapes, so you get some variety.
 
bolbitis; another one for attaching to rock or wood; lovely and fern-like
 
aponogeton; nice wavy edged, strap shaped leaves. Plant in the substrate
 
Vallis (long, grass like, plant in substrate) is worth trying; it likes harder water on the whole, but does well in some soft water tanks
 
sagittaria; there's a giant one, like a huge vallis and a dwarf one that makes a good 'lawn' for low tech tanks (okay, a lawn that needs mowing, but 'proper' lawn type plants do need high light and CO2)
 
Java fern; two interesting variations to look our for are 'trident', that has deeply divided leaves and 'windelov', which gets moss like extensions on the leaf ends.
 
You want your lights on for between six and eight hours; any longer and, as Ch4rlie rightly says, you'll encourage algae.

Thank you, do you happen to know how large the plants get and can mossballs spread around by themselves?

Plants, in general, just get bigger and bigger. Elodea will get long, and Java fern will make big clumps. If they get too big for your tank, you can trim them. With elodea you cut the tops off, Java fern can be split by cutting through the rhizome (that's the thick stem that the roots and leaves grow from).

Moss balls won't spread, no, although you can pull them into pieces and roll them back up to make smaller ones.
 

 

[fluttermoth]

thanks and whats the differnece between marimo mossball and java mossball

I'm not 100% sure, but I'd imagine it's what kind of moss they're made from; marimos are actually a type of algae and I'd guess the Java one is made from Java moss

 

[daizeUK]

I'd say Marimo is the real deal, I've never heard of a java mossball so I guess Fluttermoth is probably right and it's just ordinary java moss scrunched in a ball!

 

[catfish4ever]

How do i get moss to spread around my whole tank

 

[fluttermoth]

Buy a handful of moss, rather than a ball.

Tie or glue strands of it where you want the moss to grow and wait for it to spread

 

[daizeUK]

You can also make a handful of moss go further by cutting it up into smaller pieces.  Each piece will grow and it can also give a more compact, bushy effect.

 

[DrRob]

Indeed, with moss it depends what look you're going for. The classic moss ball is actually a form of filamentous algae, so behaves differently. The aquarium classic of java moss is a more disordered looking moss that some of the others, but cut into small pieces will grow on most surfaces or free floating perfectly happily, those are the ones that you see coating pieces of wood in some aquascapes.

 

[Stimo]

Also good are floating plants to add another look to a tank , creating shaded ares etc
Dwarf water lettuce spreads like mad , short roots
Amazon frogbit medium speed spread , long roots

 

[catfish4ever]

I have ordered some Elodea, is this good, also i dont turn the lights on in my tank, the fish dont like it, will they be stressed because of the plants needing light?

 

[Ch4rlie]

As discussed in chatroom, your fish will be fine with the tank lights on.