Native Plants! Id And Advice Needed! W/ Pics

[mmanist]

So yesterday, I went down to the river and scooped me out some very nice plants. Hopefully I can use them in my aquarium, with a good light, and some soil/sand substrate.

Basically what Im doing is trying to do a low cost planted tank with some darters, and a schoal of minnows and creek chubs. So far heres what I have.

55G Tank/Hood/Lights (came with emperor 280)
Not sure if I want to run the 280 with my marineland canister c160 or just buy another 280, or buy a emperor 400 to run with the 280?? Not sure yet....
Sand from a local creek, along with 2" of floramax
I rather not get into cO2, so hopefully this will work!!

Now for the plants, I'm not sure what I have,

This one had runners on it, its about 2' tall.(sorry not good pics)

also in that pic is these skinny spiral plants, I couldnt really get any roots with them. But again about 2' long.

There was a plant that looked like hornwart but it wasn't. I will take a pic of it when I get home, you can kinda see it in this pic, in the right hand corner. I tried to get a bunch but it just came up in little pieces. I also have a lot of maybe anacharis??

So if anyone knows what these plants are and if it will work in a med light setup, let me know!!

Going out to a few ponds after work to try and get more plants, so I will need some more help later!!

 

[Guppy-keeper]

You have definitly to put the substrate if you would like to keep them alive. In wich region do you live , and what's your tank's temperature? (that's important)

 

[mmanist]

You have definitly to put the substrate if you would like to keep them alive. In wich region do you live , and what's your tank's temperature? (that's important)

Well right now my tank is sitting in the garage with just water in it, and the plants. (resealed it so I was testing it out) but a round about idea for water would be maybe 70-75 degree F, being that I wont do a heater since the fish will be basic shiners, darters, and chubs.

Its been kinda tough to find info on native plants..... So im kinda clueless. But I'm planing having the tank set up maybe by next week. So for now im going to just keep the plants in a container with a light on them. I have drift wood that I want to attach some of the plants to so I will work on that too!

I spent most of my night picking off zebra mussel, and cleaning of the dead leaves and things.... Stupid mussels was everywhere.

 

[loraxchick]

the first two look like some sort of vallis species. the last pic is certainly anacharis (aka elodea). both are non-native and invasive, much like the dreaded zebra mussels. We have them here in NY also. horrid arent they!? the "hornworty" one might be "coontail" (dont know the real name, just what its been called around here)...also invasive and non-native.
The anacharis (and likely the hornworty one) will be fine floating around like that, but the valis (or whatever it is) needs to be rooted in substrate.
cheers

 

[Meggie :)]

Last one is elodea...I have the spirally one in my tank but i forgot what it is called

 

[This Old Spouse]

To the right of the elodea isn't coontai, at least not what we call coontail here in Minnesota. Our coontail is really thick and densely leaved. Here's a chunk that I have in my cory tank:

Also, if you're getting things from a river, you should probably have a powerhead going to simulate the current. Cool idea, though!

 

[mmanist]

To the right of the elodea isn't coontai, at least not what we call coontail here in Minnesota. Our coontail is really thick and densely leaved. Here's a chunk that I have in my cory tank:

Also, if you're getting things from a river, you should probably have a powerhead going to simulate the current. Cool idea, though!

Yes I have an extra powerhead, just got my seals in yesterday for the c160, going to play around with it see if i need any more parts!! I put my driftwood in the tank to soak, since its just sitting in my garage with only water in it. LOL At least it save me from hoarding the bath tub for a couple weeks!! Im hoping to have the tank up and running sometime soon. Only thing I'm waiting on now is a stand for it. Which I may have just found a nice dresser to use!! I will attach some pics here in a min, I just moved the plants out side to get some sun (well what sun is there since its been raining for like 3 weeks .

 

[mmanist]

Any who!! Here is some better pics of that plant!!

 

[This Old Spouse]

I don't have a clue what that is. Maybe someone more knowledgeable can chime in here?

I'm using an antique sideboard for my 29g. It's a great size (used to hold my 55g) and has lots of storage, and looks cool too!

 

[mmanist]

Thats cool, I've always been into antiques!! I went to an auction but didnt see anything good. The dresser is nice that i was looking at, has lots of places to store things in too!! Ya, when i fist pulled up a small peice of that I wasnt sure what it was, thought maybe hornwort but then i got some bigger pieces and it wasn't. Im not sure but I like it, and hope it will grow with out the roots

For now I will just call it "Pretty Ohio Aquatic Plant" LMAO

 

[mmanist]

Nobody knows what that plant is?

 

[three-fingers]

I believe it's a Potamogeton sp. - you'd need to find which ones are native/introduced near you and compare pictures to ID it, so many of them are very similar, with some you cant tell which species until you see the fruit.