Hornwort Qs

[sallyjano]

I've read through a lot of the posts about hornwort but still have questions.

1. Added hornwort Saturday. It's shedding like CRAZY for me at the moment. Does it always shed A LOT or is it because it's adjusting to my tank? Will it shed less once adjusted? I can handle a little bit of shed but right now it's ridiculous!

2. I am not going to try and anchor it at the bottom as I see that's a challenge so I'll just let it float but how do I anchor it at the top so it doesn't keep swirling around the HOB? I assume the agitation from that is adding to the shredding issue. I did think about tying it to suction cups but then I've heard when you tie it to things the part where it's tied dies and it just ends up floating free again so not sure how to keep it in one spot.

Thanks

 

[BBradbury]

Hello again sal...

Hornwort grows well by just dropping individual stems into the tank. It doesn't require planting and does best if it's close to the light source. Move it away from the filter system, because there's a lot of water movement there. Water movement mixes oxygen into the water and as we all know, oxygen is a plant byproduct. That means aquatic plants do their best to remove extra O2. This is why your tank plants don't do so well in a high oxygen environment.

Add a little liquid fertilizer like Seachem's Comprehensive and you'll be pulling clumps of this plant out of the tank every week.

B

 

[sallyjano]

Hello again sal...

Hornwort grows well by just dropping individual stems into the tank. It doesn't require planting and does best if it's close to the light source. Move it away from the filter system, because there's a lot of water movement there. Water movement mixes oxygen into the water and as we all know, oxygen is a plant byproduct. That means aquatic plants do their best to remove extra O2. This is why your tank plants don't do so well in a high oxygen environment.

Add a little liquid fertilizer like Seachem's Comprehensive and you'll be pulling clumps of this plant out of the tank every week.

B

Hi BBradbury! Thanks for helping again. As I noob I really appreciate it.

I did try moving it away from the HOB but it just keeps floating back there. I guess the water movement from the HOB circulates the top of the water and so it keeps going back. How would you keep it in one place?

 

[BBradbury]

Hornwort

I've read through a lot of the posts about hornwort but still have questions.

1. Added hornwort Saturday. It's shedding like CRAZY for me at the moment. Does it always shed A LOT or is it because it's adjusting to my tank? Will it shed less once adjusted? I can handle a little bit of shed but right now it's ridiculous!

2. I am not going to try and anchor it at the bottom as I see that's a challenge so I'll just let it float but how do I anchor it at the top so it doesn't keep swirling around the HOB? I assume the agitation from that is adding to the shredding issue. I did think about tying it to suction cups but then I've heard when you tie it to things the part where it's tied dies and it just ends up floating free again so not sure how to keep it in one spot.

Thanks

sal...

Attached is a pic of a low light tank with nothing floating at the top but Hornwort.

B

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[sallyjano]

sal...

Attached is a pic of a low light tank with nothing floating at the top but Hornwort.

B

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WOW!

Doesn't it block out the light for the other plants?

 

[BBradbury]

Hornwort

WOW!

Doesn't it block out the light for the other plants?

Hello sal...

Hornwort isn't a very thick plant, it allows filtered light to reach the bottom. The plants below are Anubias nana, Anubias nangi and Java fern. These require low or subdued lighting. They grow fine underneath the Hornwort.

B

 

[sallyjano]

Hello sal...

Hornwort isn't a very thick plant, it allows filtered light to reach the bottom. The plants below are Anubias nana, Anubias nangi and Java fern. These require low or subdued lighting. They grow fine underneath the Hornwort.

B

Got it. OK thanks!

And the shedding issue? Will that improve when they adjust to my water? The amount of sheding this week was ridiculous. Right now I actually took it out and have it in a bucket in a window and was planning to put fresh water (from the tank) every few days to feed it and wait until it stops shedding so much. Good idea or not going to work?

 

[aqua_chem]

Move it away from the filter system, because there's a lot of water movement there. Water movement mixes oxygen into the water and as we all know, oxygen is a plant byproduct. That means aquatic plants do their best to remove extra O2. This is why your tank plants don't do so well in a high oxygen environment.

Malarkey.

Oxygen is a byproduct of photosynthesis, but it is not detrimental to plant growth in the slightest. In fact, plants consume oxygen at night to burn the sugars they made during the day. Even near the saturation limit of oxygen in water, plants will continue to flourish. This simply has no negative impact on plant growth, and may very well be beneficial to your tanks ecosystem buy increasing oxygen availability to fish, bacteria, etc


Regarding your shedding plants. It could just be the plant adjusting to your tank, or it could be that the plants were somehow shocked during transit (too hot/cold, in the dark for too long). They might just be pouting, or it might not recover. All you can do right now is give them lots of light and see if they pull through.

 

[BBradbury]

Hello Aqua...

Didn't want to confuse the issue, but I suggested the poster move the plant away from the filter system, because strong surface movement that mixes a lot of air and water together will release carbon dioxide from the tank water fairly quickly and the plant will benefit from the extra CO2 if it's away from the filter.

B

 

[aqua_chem]

That's only true in a co2 injected tank where the co2 levels are above equilibrium levels. In a planted tank without co2 injection, levels are generally below equilibrium levels, so increased turbulence will actually increase co2 levels, not decrease them, especially with decent lighting. Either way, it's a pretty negligible difference.

 

[BBradbury]

That's only true in a co2 injected tank where the co2 levels are above equilibrium levels. In a planted tank without co2 injection, levels are generally below equilibrium levels, so increased turbulence will actually increase co2 levels, not decrease them, especially with decent lighting. Either way, it's a pretty negligible difference.

Hello again aqua...

That's interesting. I've never heard of this. I would have thought that even in a tank with no CO2 system and one with only the carbon dioxide from the fish, plants and bacteria respiration could still lose it if the water's surface was agitated.

Sorry, guess we got away from the original subject. Good talking with you.

B