carpet plants / ground cover

[Mr Burns]

hey all! first post here...

i have all silk plants in my aquarium right now. i prefer them over plastic and real b/c they look great and they're easy as hell to clean and rearrange. i don't know if anybody else here does it, but i take all of my plants out, get a 5gal bucket, hot hot water and a bottle of hydrogen peroxide. i mix them all together and let them sit overnight. in the morning i give them a thorough rinsing and they look brand new. but i digress...

when i build and stock my new 60gal (55x16x16), i was hoping to create somewhat of a "grassy hillside." roughly one foot of the right side of the tank would be raised by at least 4" if possible. i would like short (max height between 1-2"), lush plant to cover this raised area, down the slope, then be trimmed and maintained to fade out to a more open area. i was thinking about doing this simply by piling up the substrate, but i wasn't sure how that would affect the UGF and debris collection...

unfortunately, after searching without satisfactory results to find a silk plant that will act as a carpet cover , i was wondering if there are some hardy (low maintenance, resilient) live plants that i might be able to try. my cousin's husband ownes an aquarium pet shop, so i can get pretty much anything i want flown in if need be. the problem is that i've never found a carpet growth fake plant that is visually or functionally satisfactory for me. it would just look way too......fake. i don't really have a problem with keeping a live plant under control as long as that means just cutting or pulling it back when it starts taking up too much floorspace. as an added bonus, i was hoping that a carpet plant like this would be able to somehow support algae growth for the pleco.

i think i've narrowed my choices of live plants down to:
•dwarf clove (marsilea quadrifolia)
•glossostigma elatinoides
•ricca grass

i'm leaning towards the marsilea, but there are a ton of varieties in the marsilea that it's hard to pick which one would work best. i've heard that the glossostigma and ricca are probably going to require a lot of extra work and the inclusion of a c02 pump, which i would rather not do...

is there any other ground cover plants that i missed? what would you suggest for this situation? how hard would it be to get that plant to grow? how fast does it grow? what kind of maintenance/requirement would be required? should i be worried about trying to clean the gravel underneath it?

thanks!

 

[TankGirl]

Welcome to Aquarium Advice!

I think riccia is the most common way to do this, but as you indicate, it has to be tied down and otherwise carefully maintained. I also believe that many of the plants that will create the look you desire will require pretty high light and CO2, but I may be wrong and am moving the topic over to the planted tank forum.

Good luck!

 

[Mr Burns]

ah...this had to be moved. sorry, noob mistake!

i've heard the marsilea actually does better under lower light situations and doesn't need an outside CO2 source. the problem is that there's so many different variations of marsilea exist that i don't know which one to get. i can't find any more info on this plant though...like how fast it grows, maintenance, etc.

http://www.floridadriftwood.com/aquariumplants_marsilea_quadrifolia.html

i also read another article (can't find it now) that said somebody had a shorter variation on the quadrifolia.

 

[TankGirl]

How about marsilea drummondii? If you can get it and you don't have particularly hard water it should work, and not require much attention as it should make it's own "lawn."

 

[Mr Burns]

drummondii might be a little too tall. i think the height was around 2-3". i found marsilea crenata (dwarf four-leaf clover), but i'm still not sure how that compares to the quadrifolia...between one and two inches is ideal

 

[TankGirl]

Then I guess you need to go with the glossostigma. You won't be too tall with that.

 

[Mr Burns]

http://fins.actwin.com/aquatic-plants/month.200210/msg00266.html

that talks about a plant similar in height to the glossostigma but part of the marsilea family. it's confusing though, because i can't tell if the the author is talking about quadrifolia or a new, shorter version of quadrifolia.

glosso is now out of the question. i've read a bit more on it and it is far too demanding for what i plan on doing. i think the same goes for riccia grass, although i think it is the most visually pleasing... http://www.azgardens.com/images/Riccia_w_RedCherryShrimp.gif
http://www.geocities.com/Petsburgh/2339/carpet2.jpg

 

[Raimeiken]

what about star grass? try a search on that.

 

[TankGirl]

I think most varieties of star grass are going to be too bushy for the "carpet" appearance that Mr Burns is going for, but maybe there are varieties that I am not familiar with.

 

[Centurion]

i dont know if its quite right for what you want, but Vesicularia dubyana, or java moss, is easy to care for and has low light requirements.
http://www.plantgeek.net/plantguide_viewer.php?id=197

 

[Mr Burns]

i dont know if its quite right for what you want, but Vesicularia dubyana, or java moss, is easy to care for and has low light requirements.
http://www.plantgeek.net/plantguide_viewer.php?id=197

true, but it also needs to be tied down... i don't know how that is going to work if i don't have anything to attach it to besides the gravel underneath.

 

[Centurion]

you could get a small lava rock to tie it to. then just embed the rock in your gravel mound.

is southwest ohio the cinci area? im in columbus not too far away

 

[TankGirl]

I think the vesicularia dubyana would work, but it would still require tying to objects, if that is a deterrent for you, Mr Burns.

 

[Mr Burns]

is southwest ohio the cinci area? im in columbus not too far away

yep! i got to UC...i live about 20 minutes west of there

i'm trying to decide whether the java moss would be feasible. it is a good idea though. i'm not to attracted to the idea of having to tie it to rocks. however, that might be something to consider come cleaning time. i could just pick up the rocks and clean the gravel underneath, then put the rocks back when i'm done. i have a pleco, a redtail shark and three loaches; do any of them pose a threat to eating the java moss?

on the other hand, the marsilea quadrifolia looks like it will be very low maintenance and will grow without being tied to anything. it should end up with about 1.6wpg in my tank, which i've read will keep the marsilea to a height of 1.5" - 2". being a runner plant, i figure it's a rather slow grower though unless i suppliment it and i may have to give it a month head start in the tank before putting any fish in.

decisions, decisions. :? thanks for the options folks!

 

[TankGirl]

I am concerned about live plants and loaches. I believe they root around quite a bit, so it might be the way to go to tie your moss to objects that can be removed (a lot of people use moss on halved coconut shells, which create caves and can be removed), rather than trying to use a rooted plant. You can get some smooth, flat stones and use driftwood to create that carpet effect, and the loaches should not disturb it.

 

[Mr Burns]

i just had a great idea...maybe.

what if i were to make a "track" out of aquarium grade silicone? it's something to tie the java moss to, is close to the substrate, flexible, and would "guide" the java moss where i needed it. i've already made a bunch of cave towers for my tank using pvc and silicone, so i have quite a bit of the stuff left. it'd be easy enough to lay beads of the silicone out on some freezer paper in the shape that i need, then pull it up after it cures...

i attached a picture of the track i was thinking would work perfectly. the red is the edges of the tank, looking down on it. the green shaded area is the cured silicone track as i would like it in my tank.

so how hard it is to maintain java moss? do i just cut it back and scoop out the clippings with a fish net? will it grow into the gravel? will it leach anyting into the water that may discolor it (give it that ichy yellow/green color)?

as for my loaches, they are quite the diggers. i watch them pickup pieces of gravel in their mouthes and throw it to the side. they'll do this for about five minutes if they're really intent on getting to whatever food it down there. it's an interesting behavior.

this java moss is becoming a better and better suggestion the more i think about it...

 

[TankGirl]

How would it be tied to the silicone? I imagine it would work, though. You could also cut a piece of semi-rigid plastic mesh that you can get at the craft store in the sewing section (I think it is used for cross-stitch or something) and tie it to the mesh, so the whole shape could be lifted out as necessary.

The java moss will do nothing but improve the quality of your water!

 

[Mr Burns]

as long as it doesn't do anything to change the appearance of the water, i'll probably go with the java moss now.

the java moss would be tied to the silicone the same way that you would tie it to a rock...fishing line or cotton thread. i was thinking about poking small holes in the silicone after it cures to give the plant something to grow into. that mesh would be a good idea also. i would imagine i could even use nylon screening if i felt like it. heck, if i felt like going all out, i could attach strips of the screening to the silicone track and that would give the moss something to attach/grow into.

 

[Centurion]

the only reason id go with the outline/track idea over something solid like the mesh would be that if your loaches are really intent on gettin to the bottom of things they could hurt themselves.

 

[TankGirl]

i was thinking about poking small holes in the silicone after it cures to give the plant something to grow into.

Ok, I see. I thought you were applying the silicone to the bottom of an empty tank, where it would be secured an hard to tie things to, but now that I re-read your post you clearly are curing it outside the tank, which makes perfect sense.

I am very interested in how this works out, and hope after you get it done you can post some pics! I too think the java moss will work very well this way.