How often do you trim your plants?

[AshleyXavier]

I used to keep a couple of high light tanks and have to trim my plants like once every 2 weeks or it will turn into a jungle in a month.. It can get pretty tiring when I'm busy with work. lol..

I'm just wondering for those with High Lighting level Tanks and fast growing plants, how often do you trim your plants?

Please indicate tank size, amt of lighting and type of plants, with or w/o Co2. Thanks

 

[Purrbox]

It's exactly this problem that caused me to remove almost all the stem plants from my aquariums. I was getting sick and tired of having to trim the stem plants every 1-2 weeks and they'd start looking ratty after a 2-3 month, so I'd have to replant the tops. Too much work really. I've switched to using floating plants as the nutrient sponge in my tanks and it has help significantly. It's so much easier to scoop a bunch of Water Lettuce or Red Root Floater off of the top of the aquarium about once a month.

All aquariums have moderate to high light with CO2 and light EI fertilization.

 

[AshleyXavier]

lol.. i have this problem not just with long plants.. even short ones like glossostigma.. I started by planting them sparsely.. they look kinda bare for about a month before starting to spread nice enough.. after a couple of months, they make a nice beautiful carpet.. after that, they ran out of space to spread and started overlapping each other..

I'm wondering if there's a better way to manage this other than cutting/remove & replant..

 

[Purrbox]

Unfortunately that's really the only way to treat stem plants and keep them looking good. You can slow down their growth by reducing the amount of light, which in turn cuts down on the frequency of maintenance. Or you can choose different plants that don't grow as fast or don't require as much maintenance. I've found that I enjoy my aquariums a lot more, now that I'm not constantly hacking back stem plants to keep them under control. Of course it doesn't take much for stem plants to over run a nano aquarium.