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Trimming Anacharis


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I tend to just leave the melted bits as food for the snails. If you do not have snails, the anacharis will decompose, and depending on the tank size and amount of anacharis, it may impact your ammonia.

Chances are it would act as food for the anacharis itself.

Edited by eatyourpeas
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On 1/10/2022 at 7:14 PM, eatyourpeas said:

I tend to just leave the melted bits as food for the snails. If you do not have snails, the anacharis will decompose, and depending on the tank size and amount of anacharis, it may impact your ammonia.

Chances are it would act as food for the anacharis itself.

It's a 10g pea puffer tank so the only snails that go in there are food. Since the peas already produce so much ammonia, should I trim off the bad bits? 

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On 1/10/2022 at 9:35 PM, Jennifer V said:

It's a 10g pea puffer tank so the only snails that go in there are food. Since the peas already produce so much ammonia, should I trim off the bad bits? 

I do trim off the bad parts, but I'm fairly new to keeping anarcharis also.  I'm still trying to figure out why sometimes it floats and some times it doesn't.

Edited by JettsPapa
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On 1/11/2022 at 7:34 AM, JettsPapa said:

I do trim off the bad parts, but I'm fairly new to keeping anarcharis also.  I'm still trying to figure out why sometimes it floats and some times it doesn't.

Yes! Same! I really love the look and my fish seem to love it too but it is more confusing than just dropping it in and watching it grow. I suppose that's much like any plant though. I'll trim the melted parts and see what happens. Thank you! 

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  • 3 weeks later...

@JettsPapa how's your anacharis doing? Mine isn't looking so good. The oldest parts have all but completely died so much so that the new shoots are breaking off of the original plants. They're also collecting a lot of what looks like some brown hair algae, if that's even a thing? Which is bumming me out because I finally was feeling like I had algae under control in that tank. Overall, I'm on the fence about how successful my anacharis journey is going. 🤷

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On 2/1/2022 at 7:43 PM, Jennifer V said:

@JettsPapa how's your anacharis doing? Mine isn't looking so good. The oldest parts have all but completely died so much so that the new shoots are breaking off of the original plants. They're also collecting a lot of what looks like some brown hair algae, if that's even a thing? Which is bumming me out because I finally was feeling like I had algae under control in that tank. Overall, I'm on the fence about how successful my anacharis journey is going. 🤷

It's doing really well in one or two tanks, and not so well in others.  I can't figure out if it's finicky, or just takes a long time to acclimate to new water and light conditions.

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On 2/2/2022 at 9:43 AM, Jennifer V said:

Overall, I'm on the fence about how successful my anacharis journey is going

Don't give it up yet.  Maybe try to toss it into other tanks and see how it goes. 

I like anacharis a lot and I tried to grow it in 5 tanks (no ferts or CO2, inert substrates). It grows like crazy in one tank, stays the same and covered in algae in another, hangs on dear life in the third, and completely melts into nothing in the last two tanks.

The best growing tank has a lot of sunlight, lots of heavily fed fish, and runs at lower temperature than other tanks.  When sun hits the tank, the anacharis is pearling and its beautiful...

1077226172_pearlinganacharis.jpg.25cf0db2c67571f143c13bd408943400.jpg

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On 2/2/2022 at 6:34 AM, JettsPapa said:

It's doing really well in one or two tanks, and not so well in others.  I can't figure out if it's finicky, or just takes a long time to acclimate to new water and light conditions.

I had no idea it could be finicky. I just thought it was the kind of plant I could add to the tank and it would grow like crazy. I started reluctantly adding Easy Green and potassium to the tank. (My nitrates are always at about 40 because of messy pea puffers.) I'm not sure if that's doing anything other than feeding the weird algae on the surface of the water. Have you noticed if it responds to ferts? 

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On 2/2/2022 at 7:19 AM, Fonske said:

Don't give it up yet.  Maybe try to toss it into other tanks and see how it goes. 

I like anacharis a lot and I tried to grow it in 5 tanks (no ferts or CO2, inert substrates). It grows like crazy in one tank, stays the same and covered in algae in another, hangs on dear life in the third, and completely melts into nothing in the last two tanks.

The best growing tank has a lot of sunlight, lots of heavily fed fish, and runs at lower temperature than other tanks.  When sun hits the tank, the anacharis is pearling and its beautiful...

1077226172_pearlinganacharis.jpg.25cf0db2c67571f143c13bd408943400.jpg

That's exactly what I thought would happen in my tank! But mine doesn't get any sunlight right now because of the season and it runs at about 75 degrees. It does have little piggy pea puffers in it that keep the nitrates high. (The main reason I added the anacharis in the first place.) Should I just pull out everything that's pretty much dead and leave the small offshoots that look fine? I did try to trim as much of the dead stuff off when it first started going downhill and it ended up killing some offshoots. How do you handle the fact that it's an expert algae collector? (Another factor that never crossed my mind.) 

Uhg. I'll try to be patient but I'm frustrated and ready to just pull it all out. 

Edited by Jennifer V
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On 2/2/2022 at 9:16 AM, Jennifer V said:

I had no idea it could be finicky. I just thought it was the kind of plant I could add to the tank and it would grow like crazy. I started reluctantly adding Easy Green and potassium to the tank. (My nitrates are always at about 40 because of messy pea puffers.) I'm not sure if that's doing anything other than feeding the weird algae on the surface of the water. Have you noticed if it responds to ferts? 

You might try guppy grass, if you can find some.  It's always taken off and done well for me in every tank I've added it to.  I do have hard water, with pH at 8.2, so I can't say how it will do in other water parameters.

Hornwort is another one that will take off and grow very fast, but similar to anarcharis it can also be tricky to acclimate.  I've had some that does well immediately and some that dropped all the needles in the first two days and made a big mess.  I think the clue is adequate light, but I'm not positive about that.

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On 2/2/2022 at 8:22 AM, JettsPapa said:

You might try guppy grass, if you can find some.  It's always taken off and done well for me in every tank I've added it to.  I do have hard water, with pH at 8.2, so I can't say how it will do in other water parameters.

Hornwort is another one that will take off and grow very fast, but similar to anarcharis it can also be tricky to acclimate.  I've had some that does well immediately and some that dropped all the needles in the first two days and made a big mess.  I think the clue is adequate light, but I'm not positive about that.

I do have hard water too. Ph in the tank is very steady at 7.6. Gh and Kh are in a happy range now. I can't remember the exact levels but when I checked a week ago I was very excited that the Gh had come down to a level I was excited about. Tank parameters are pretty great in my eyes, with the exception of the nitrates. My light is at 6 hours because I was fighting an algae battle. They are just the led lights that came with the kit though. And I'm losing an algae battle again with the anacharis collecting so much. 

I thought about hornwort but don't want to chance that it'll drop all of it's needles. That might throw me over the plant edge, as I've tried water lettuce, salvinia and frogbit to no avail. 😅 I might add some duckweed that's finally growing well in my other tank, although it went through an ugly stage that was unexpected in that tank. Love the idea of guppy grass. I didn't know I could float it. Is it hard to find? What's it's usual growth rate? 

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On 2/2/2022 at 9:33 AM, Jennifer V said:

. . . Tank parameters are pretty great in my eyes, with the exception of the nitrates. My light is at 6 hours because I was fighting an algae battle. They are just the led lights that came with the kit though. And I'm losing an algae battle again with the anacharis collecting so much. 

What is the nitrate level?

On 2/2/2022 at 9:33 AM, Jennifer V said:

. . . I might add some duckweed that's finally growing well in my other tank, although it went through an ugly stage that was unexpected in that tank.

I would urge you to use extreme caution with introducing duck weed.  Some people really like it.  Others, like me, remove it with tongs or a net every time we see a little bit, and then burn the tool used, just to be safe.

On 2/2/2022 at 9:33 AM, Jennifer V said:

. . . Love the idea of guppy grass. I didn't know I could float it. Is it hard to find? What's it's usual growth rate? 

The only time I've ever seen it in a store was at the one I sold it to, but it's not difficult to find online.

It grows pretty fast.  Not as quickly as hornwort or duck weed, but still pretty good.  It can also be difficult to get rid of, because when you try small pieces will often break off that will then keep growing, but I wouldn't put it in the same class as duck weed.  At least it doesn't stick to your arm, net, or anything else you stick in the tank.

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On 2/2/2022 at 2:54 PM, Jennifer V said:

@JettsPapa nitrates in this tank are always ~40 even just days after a water change. Do you have a photo of what the guppy grass looks like floating? It's hard to tell when using my friend Google. 

There may be a few exceptions, but most fish can easily handle 40 ppm nitrates, and it certainly won't hurt plants.

The tank light is off now, but I'll try to remember to post a picture of the guppy grass tomorrow.

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