Thought experiment of Successful and Unsuccessful Low-Tech Plants with water parameters

[SkaleyAquatics]

Hello all,

So this is something that has crossed my mind as I have started to plan out my low tech 40g breeder aquarium. I was wondering what low tech plants everyone has success with and has not had success with and what your water parameters are (pH, gH, kh, temp). If there is anything else you wish to provide that you do like water change percentage, dosing fertilizer's, root tabs, etc, please feel free to included it.

I believe this would help others make a better educated buying decision in the future as it seems some plants grow better for others. I figured it would be nice to have an ongoing thread that people could go to and see what others had success with growing in there water parameters and get an idea compared to their own water.

I will start.

Plants I have succeeded with-

Crypt Wendetti 'Green'

Crypt Undulatus 'Red'

Anubias Golden Nana

Buce green wavy

Buce Brownie ghost (not the 2011 variant)

Subwassertang

Giant Duckweed

Duckweed

Jungle Val

Red Tiger Lotus

Plants that have not done well-

Hornwort

Amazon Frogbit

Dwarf Sagittaria

Parameters

pH - 8.0

gH - 22

kH - 14

Temperature - ~80F

Dosing and WC

No real schedule for either of these, WC usually every 2 weeks and dose easy green, easy iron when I remember, same with root tabs.

Edited March 24, 2022 by SkaleyAquatics
Changed Title

[Guppysnail]

Ph 7.6 gh250-300 plus kh 100 plus tds 300-400 nitrate 20-30 from tap 🤮

Cardinal lobelia (hardiest never issues)

ludwigia (several types not super red)

aponogeton several types 

anacharis elodea densa

bacopa moneywort

red tiger lotus

tiger lotus

java fern

anubias

hornwort

rotala

alternanthera rieniki rosenervig

sword varieties 

sprite floating only

wisteria floating only

java moss

cabomba purple and green

[Tanked]

My successes vary wildly.  Different tanks and conditions get different results. All Plants were sold as low light/low tech.

10 gallon no tech, plant and pest snail only tank: Ammonia 0, Nitrate 50, Nitrite 0, GH 300+, KH 40, PH 6.6-6.8

Fail:  Jungle Val, Hornwort,

Success:  Wisteria, Elodea, Anubia Nana

Under Performing:  PSO, Moneywort.   

 

29 gallon low tech planted community: Ammonia 0, Nitrate 25, Nitrite 0, GH 300+, KH 40, PH 6.8

Fail:  Hornwort (apocalypse), Jungle Val, Dwarf Sagg, Temple plant, Asian Water Fern, Java Fern, Water Sprite, Moneywort, Italian Val, PSO,

Success: Italian Val (second attempt), Amazon Sword, Anubia Nana, Cryptcoryne Tropica, Elodea, Water Hyacinth, Algae

Under Performing: PSO (floating second attempt), Wisteria (second attempt), Asian Water Fern (second attempt), Banana Plant

New (1 week): Temple Plant (second attempt) , Tiger Lotus

[SkaleyAquatics]

On 3/26/2022 at 11:56 AM, Tanked said:

My successes vary wildly.  Different tanks and conditions get different results. All Plants were sold as low light/low tech.

10 gallon no tech, plant and pest snail only tank: Ammonia 0, Nitrate 50, Nitrite 0, GH 300+, KH 40, PH 6.6-6.8

Fail:  Jungle Val, Hornwort,

Success:  Wisteria, Elodea, Anubia Nana

Under Performing:  PSO, Moneywort.   

 

29 gallon low tech planted community: Ammonia 0, Nitrate 25, Nitrite 0, GH 300+, KH 40, PH 6.8

Fail:  Hornwort (apocalypse), Jungle Val, Dwarf Sagg, Temple plant, Asian Water Fern, Java Fern, Water Sprite, Moneywort, Italian Val, PSO,

Success: Italian Val (second attempt), Amazon Sword, Anubia Nana, Cryptcoryne Tropica, Elodea, Water Hyacinth, Algae

Under Performing: PSO (floating second attempt), Wisteria (second attempt), Asian Water Fern (second attempt), Banana Plant

New (1 week): Temple Plant (second attempt) , Tiger Lotus

Love the algae as a success. 

I'm surprised by the Java Fern nit working for you, I've heard it does better in softer water and I am afraid to try it because of this. 

[Tanked]

On 3/26/2022 at 12:07 PM, SkaleyAquatics said:

Love the algae as a success. 

I'm surprised by the Java Fern nit working for you, I've heard it does better in softer water and I am afraid to try it because of this. 

I have hard water and the Java Fern was not in great shape when I got it.  $2.00 at a GOB sale.  I wasn't expecting much.  The 10 gallon tank is a last chance for ailing plants. It has a mystery plant that might be a Java Fern or Amazon Sword, but is still too small to identify.  Similarly, the Moneywort has put on a new set of pinhead sized leaves and is still rootless a year later..

[Katherine]

I have had 4 anubias nana plants from the same source for 2.5 years. I've had varying success even within that in the same tank, so I'm not sure how helpful this will be. One is still tiny as had gained maybe 4 leaves that while time. At the other end of the spectrum one is now about 8 inches long and the new leaves are about twice the size of the beginning leaves. One of the ones in the middle the new leaves have been getting smaller.

I also have several marimo moss balls that are the same age and have grown a bit in that time. I'm not great at remembering to roll them around or squeeze them a bit, but they haven't developed any brown spots or anything.

And some sort of mystery small sword plant, that hasn't died, but hasn't seemed to really grow much either. Also about 2.5 years old.

 

PH 6.4

KH 40ppm

GH >300ppm

Temp 74ish

Using the light that came with the tank from PetSmart, the top of the water is usually mostly covered with duckweed.

6 drops of easy green a week. Water change 10-20% every week or two most of the time, though sometimes life gets hard and it goes a month without a water change or I forget to fertilize for a week.

ETA: I also had Christmas moss for a while, but I went too long without trimming it and the bottom that was glued to the hardscape died and it detached and I tossed it instead of reglueing. I would say it was a success. I'm sure I was using more EG at that time than my 6 drops now without it.

Edited March 26, 2022 by Katherine

[Katherine]

On 3/26/2022 at 6:03 PM, Katherine said:

I have had 4 anubias nana plants from the same source for 2.5 years. I've had varying success even within that in the same tank, so I'm not sure how helpful this will be. One is still tiny as had gained maybe 4 leaves that while time. At the other end of the spectrum one is now about 8 inches long and the new leaves are about twice the size of the beginning leaves. One of the ones in the middle the new leaves have been getting smaller.

I also have several marimo moss balls that are the same age and have grown a bit in that time. I'm not great at remembering to roll them around or squeeze them a bit, but they haven't developed any brown spots or anything.

And some sort of mystery small sword plant, that hasn't died, but hasn't seemed to really grow much either. Also about 2.5 years old. ETA: I have occasionally put some root tabs by this plant, but not consistently at all. I don't remember the brand, but not ACO ones.

 

PH 6.4

KH 40ppm

GH >300ppm

Temp 74ish

Using the light that came with the tank from PetSmart, the top of the water is usually mostly covered with duckweed.

6 drops of easy green a week. Water change 10-20% every week or two most of the time, though sometimes life gets hard and it goes a month without a water change or I forget to fertilize for a week.

ETA: I also had Christmas moss for a while, but I went too long without trimming it and the bottom that was glued to the hardscape died and it detached and I tossed it instead of reglueing. I would say it was a success. I'm sure I was using more EG at that time than my 6 drops now without it.

 

[Katherine]

I'm not sure why that last edit showed up as a quote... But I was planting some new stuff today and decided to get it and look at the anubias rhizomes a little more closely. The left circle is the original leaves, the right circle is the newest leaves of my best one. I can't believe the size difference!

 

[SkaleyAquatics]

On 3/26/2022 at 7:03 PM, Katherine said:

I have had 4 anubias nana plants from the same source for 2.5 years. I've had varying success even within that in the same tank, so I'm not sure how helpful this will be. One is still tiny as had gained maybe 4 leaves that while time. At the other end of the spectrum one is now about 8 inches long and the new leaves are about twice the size of the beginning leaves. One of the ones in the middle the new leaves have been getting smaller.

I also have several marimo moss balls that are the same age and have grown a bit in that time. I'm not great at remembering to roll them around or squeeze them a bit, but they haven't developed any brown spots or anything.

And some sort of mystery small sword plant, that hasn't died, but hasn't seemed to really grow much either. Also about 2.5 years old.

 

PH 6.4

KH 40ppm

GH >300ppm

Temp 74ish

Using the light that came with the tank from PetSmart, the top of the water is usually mostly covered with duckweed.

6 drops of easy green a week. Water change 10-20% every week or two most of the time, though sometimes life gets hard and it goes a month without a water change or I forget to fertilize for a week.

ETA: I also had Christmas moss for a while, but I went too long without trimming it and the bottom that was glued to the hardscape died and it detached and I tossed it instead of reglueing. I would say it was a success. I'm sure I was using more EG at that time than my 6 drops now without it.

Anything and everything helps. I know everyone tanks vary and we all have varying success as to what works and what doesn't.