Takeover Plants; Minus the Takeover

[TheMosster]

Throughout my hobby i have tried many plants people claim will "take over your tank because of its fast growth"

Ive done val,jungle val,nagas,anarchis,hornwort, pearl weed..etc.. you get the point. However, with all these plants i have NEVER had this "takeover" result.

Is everyone overexagerating or is there a secret to these plants im just not getting?

Ive used high light, good ferts, and still im not getting anywhere.

[Pepere]

“Takeover your tank” is somewhat a subjective statement..

 

I have had serious growth of vallisneria, dwarf sag, hornwort and wisteria that required weekly pruning back and discarding of excess growth, but it is easy enough to keep them all in check with weekly pruning…

 

if I didnt prune and remove they all could seriously outcompete other plants and crowd them out.

Are you having difficulty in them growing and reproducing well?

[TheMosster]

On 6/20/2023 at 1:53 PM, Pepere said:

Are you having difficulty in them growing and reproducing well?

i guess. val and hornwort straight out died, the other stems are just growing rather slowly, if growing at all.

[JoeQ]

Abundant fertilizer is the key to growth, for hornwort you almost can't over fertalize!  This was my pre-trim picture with a moderate fertilization schedule. If are using high light you should definitely be looking into doing a EI dosing with a GH Booster (if you don't know your calcium/magnesium ratio) on water change days.

 

[TheMosster]

On 6/20/2023 at 2:14 PM, JoeQ said:

Abundant fertilizer is the key to growth, for hornwort you almost can't over fertalize!  This was my pre-trim picture with a moderate fertilization schedule. If are using high light you should definitely be looking into doing a EI dosing with a GH Booster (if you don't know your calcium/magnesium ratio) on water change days.

 

ive been using Easy Green and Equilibrium.

Lighting is medium, not super high.

[JoeQ]

I'd up my dose then. 

[Pepere]

I have Hornwort in my quarantine sphere along with water lettuce.

easy green dosed to 10 - 20 ppm nitrate.

 

ph around 7.2,  Gh and KH are kept between 5 - 7 degrees….

 

I wouldnt say that light is anywheres “really bright”  10 hours a daywith good morning light filtering in through window.

weekly 50% water change.  Sponge filter.  Box filter has activated carbon for med treatment removal…

 

I cull hornwort out every week or two…

Edited June 20 by Pepere

[Pepere]

For whatever reason, photo did not originally post.

Second attempt failed to load as well.

 

software update seems to have some hiccups @Streetwise

Second attempt failed to load as well.

 

software update seems to have some hiccups @Streetwise

[JoeQ]

@Pepere there is probably something up, if you notice all graphics are MIA

[Tanked]

If you can meet all of their requirements some fast growing plants might out perform (takeover) the other plants. Hornwort and Anacharis did takeover my planted community tank.  The Hornwort made it difficult for the fish to swim.  Duckweed found its way into the planted community but has disappeared.

PSO and Wisteria were supposed to take over, but barely survived in the planted community tank. Both grow in the project tank. The Wisteria is the only easy to find plant because the PSO has taken over the tank.

[redfish]

Guppy grass is the only thing that has taken off in mass for me and that took a looong time before it decided to go wild.  I was down to 1-2 little pieces from a couple bunches.  It has taken off now.

[TheMosster]

6 minutes ago, redfish said:

Guppy grass is the only thing that has taken off in mass for me and that took a looong time before it decided to go wild.  I was down to 1-2 little pieces from a couple bunches.  It has taken off now.

i got mine with the hornwort.

The LFS has a big tank with most of their stems, so i got small bits of guppy grass from there.