I’m a killer!

[tolstoy21]

I have the same problem. Every tank I put floating plants in - hornwort, salvinia, dwarf water lettuce - it dies, with one exception. Floating plants do absolutely amazing, and I have to thin them out routinely, in my neocaradina  shrimp tank.

I’ve never tried to figure out what the deal is. Oddly,  that tank has the least amount of nutrients in the water and a super low TDS, but if I had to guess, they probably appreciate the lower temp water (68-70F). That’s just my hunch, cause if I move them to another soft water tank with a higher temperatures,, they don’t live very long.

But honestly, the amount of thought I’ve put into this situation is minimal.

EDIT: They’re also insanely close to my light in that setup. So on second thought, that could be it?

Edited April 12, 2021 by tolstoy21

[KaitieG]

On 4/8/2021 at 7:48 PM, Phillip said:

Soooo I kill Java fern too! Didn’t think you could kill Java fern 🤣

 

 

Java fern dies every time in my tanks that also don't grow floating plants.  Anubias do great and even flower.  No clue why!

[Hobbit]

4 hours ago, tolstoy21 said:

They’re also insanely close to my light in that setup. So on second thought, that could be it?

That would be my best guess!

[gardenman]

I find that plants grow where they want to grow and don't grow where they don't want to grow. Why? God only knows. I just let those that want to grow in one tank grow there. Those that don't want to grow there I'll move somewhere else and they might grow there. Floaters are quirky.  Dwarf water lettuce thrives in one of my tanks. Frogbit thrives in another. Duckweed does well in three of the four tanks, but not so good in the fourth but the frogbit thrives there. 

[tolstoy21]

 

2 minutes ago, gardenman said:

I find that plants grow where they want to grow and don't grow where they don't want to grow. Why? God only knows. I just let those that want to grow in one tank grow there. Those that don't want to grow there I'll move somewhere else and they might grow there. Floaters are quirky.  Dwarf water lettuce thrives in one of my tanks. Frogbit thrives in another. Duckweed does well in three of the four tanks, but not so good in the fourth but the frogbit thrives there. 

Yeah that's been my approach with plants in my aquariums. 

There is definitely a reason to why they like one environment vs the next, but I find that if I figure that out and change the environment to accommodate, I sometimes wind up causing problems with the existing plants that were perfectly happy with how things were before I had to go messing things up. 

My main display tank has a ton of anubias, which I love and has been growing for years now. If some other plant doesn't do well in that tank, then I don't use that plant, since I don't want to mess with my lights or ferts and suddenly have GSA all over the anubias after working hard to get it to grow mostly GSA free.

I do the same with my rose garden. Everything there is geared towards roses. If another type of flower doesn't do well in the conditions I have set for roses, then it gets 'shovel pruned' and i move on until I find something that can co-exist in happy in the already established conditions.

[gardenman]

56 minutes ago, tolstoy21 said:

 

Yeah that's been my approach with plants in my aquariums. 

There is definitely a reason to why they like one environment vs the next, but I find that if I figure that out and change the environment to accommodate, I sometimes wind up causing problems with the existing plants that were perfectly happy with how things were before I had to go messing things up. 

My main display tank has a ton of anubias, which I love and has been growing for years now. If some other plant doesn't do well in that tank, then I don't use that plant, since I don't want to mess with my lights or ferts and suddenly have GSA all over the anubias after working hard to get it to grow mostly GSA free.

I do the same with my rose garden. Everything there is geared towards roses. If another type of flower doesn't do well in the conditions I have set for roses, then it gets 'shovel pruned' and i move on until I find something that can co-exist in happy in the already established conditions.

I'm just getting back into roses now. My whole backyard was ringed with hybrid tea roses about forty years ago. Then my old neighbor got married and his wife was convinced the rose spray I used was going to kill her. I finally got tired of her acting like I was trying to murder her and moved on to a perennial border and gave up on the roses. She moved out to her daughter's house last year so I bought a Mr. Lincoln this year (my favorite red rose) and I'll work a few more roses back into the yard. I won't have as many as before, but a few here and there will be nice.

[Phillip]

On 4/11/2021 at 8:07 PM, KaitieG said:

Java fern dies every time in my tanks that also don't grow floating plants.  Anubias do great and even flower.  No clue why!

My Anubias do great also 🤷🏻‍♂️

[Phillip]

On 4/6/2021 at 9:33 AM, gardenman said:

TDS stands for "Total Dissolved Solids." To test it you buy a TDS meter. The meters range in price from around $15 to God knows how how much depending on how accurate you need to be. (Hint: for an aquarium, you don't need to be all that accurate.) They most often used on tanks holding delicate shrimp and fish that are very sensitive to water quality.

I got a tds meter. It’s 220. Not sure what that means though.  🤣