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Re: Emersed Plants!!
"Matt" :
>I just found out today that I have several plants which do better Emersed! I
>was very surprised at this, dont ask me why, just was, heh.
>Anyway, can Lilaeopsis sp "Mauritius" be emersed as well? I'm curious how
>deep do I make the water for it to grow as well as anubius nana and a few
>swords.
>Also how much humidity is needed to grow emersed?
Actually, its the VAST majority of our true aquatic plants have an emersed
phase. You have to really search to find a species that has no emersed form
ex: all the Vallesnaria sp., elodea sp., crispus and I can't think af
another right now. A few months back, Tom Barr shared w/ me that even
Glossostigma grows emersed!! I set about creating a small terrarium
experiment to grow as many plants emersed as I could. Some look better in
their emersed form and all ship much easier when grown emersed. I used a
cracked aquarium and succeeded in growing Ludwigia grandelosia, Ludwigia
aculata, Lilaeopsis, 3 var. of hairgrasses, ALL the swords (even E. quad),
Crypts, ALL Hydrophilia, Glosso, Aquatic clover, Javamoss, riccia, lobelia,
pearlgrass.
I've been getting comments from visitors that its the BEST aquarium I've
built that they've seen! Honestly, it was never intended to be aquascaped
and it looks nice though I'm not into terrariums per se so I made it look
like an
"Air-Amano" type tank... sort of like; how a terrarium would look if Amano
did it.
Advantages:
1. No algae!:-)
2. Plants that are harder to grow submersed grow MUCH easier emersed and
look much better! Ex; Ludwigia grandelosia
3. You can use less light. Light doesn't need to penetrate layers of water
w/ dissolved solutes to get to the plants.
4. You can use thinner glass to costum build your own.
5. Plants bloom!
6. No need for filtration.
7. Use ANY fertilizer you want!
Use a glass top to maintain 90-95% humidity. The big secret to growing
anything in this emersed form is to keep the water low, air humidity high
and the Concentration of Co2 in the "air column" higher than the water or
wet soil.
I use the same substrate as I would w/n a submersed aquarium.
I keep the water only an inch above the substrate and bubble in Co2 into
this inch of water so it acts as a bubble counter. Co2 being heavier than
air, will displace the non-Co2 enriched air from the bottom up. The plants
go like NUTS when you do this. This system has many possibilities for me
and I intend to expand on it.
Florida Flagfish for Hairalgae Elimination:
http://floridadriftwood.com/floridaflagfish.htm
Hi Cynthia! At least I, am always carfull to stay weeelll w/in the limit!
:-D