What is your favorite aquarium plant?

On 2005-01-20, Eric Schreiber wrote:
wrote:

What is your favorite aquarium plant?

Right now, my favorite is the Red Melon Sword. This picture should
illustrate why - the one in my tank is gorgeous.

http://www.ericschreiber.com/aquariu...elonsword.html

Whoa, that sucker is *goregous*!! As per my last post about the poor
LFS selection, I might just have to see what kind of special orders
places will make for me...


--
Ross Vandegrift

"The good Christian should beware of mathematicians, and all those who
make empty prophecies. The danger already exists that the mathematicians
have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine
man in the bonds of Hell."
--St. Augustine, De Genesi ad Litteram, Book II, xviii, 37

Ross Vandegrift wrote:

Whoa, that sucker is goregous!!

I assure you, it has nothing to do with me - just dumb, blind luck that
it does well in my tank.


As per my last post about the poor LFS selection, I might just have
to see what kind of special orders places will make for me...

You might consider ordering online. There are numerous reputable
dealers out there. Also, if you have something to offer in trade you
can often find other hobbyists in the newsgroups who can give you some
interesting things.


--
Eric Schreiber
www.ericschreiber.com

Eric Schreiber wrote:
Right now, my favorite is the Red Melon Sword. This picture should
illustrate why - the one in my tank is gorgeous.

They are very pretty. Mine grew too big for the tank (110g) and I had to
remove it. Luckily, it had a smaller child nearby and I planted that one
in its place. Mine seems to have longer leaves, how much light do you
have in that tank?

--
Victor M. Martinez
Owned and operated by the Fantastic Seven (TM)
Send your spam he
Email me he

Victor Martinez wrote:

They are very pretty. Mine grew too big for the tank (110g) and I had
to remove it. Luckily, it had a smaller child nearby and I planted
that one in its place.

Some time ago I bought a huge Jade Sword from my LFS. I don't know what
I was thinking, as it was certainly too big for my tank, and cost
something like $18. Naturally, it pretty much died right away. At the
last moment I pulled out what was left and stuck it in a one-gallon jar
of water with a couple of inches of dirt at the bottom. While the main
plant didn't survive, there are at least four small child plants in the
jar now. Still don't know what I'm going to do with them, but for now
maintenance is easy.


Mine seems to have longer leaves, how much
light do you have in that tank?

It's a 20 gallon high tank, with an Eclipse hood. The hood has 30
watts. I added more lights in the gap, bringing the total to 56 watts
of compact flourescent lighting.

There are two somewhat poor photos, and an explanation, of the
additional lighting at:
www.ericschreiber.com/aquarium/tank1.html


--
Eric Schreiber
www.ericschreiber.com

Eric Schreiber wrote:
There are two somewhat poor photos, and an explanation, of the
additional lighting at:
www.ericschreiber.com/aquarium/tank1.html

That is very cool! How do you prevent water from touching the add-on lights?

--
Victor M. Martinez
Owned and operated by the Fantastic Seven (TM)
Send your spam he
Email me he

Victor Martinez wrote:

www.ericschreiber.com/aquarium/tank1.html

That is very cool! How do you prevent water from touching the add-on
lights?

I don't know if you're familiar with the Eclipse hoods or not, but
perhaps you can see from my photos that there is a filter area at the
back. You might be able to make out the two metal hooks I have hanging
from this filter area, into the 'gap' in the Eclipse hood design.
Resting on those two hooks I have a piece of Plexiglass, cut to just a
bit larger than the size of the add-on lighting fixture. The lighting
fixture then rests of the Plexiglass.

It isn't by any means moisture-proof, and no way would it pass a UL
inspection. :-) But, the Eclipse hoods don't make much splashing, and
as long as I'm careful when working in the tank, the fixture stays
pretty well dry. Because of the way it's all jammed in, and the shape I
made the hooks in, it's actually pretty sturdy. I'd really have to
wollop it to knock the add-on fixture into my tank.

I'm surprised that no one makes a commercial add-on similar to this. It
shouldn't be hard to manufacture a reasonably well sealed fixture with
a better hooking system that people could just drop in place.

Here is some truly awful ascii-art that shows the shape of the hook.
This will only work if you're using a fixed font, like Courier, to view
it. The left side hangs into the filter area, and the right side drops
into the gap to support the Plexiglass. Notice the upturn at the far
right, which serves to keep the Plexiglass and fixture from falling off
the hook. While I made this with a pair of thick, stiff wires, someone
with some skill in heating and bending Plexiglass or acrylic could made
a continuous form that served as both hook and splash guard.
__
/ \
| |
| |
| |
|
|
| |
\________________/



--
Eric Schreiber
www.ericschreiber.com

Victor Martinez wrote:
Eric Schreiber wrote:

Right now, my favorite is the Red Melon Sword. This picture should
illustrate why - the one in my tank is gorgeous.


They are very pretty. Mine grew too big for the tank (110g) and I had to
remove it. Luckily, it had a smaller child nearby and I planted that one
in its place. Mine seems to have longer leaves, how much light do you
have in that tank?


Yes, mine has stems which are far too long for the 24" height of my
tank. When the leaves grow too tall they bend over double and make it
very difficult for algae eaters to keep the leaves clean. Mine get
covered in green fuzz and BB algae.

Nikki

wrote:
What is your favorite aquarium plant? How is the selection of aquarium
plants for sale at your LFS?

I'm lucky - I'm blessed with an outstanding LFS. They've had pretty
much every different common plant I've looked for, and they get rare
ones in regularly. The other day I went in and they had a big aquatic
fern that nobody could even identify.

I have two favorite plants. One is Rotala macrantha. I had a healthy
bunch of it growing once and it was so colorful it almost glowed. The
other is a plain old Amazon swordplant. I love the shape and how they
put out runners with baby swordplants along the length of the runner.

--
__ Elaine T __
__' http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__

wrote in message
oups.com...
What is your favorite aquarium plant? How is the selection of aquarium
plants for sale at your LFS?


You need to specify whether we can grow it or not. That I can grow in my
well water: Hornwort, good old Echinodoras amazonica and tennelus
(grudgingly).

That I can't grow, all Crypts, Riccia, Tiger Lotus, Undulatus... and the
list goes on and on *wipes tear away*.

Big Als and SuperPet would be my plant store choices *if I could, wipes
other eye*.
--
www.NetMax.tk

NetMax wrote:
That I can't grow, all Crypts, Riccia, Tiger Lotus, Undulatus... and the

You *can't* grow crypts?!?!?!?!?!?! Mine are like weeds that need
prunning constantly. They're a nuisance... ;-)

--
Victor M. Martinez
Owned and operated by the Fantastic Seven (TM)
Send your spam he
Email me he