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Tools needed to maintain the planted aquarium

7K views 42 replies 10 participants last post by  tanker 
#1 ·
Alright I have my planted aquarium and it looks pretty darn nice but I do have an issue. I have a lot of dead plant debris that makes it's way around the tank and settles either on the filter intake or gets stuck in other plants. I am forever dipping pieces of Pennywort and Rotala out but it is difficult to get to the bottom of my tank. It is 25 inches deep and it means for wet armpits if I have to reach down to the bottom.

I am curious as to which, if any, tools any of you use to maintain a clean, healthy planted tank? I have seen long handled tweezer type things and am thinking about purchasing them for grooming the plants. I have yet to cut anything off the plants. I am just not confident that I will know what should be cut and which shouldn't be. I have had leaves on my Amazon Sword kind of brown and then turn green again. I do have new growth on the plant now too even though I have just left the old cruddy looking leaves on it.

The tips of my Java Fern are brownish (still) and I don't know if I should be cutting them off or leaving them. My Rotala still looks rough, In my opinion, or I just don't really like the look of the plant. To me, it looks kind of scrappy looking. The fish however, hang out in there a lot so I am holding off from removing it hoping it will still take off and get thicker and nicer looking.

So folks, How do you prune your aquatic plants to keep the tank looking nice? How do you know what needs to go and what doesn't? How do you decide when to give up hope on a plant?
 
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#2 ·
I saw those long plant trimmers on fosters & smith, I didn't bother with them....alot of leaves you can snip using your nail and pressing it against your thumb, personally I wouldn't waste your money, but it's your cash!!!!

as far as knowing what to trim and what not to....I've been lucky with about 90% of my plants, my pennywort and rotala grow to the top of the tank weekly and I have to trim them weekly or else they 'float' on top of the water. other than that I haven't needed to trim and 'dead' area off of my stem plants.

I've been battling a nutrient fight with my swords, I think I've discovered the root of the problem, which makes me happy, but I lost of of leaves in the process. I'm seeing new growth, which is a good thing. Byron and I have been trying to figure it out and I've just about narrowed it down.

As for the floating leaves that lay on the filter input, I've only found one way which works for me and getting them off the filter effectively. It's dumb, but it works = weekly I need to clean my cansiter filter, which means I need to re-prime the filter, and during that process air escapes from the pump, and causes the leaves to float everywhere and all over the place. When this happens I simply net out all the particles floating on the surface. As I said, it sounds ridicilious, and even more ridicilious when I type it out haha, but it works!

my fish also love hanging out in rotala, I always see my black skirts hanging out in there...
 
#4 ·
yeah propagation with the cut off is real cool and you save $$.i have the long thong thing and it's real handy.i don't think dipping your arm till your armpits is good for the tank.if our arms arent clean a lot of unwanted residue could be introduced to the tank.my tiny army of shrimps take out a lot of unwanted stuff from the tank but your barbs will have a field day eating them if you had some =p maybe your plant has not enough lighting of maybe fertilizer. mine sword also turned brown in the first few weeks.i've since added another light tube and give it fert every 2 days and wow there are new leaves growing much longer then the old ones ^.^
 
#5 ·
Thanks everyone. I just wish If I am to keep the Rotala, that it would look nicer. It is getting kind of Yellow now and the leaves just look scrappy. If it were a house plant I would think it needed water. Since that obviously is not the case, I am at a loss. More light, less, fertilizer? Maybe I will just try nipping off a bit of the tops to see if that helps. Maybe if I keep doing that, it will get thicker. To be clear, if I nip off a bit of the top, Can I just plant that little piece and expect it will grow?
 
#8 ·
I believe there are different kinds of rotala though....*i think*

inga, what kind of rotala do you have? if it is the 'indicia' (which I'm guessing it is) then onefish2fish's description is correct...my indicia has green and off greens leaves leading to pink/redish colored leaves at the top
 
#9 ·
I am not sure which variety it is. It just seems to be getting worse and worse. It is scraggly looking and the leaves and parts of the stems are getting more yellow. Considering the bright Green of the other plants it seems a real contrast. These pictures don't show off the yellow real well. It looks even worse when looking directly at it.



My tank is 25 inches deep and it has 2 18 inch 15 W 6700K bulbs over it. I have Java Fern right next to the Rotala and it doesn't look any worse then when I put that in there. The Green of the leaves is very bright Green but there is patches of Brown as though the leaves got burned or something. Those have been like that since day one and have not gotten any worse. In fact, it seems to have grown quite a bit.
 
#20 ·
I am not sure which variety it is. It just seems to be getting worse and worse. It is scraggly looking and the leaves and parts of the stems are getting more yellow. Considering the bright Green of the other plants it seems a real contrast. These pictures don't show off the yellow real well. It looks even worse when looking directly at it.



My tank is 25 inches deep and it has 2 18 inch 15 W 6700K bulbs over it. I have Java Fern right next to the Rotala and it doesn't look any worse then when I put that in there. The Green of the leaves is very bright Green but there is patches of Brown as though the leaves got burned or something. Those have been like that since day one and have not gotten any worse. In fact, it seems to have grown quite a bit.


inga i just remembered these plants are the same as the small plants i have at the front of my tank. the really green ones.they love light.they higher the light i give them the greener and taller they get.
 
#10 ·
thats pretty much what my rotala looks like, it's growing like a mad-plant...

I don't think it's a plant which gets truely "green", I hope i'm not wrong, because my plants have always looked like this and appear healthy...however, mine are a little "fuller" looking than those pictured(but not much)....
 
#11 ·
I was kinda wondering the same thing about maintenance - I HATE having to stick my whole arm in the tank when it's full of water - which is one of the things that has always turned me off to the idea of live plants

I am NOT good at keeping plants alive and healthy (and I went to school for horticulture!!) and I know NOTHING at all about aquatic plants... the more I think about all the maintenance and mess the more turned off I get to the idea... the fish are enough work for cryin' out loud!! hehehe

but plastic plants are just so hideously ugly - and I do like the idea of everything being as natural as possible

if I could fix it so the whole thing worked like a tiny self sufficient ecosystem I totally would!!

not because I don't want to bother with it, I don't mind SOME work hehehe - I just think it would be cool to have it be THAT natural =)
 
#13 ·
for scargly plants you can try to cut the tops off.i read they will grow fuller.
 
#16 ·
I use soil based tanks, and they are nearly a self contained ecosystem.

no ferts, no co2, no filter, and a water change every six months or so (if that).

JonnyD, was that supposed to be a pun?
got to the ROOT of the problem with your amazon swords? It was a lack of ferts at the roots, right? :p

Rotala changes colors to a deep green, and then a dep reddish purple in high light, but it just doesn't like any of my low tech tanks. (haven't tried it in soil yet, might do that...)

Do you dose with flourish?
If not, that's your problem. If you dose already, I have no idea.

(Rotala is a fast grower, so has slightly higher nutrient demands than java fern. The rotala isn't getting what it wants, but the java fern is getting plenty- ya know?
 
#17 ·
I bought that plant trimmer/ tweezer contraption that petco and petsmart have but I found it cheaper at another LFS. The trimming attachment is garbage (dull)..it chews on the plant..but the pinching/tweezer like attachment is AWESOME. I use it to rearrange things and especially when i want to drop a rock or shell down with squash for my snails I don't have to get wet. I also bought multiple metal tweezers from Ace for 99cents and they haven't been of use...I have found using my finger is better. If your plants are so fine to where you are using tweezers they are most likely going to be an SOB to hold on to with tweezers..I guess it depends on the tweezers though.
 
#18 ·
Oh and I forgot to say about the floating plants on the filter intake-

I have the same problem... I just leave them on, they probably don't block any more water flow than a sponge would. Saves my guppy fry. :)

about the trimming, I just use scissors when a plant (like a sword) has a leave that's brown and starts to get holes.

I also cut about 2 green leaves off my sword in my 5G just to keep it from taking over.
 
#19 ·
It is funny how quickly things change in a tank. My Amazon Sword is trying to take over. Actually, I have 4 Swords all close together. Don't ask me why I thought a grouping would be best. ha ha. They were quite tiny when I first got them and didn't look like much at all. Now, they are a huge.

My Java Fern has what I would assume are baby plants on it. Odd how they grow mini plants on their own leaves. Do I need to remove them or will they fall off themselves and then stick to something else?? Can they be planted in the substrate or not? My fish pruned the heck out of my Cabomba today and took about 8-9 inches off the top. Sassy fish! I am going to try to replant the pieces in back of the tank. I still have a couple holes in the Aqua scape.

I just feel so uncoordinated trying to plant things in this tank. I have decided if I do get another tank at any point, it is going to be a shallower tank so I can reach in more easily without drenching myself. Heck, even if it wasn't an issue with water in the armpits, I can't even reach the back of the tank on the bottom.

I did accidentally slip when I was trying to see if my Java Fern was connected enough to take the string off of the plant. Well, it was until I slipped. Now, I think I will leave the string there a bit longer. :(
 
#21 ·
When my java fern had plantlets forming I let them grow to about an inch long, and removed some, left the others. Now my largest section of Java Fern has a layering thing going on. When I take it out I can see the generations of plantlets, like loking at the rings in a tree trunk. :p

Also, I wouldn't ever remove the string from the Java Fern. It won't hurt anything, and once it gets a bit of algae on it, it will be invisible.
 
#22 · (Edited)
My java fern is having baby plants like crazy. All of a sudden it is spitting out little java's like crazy. Now if only my Amazon Sword would shoot out a couple. I want those.

Also, here is my newish java moss


Am I correct in assuming that this will just kind of spread out on it's own? How do you direct that, just sort of stick it to things as it grows longer? The piece of Mopani that it is on is pretty big and has a lot of character. I am hoping I can just sort of stick it onto the rough edges. Right now, it isn't tied on at all, just kind of wedged into some of the knots and rough edges of the wood. Is that alright?
 
#24 ·
sprouting babies? Does Java moss sprout babies, or just sort of grow outward? I have no idea. I just added this to the tank. Thus far, it isn't changing much. I accidentally sucked some up with my python during water change. Mine isn't tied on, is yours? I was worried that mine was too high, close to the lights and that it might burn out. So far, so good.
 
#25 ·
I don't know if it sprouts babies per say..I would guess it would attach itself and then start growing from their so it would look that way. Also if little pieces would break off as could grow from where ever they are because the moss can live either way.

I made a java moss wall you can see it in my 10g pics. I really won't be able to see it growing for a while. I'm just kind of keeping my fingers crossed.
 
#26 ·
I don't know if it sprouts babies per say..I would guess it would attach itself and then start growing from their so it would look that way. Also if little pieces would break off as could grow from where ever they are because the moss can live either way.

I made a java moss wall you can see it in my 10g pics. I really won't be able to see it growing for a while. I'm just kind of keeping my fingers crossed.

Oh that is so cool and so what I want. I didn't have a clue how to go about getting that look. So you just sort of hung some kind of mesh in the tank on the back wall? Tell me more, please. I am totally wanting it to look like jungle in there. The moss covering the whole back wall would be the best and I am hopeful I can pull that off. Please, share you experience.

I can get some more moss to start it off better if I need to.
 
#28 ·
I found this link..I did mine similar to this..only I used thread and tied the pieces of moss to the wall...and I only used 5 suction cups..2 on each side and one in the middle to keep it from popping out. I got the netting off ebay.

YouTube - Step By Step DIY Java Moss Wall
Hm, Well that was very interesting indeed. I was thinking I would just suction the mesh to the wall with a few chunks of java moss tied to the moss. I didn't know you had to put the moss between and wait for it to grow and poke out through the moss. I suspect that it would be quite solidly let in that. No worries about sucking them out with your python. lol
 
#29 ·
The reason you want to put it in mesh is to create the wall..if you tied it to the outside of one piece it may eventually grow across the wall but most likely in a bunch like a bush. By putting in between the pieces it guides it on which way to grow.

There are a couple different ways you could do this..this just seems the most practical to me. Some like to tie the moss to a bunch of stones and line them up across the bottom backside of the tank...its up to you on how you want to do it.
 
#30 ·
Oh I like this way but I am thinking this is a LOT of moss in my tank. lol I think it would look great though. How do you deal with the heater and filter intake? just sort of weave it behind or could you do a partial wall? Hm, something to think about. Maybe I could do a side wall? How far does this grow? Is it really slow growing? Mine seems like it grew a little considering I already sucked some up in the gravel vac when doing my water change. That or it just looks fluffier today. lol
 
#31 ·
I put the heater on my side wall behind my mopani..around filter intake I didn't put the moss directly behind it..you have to figure this out beforehand..so you know where you intake will be. --I think it will grow as long as you let it grow..I haven't had mine long enough to tell you my experience. After talking to a memeber here I may not have the best specimens to start with but I am positive and keeping fingers crossed.
 
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