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There's also S.natans which is sold under "Dwarf Sagittaria". May or not be the same plant. I got some from Greenline many years ago and it stayed small in a low light "natural" set up, but maybe I was lucky.

It's a tricky plant that's for sure. I bought a pot when it was first released and it lasted about 6 months. It did grow but very stringy and all the leaves below the top inch or so were brown and crispy. I was using DIY CO2 which probably wasn't a good idea. Just looking at your post, and you...

This reminded me of something that happened at school (apologies for going off topic). My chemistry teacher was showing us how reactive phosphorous is and removed a large lump from a jar of oil. She cut a sliver off the end but it shattered and threw little pieces across the floor. She went to...

My Ludwigia arcuata is only red at the top, I always thought plants only went red at the surface because there was more light there.

I thought the petit variety was smaller than this. That looks like a normal Anubias nana to me. Others may have a better idea though.

The allelopathy theory has been around for a while, but I don't think there's any actual proof it exists in freshwater plants. It's just an idea thought up to explain why some plants don't grow well together.

How did the plants turn out? OK? Were the tropica ones better than the Plants Alive ones?

It could just be that they were damaged before you got them. If the stems get bruised then bacteria can get in and rot them. If you have some tops that look OK then cut them off to stop the bacteria from travelling up the stem and throw away the bottom part. I've got some Red Ludwigia, L...

So what is it then? I been lying awake at night worrying about it but unable to get on UKAPS to check it and when I do, there's no answer! It's like having the last page missing from the book! My guess is Crypt. ciliata. ?

Does anyone know if temperature plays a part in what plants can be kept? My son has started asking about a tank of his own, and I'm wondering about goldfish and plants. Will most plants do OK in a tank that's at room temperature? How does temperature effect nutrient uptake and CO2 addition...

I started to put a small order together with aquarium-gardening.com, but when I got to the payment stage I was told that they only accepted orders over £30 (I think it was). A bit annoyed I wasn't told that in the beginning!

Now this plant has been around for a little while, what are people's experiences with it? I bought a pot when it was released and it has grown, albeit slowly. Unfortunately, my ludwigia keeps growing over the top of it so it never gets as much light as it should and it doesn't look in the best...

Maybe you've hit the nail on the head. I didn't have any issue with dosing, but I've got hard water. Vallis is supposed to prefer hard water, so maybe the combination is enough to see it off.

I recognise a few as being common pond plants - water hyacinth, parrots feather etc. Although we still get temperatures below freezing, our winters are becoming increasingly mild. Just a couple of years ago, we had very little frost and daffodils were flowering in December! Daisies in lawns...

Thanks Clive. I'll be able to sleep again tonight.... :lol:

On reflection I think I'm probably just being a bit paranoid as other photos I've seen don't look dissimilar. Anyway, here's a pic: I think the leaves have blackended very slightly on the edges which first made it look like they were curled, but I think I'm looking too hard!

Also from an aesthetics point of view, if sunlight were the main light source I expect the plants would grow towards the side and not upwards. Might make the whole thing look a bit 'bent'.

Is this going to be added to the official UKAPS articles collection? I think it should be (if Clive agrees of course!)

Gene expression? Is that where certain genes become more dominant and 'show themselves' at the expense of others? I know some genes are dominant and some are recessive, but I didn't realise it can happen at any happen. I might wake up tomorrow and be blonde! But as I don't have much hair left...

I imagine these kind of mutations are perfectly 'normal'. This is the way the likes of Tropica get some of their new varieties. It got me thinking about viruses. In some terrestrial plants a virus can infect causing certain varigations and blotching of the flowers. This does not necessarily...

Thanks for the replies. The most affected seem to be the more mature ones, although the very mature ones that existed before I got it still look 'normal'. I'll get photos up when I can. I didn't have time last night as I spent 3 hours mowing the lawn :?

I have some L. arcuata which is growing really well and has redder leaves at the top which get redder towards the tip. I assumed this was just the plant colouring but I noticed last night that the leaves with the most red are starting to look almost like they're drying out. Thinner and kind of...

Unless Tropica have built up huge stocks I expect the plant will be quite difficult to get hold of for a while. Every 'scaper and his dog are going to be after this!

It may be that the dead otto and resulting ammonia spike triggered the algae. It is now taking advantage of the lovely food you're adding. If you increase your frequency of water changes and remove as much of it as possible each time it should die back/stay away.

Opinions seem to differ on this. Maybe the species/variety has a bearing. I grew the common straight vallis in a low tech tank and it grew fast. When I added some more demanding plants I started dosing Excel as per the bottle and I never noticed any impact on the vallis at all, it still grew...

I have what is believed to be H. siamensis and it would appear to be exactly like yours. It has grown (slowly) but it's quite pale, although I had it floating in my tank for a week or so before I had time to plant it properly so I just assumed it was recovering. Interesting about the NPK as I...

The only other plant I can think are the various forms of Anubias. It's more green I'm afraid but the texture is different - more leathery. Anything red is just going to be looked on as lollo rosso.

I'd just stick them in again. I've found stem plants need planting 2 or 3 times before they get the message :) Have you got fish in there? They might be pulling them out.

If they seem to be doing OK floating, I'd leave them floating a while longer. You could try putting a few of the bigger ones in the substrate, depending on how many you've got.

I've never had success with cabomba in a low light/tech setup. Crypts, amazon sword etc are OK but I think cabomba needs more light otherwise it gets strung out. Plants can store nutrients and so grow OK for a while but when these run out, the plant stalls.

:oops: Just read the original post again and noticed the bit about already aerating at night....

If the tank is heavily stocked, injecting CO2 overnight might be pushing the levels too high. Remember that plants use up oxygen at night, not CO2 and the fish use up oxygen and give out CO2 all the time. Therefore, if you inject CO2 24/7 your CO2 levels will be higher at night which might be...

I've only tried trimming the large straight vallis and the tops went brown. They also 'bled' with streams of oxygen bubbles coming from the cut ends. Having said that, you can't really see the brown ends if you don't go mad and cut the whole lot with shears :lol: Plants didn't seem to be...

Rather spookily I was juat about to post up a question asking if anyone knew if hairgrass (either type) would grow in a brackish tank. And then I saw this.....weird. Anyway, the only brackish plants I know of are anubias, java fern (as you've been told) and I think vallis. I'm thinking of...

I agree with aquaspot. I did a quick google image search and most of the pictures seem to match yours. This is the photo I found from greenline:

Now that's a big bristlenose!! :lol: I used to have problems with mine. If I didn't give spinach regularly she used to rasp on the leaves until they turned transparent! Most medium/large cichlids would have a munch on plants or try to dig them up. Also, depending on which swords you're...

Unfortunately it's quite common practise. I think they expect the people who buy them to go back for more when they die, believing it was their own fault thay didn't survive.

hehe, well I think that's the problem! Still, on the positive side, if it's mush inside a week at least I can blame the condition of the plant.... :lol: You're right though Clive. I should beat myself over the back with the nearest branch for being such a whinger. :oops: It's just if I pay...

Fantastic stuff. I love this place! I went to my local P@H last night and they had two tropica Ludwigias - repens and glandulosa. I must say the glandulosa looked amazing. The repens I think had been there a while - it was a tangled mass of roots and leaves. Someone came up to me asking if I...

I'm thinking of plants for my 3 footer and have a few ideas, one being that I want some Ludwigia in there. The reason being that (believe it or not) I've never grown any! Doing some research and I find that there are several available, although different suppliers offer different species. Are...

You don't have any bristlenose plecs in there do you? Mind used to rasp away at the larger leaves until they became transparant if I didn't keep up with his spinach demands.

For my up coming tank rebuild I'm planning on getting the majority of my easier stem plants from Greenline and a few pots of 'specials' from tropica (haven't decided from who yet). In my eyes it's a good way of keeping the costs down. If you have a Pets at Home store near you it's worth looking...

Many thanks for the replies. I'll have a look at all of them and think about it. Incidentally, while googling I came across http://www.freepatentsonline.com. If you search for echinodorus it's got some nice descriptions of E. "Indian Red" and "Red Flame" and probably has other genus' as well...

Great, thanks for that. I'll have a look at the pictures a bit closer....

I heard ages ago that was a shortage of dwarf chain loaches (B. sidthimunki?), but I don't know whether this was due to a restriction on collecting them or another reason. I've certainly never seen them for sale where I've been. Buy a load and start breeding them - think of it as an investment...

Hi all, I'm starting to plan the layout of my 3' tank (18" high, 15" wide - I can't think in cm!). I really like the look of some of the new red echinodorus species/varieties such as ozelot, red flame etc. I don't want it to swamp my tank though as I want some space for other plants and wood...

Unfortunately, I've yet to find a p@h that have decent tropica plants (although I've only been to two!). Both Melksham and Chippenham p@h had display tanks full of rotting vegetation with a few empty pots and labels floating in the mush. How they expect to sell anything like that is beyond me...

Oh well! Seemed like a good guess at the time! So they're just middle men then passing on the plants? What about greenline? Do they do the same?

I imagine that to keep the price down they have order in bulk. If for whatever reason that particular species doesn't sell as quick as others then they sit in holding tanks. If these aren't optimum conditions then you get the plant on the decline.

Many bamboos like to grow in moist soil, but as far as I know, none are aquatic. Where did you get it? Many plants are sold as aquatic and there are quite a few that would be happier in a pot on your window sill.

I'm a bit late here, but just a comment on Riccia. Naturally it's a floater and so adapted to high CO2 from the atmosphere. If it's submerged I would expect it to be impossible to grow unless CO2 was injected. I doubt even Excel would cut it.

That's a shame. I was thinking of using them in my rescape in the new year, just because they were generous with the FoF.

Maybe you could donate it to the Unipac display tank?! it'd look good in there!

Ha! That's nothing, you should see mine! I reckon I've got the best BBA on here! I bet you're all jealous.....

When you say CO2 related, is this compared to the light/other nutrient levels? If it's a low light tank with no CO2 injection is BBA inevitable?

Don't forget to take a picture!

There seems to be very little information on the flowers of aquatic plants, although the beansch(sp?) atlases and some pictures. Most of the plants I've grown that have flowered have been quite pretty, but tiny. I'm thinking of H. zosterifolia and B. monnieri. Crypts are supposed to have nice...

Seems odd having that subject line in a plant forum, but I've discovered that Ikea sell aquatic plants! In the plant section (usually just before the checkouts) they have a selection of plastic sealed pots labelled as 'water plants', various species but none named. They say you should keep them...

From my experience so far, a 'normal' dose of Excel shows no harmful effect on Vallis. It sounds like you just need to be careful not to overdose or pour it directly on the leaves. In my tank the Vallis is on the opposite side to the filter outlet, so I pour it into the outlet stream and I...

When I next dose I'll pour it on the leaves lying on the surface and see what happens. I was thinking of getting rid of the vallis anyway as it's turned into a bit of a weed....

I'm running a 3' tank with Excel (no additional CO2) and have fairly rampant vallis (common stuff, spiralis probably). I've never overdosed with Excel so I don't know if that would be detrimental, but so far everything seems OK. I hadn't heard of any plant suffering under Excel, only algae.

It begs the question, why pay exhorbitant prices for specialist substrates if they only last 6 months? I thought EC and AS pulled in nutrients from the water column and 'trapped' them in the substrate for use by the roots. Is that not the case?

What is considered hard and soft? >10d and <3d?

Forgive my ignorance, but what's the difference between V.nana and the 'normal' V.spiralis? The pictures and the height info seems to suggest it's a similar size (IME anyway).

The problem with Crinum though is they grow huge. Unless you've got a tank 3' deep I don't think it would do them justice. Does anyone here grow them? We need tropica to do a 'mini' version!! I'm leaning towards Cameroon as an area now as after a bit of research I've discovered that S...

I was looking through some past years of the AGA competition and was disappointed in the quality of the biotope entries. With various people saying the UK should have more entries, I figured this was probably an area that I could make more inroads into (having only just started taking planted...

Fantastic! Thanks for that, just the type of thing I was looking for!

I've had the slightly mad idea of doing an african biotope of around the Nigeria region, hopefully stocking with Upside down cats and killifish. the question is 'plants'? Most of the species available are from south america or asia and I can't believe that although vallis is found in the rift...

OK, thanks. Just paranoid then!

Hi, me again! I bought a new plant (unlabelled) a couple of weeks ago and the new growth is different - presumably it's the immersed leaves. Sorry about the photo quality, but could anyone ID it for me? Thanks.

Hi, This is a picture of my Amazon sword. I was wondering if it's a bit pale and needs some iron? Any idea what species it is? I've seen so many names for 'common swords' that I'm a bit confused. Are Echinodorous Amazonicus, E. paniculata and E. Bleheri all the same plant? Oh, and excuse...