Adding house plants to the aquarium: is it really this easy?

[Jack B]

Before I dip a barerooted monstera into my 35L betta tank, is it really as easy as this guy implies? I just place the roots by the filter and dose plenty of ferts??
Thanks!
Jack

 

[erwin123]

I placed my Monstera in my HOB filter, but I guess its the same thing. First pic is the initial cutting I received, and the second pic is about a month later. The Monstera was 'barerooted' in the sense that there is no substrate in the HOB filter, only sponges and some seachem matrix that I removed from my canister filter to 'seed' this tank.
p.s. eventually it started climbing up the window grille which prevented me from closing the blinds, so I had to hack it back.

 

[Tim Harrison]

Don't see why not. And it's always fun to experiment either way.

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[Nick potts]

Yep, it can be that easy for some plants.

Monstera would be a good choice, and peace lilies can work well.

 

[Hufsa]

Anthurium also does well growing with roots in water

 

[mort]

My experience with monstera deliciosa is that they can suffer massively in the acclimation process sometimes whereas others just romp away straight away. It might be because I added a cutting from a 40+ year old one, and saw all but one leaf quickly yellow and die, like you see with over watering, before it went absolutely mental in growth, with leaves almost 2ft long. I think using younger material is probably the way to go.

I'd also use caution with this species if you plan on a longterm tank. The roots will take over the tank and if you allow aerial roots, they will take over the house. I let the aerial roots grow because I was curious how far they would go and they grew over 30 ft long and in a bundle that would make a nice suspension bridge support. It not surprising when you see them growing in the wild.


My experience with other plants varies from them just getting on with it and growing away to a period of significant sulking. I think water depth is the critical thing for most species. Some don't mind wet roots but don't want water on their crown. My best and easiest houseplant I've found is tradescantia pallida, you just snap a bit off and dip it in the water.

 

[Courtneybst]

In my experience, if it's naturally a vigorous grower it usually works (there are exceptions!)

This is the small list of 'houseplants' I've tried that worked;

• Tradescantia fluminensis (As Mort said, it was literally snap and dip and the plant handles the rest)
• Monstera adensonii (Also snapped and dipped. Seemingly did nothing for a while but then started growing).
• Maidenhair Fern (All the original leaves melted off but the new growth is lush and green. It seems to have to adapt to each new environment).

 

[mort]

When I had maidenhair fern it was more troublesome than most plants because it has a great ability to explode in growth, take over, then decline when there is a change in humidity. I've had it do really well only for a large chunk to suddenly die off when there was a small change in conditions. It always came back just as strong but it did take some maintenance to remove the dead fronds.

 

[Courtneybst]

it did take some maintenance to remove the dead fronds.

I feel your pain.

 

[Myrtle]

I'm playing with this at the moment in my Betta tank, not with Monstera though. However, you've prompted me to try the Monstera adansonii I already have, so cheers for that!

 

[Jack B]

I'm playing with this at the moment in my Betta tank, not with Monstera though. However, you've prompted me to try the Monstera adansonii I already have, so cheers for that!

Nice tank!

 

[AlecF]

Pothos is one of the easier ones, and popular. It's pretty easy to trail along the edge of the tank. You can also see sweet potato on the Foo the Flowerhorn videos.

 

[Tyko_N]

I think you would have a bigger problem if the monstera survives (which is very likely), like Mort mentioned they grow huge and unruly. So unless you have plenty of space beside the tank I would avoid it, the same goes for pothos (photo below of a quite "happy" leaf, but I've seen them much bigger than that) and to a lesser degree peace lilies.

I prefer to use smaller or more easily pruned plants instead; some that have worked well for me include small-leafed Ficus species (pumila, benjamina, and microcarpa), Cyperus sp 'Zumula', Selaginella, boston ferns (if you can contain all their runners), Streptocarpella saxorum, and Phalaenopsis orchids.

 

[PARAGUAY]

My way is don't be put off by one that doesn't do well. Peace Lily does really well in my soft water and if your on top of your fertiliser regime most submerged plants will do well ,even though they reduce nutrients

 

[foxfish]

I have always had mixed success with this method, some plants start off really well but die back after a year or so.
Others never really look great and a few can really take off.
It is definatily possible and good fun most of the time.
Garden centres often have suitable plants already growing in a water filled vase.
I think spider plants and peace lilies are both good choices.

 

[mort]

I prefer smaller species like Tyko_N (except Boston fern which didn't like me very much and promptly died) but do enjoy the massively overgrown jungle look, it just takes extra balancing of the water to keep any underwater plants still growing. We had a peace lily that grew leaves over 2ft long and I've seen some get bigger. This was out of a low tech tank but it does face south with lots of natural light.