Its Sunday, tank maintenance day. EVERY week I pull java moss out of nooks and crannies, my carpet, etc.
So it got me thinking...would plant would you NEVER get started in your tanks again and why!
I'm talking the monsters...Not the ones that are difficult or just melt away..I'm talking tank domination!
Here are mine:
1. Java moss, breaks off and starts growing everywhere! Collects a lot of crap.
2. Amazon swords in a smaller tank. I had one that the root ball spread to about 1/4 the bottom of a 20 gallon tank.
3. Val...it just takes over!!
Dwarf sag. It doesn't stay dwarf and it grows every where.
Vals. They get way too long and grow everywhere.
Rose sword. Dominate the tank but are so beautiful it is painful to pull them out.
Dwarf baby tears-looks cool but takes more trimming than I want-I'm lazy and prefer slow growing/low tech/maintenance.
Hygro anything (but I still want to try pinnatifida)-potassium hogs
I have a good mass of H. pinnatifida in a small tank and find EI dosing is enough K for it, even with RO water. Most of it is attached to rocks (see journal) so I assume only water column uptake. I encourage you to give it a try. It still grows fast but can be kept small, unlike other Hygros.
My list is largely based on size
1. E. amazonicus (too large even for a 62G and too common)
2. E. bleheri (all it wants is to get outside the water)
3. Ceratopteris cornuta (random growth in all directions, hard to shape)
4. Pistia (good for fry tanks and ponds as it sucks everything from the water)
5. Eichhornia crassipes (floating pond plant)
6. Cryptocoryne pontederifolia (nothing against it, just got bored having grown it for over 10 years)
There are other plants that I would be very carefull when adding to the aquascape like Vallisneria, Nymphaea. However they have their use...
I find Java fern annoying. All my mats get to look scraggly in the middle and top heavy with bunches of new growth and roots floating everywhere because I'm too lazy to rip them off. Then they start gripping driftwood that I don't want them on.
The only plant I won't do again is the tiny form of duckweed. It's too hard to completely remove if you ever want to be rid of it, and aside from goldfish no one seems to really want to eat it.
The other floating plants that are larger than duckweed are typically easier to remove, and have larger root systems for fish and inverts to hide out in.
I also got a tiny bladderwort once from a plant shipment that I removed immediately. It never established in the tank, but from what I've read it's really hard to get rid of once you do have it. (Utricularia?)
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