FishProfiles.com Message Forums

I'm pretty excited about our new Aquarium Adventure store... to put it mildly, it rocks. AND they have a great selection of plants and a pretty knowledgeable staff. I've found a bunch of plants that interest me, and since I intend to set up the 55 gallon soon, I have room to play.

A short list of plants that interest me (some of which I need help with, i.e. figuring out what the scientific name is):

Water poppy
Italian val (Vallisneria spiralis?)
"temple" hygro corymbosa
"nesaea" Pedicellata
rotala indica
mexican oak leaf
sagitteria Chilensis
Purple cabomba
Rotala Wallichi

Water poppy looks really spiffy, but seems like it would be better off with the height of the 20 long instead of the taller 55. I keep seeing it in a pond setting, would it work in a tank? I'm having troubles finding info on "mexican oak leaf" but it's a very different leaf shape than anything I've seen. I had rotala indica in my 20 long and it was doing well, but died off when I moved.

I'm still not sure what lighting I'm going to put in the 55, I want more than the single strip light that it comes with. I'm liking this fixture, with different color bulbs, of course. Unfortunately, it doesn't allow you to make substitutions for the pre-installed bulbs, but hey... anyone saltie want to buy some bulbs? Any opinions on this fixture? Anything I need to know?

Does anyone have experience with the above plants? Basically what I need to know is light levels and how difficult the plants are... or even the proper names so I can look them up easily. Maybe I'm just too tired to do proper research, but I seem to be pulling up blanks on half of these.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

Hi,

I have a book that has some info about the mexican oak leaf. Here is some of that.

TricoronisRivularis

Light Medium to bright
pH and Hardness Not critical
Substrate Not critical
Temperature 20C min
Propagation Take cuttings or detach plants produced on runners
Placement Mid ground to background

The thick stems bear opposite, light to dark green oval leaves with many indentations that give the lemina a toothed effect, hence the common name reference to k leaves.


Plus, I think most of the plants mentioned (nesaea,red temple and purple cabomba) would require high levels of lighting

-Mughal

Hey kitten, that light would definitely put you into the high light territory. With this comes a somewhat difficult balance between plant growth and algae growth. I'd personally make sure to have CO2 on that tank and get ready to dose NO3, PO4 and micros.

Nesaea, purple cabomba, and rotala wallichi all need really high light, like the fixture you linked to and can be difficult to grow. All the rest aren't very demanding...but I don't know what mexican oak leaf is or if it's even aquatic. All the other plants can be looked up at www.tropica.com or google, as the names listed are pretty common.

As far as the bulbs go, I can't buy 'em as I don't have a fixture for them.

---

Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Hi,

Matty said it all about the plants, I just have a small comment on the light unit.

If I am not mistaken then this unit cannot be used with a glass lid as the swinging legs require some fixation on the inside of the tank (see the screw like thingies?). For me, that renders them useless as they unit isn't waterproof either and condensation will eventually ruin it (not to mention the water drop stains).

Ingo

---

Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club