From: raible@cbmvax.commodore.com (Bob Raible - LSI Design)
Newsgroups: alt.aquaria
Subject: Re: Good hardy plants...
Date: 9 Nov 92 15:33:52 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Commodore

In article <1992Nov6.144202.16218@cbnewsl.cb.att.com> mattk@cbnewsl.cb.att.com (matthew.kaufman) writes:
>There've been about 3 articles in this thread so far recommending plants,
>including
>	ambullia
>	aponogeton
>	echinodorus
>	vallisneria
>	rotala
>	cryptocoryne
>
>and some others. Personally, after numerous attempts, in strong light/weak light
>rich substrate/poor substrates hard water/soft water liquid fertilizers/no
>fertilizers, I've only been able to *melt* the aforementioned plants. What
>this implies to me is that if you're not *lucky*, you'll choose the wrong
>plants. If you use CO2 injection, I believe the universe of plant success
>widens, but jeez, you shouldn't have to invest in so much technology, hassle
>and expense just to grow goddamn plants. Further, one should be able to
>grow plants and keep enough fish where the fish are the centerpiece and the
>plants the accents and not suffer the depradations of algae infestations.
>Also, to me, a beautiful planted tank with everything thriving (like,
>say Vinny K's former tank or George Booth's spectacular tanks) are, to me,
>well, beautiful and boring. Is it exciting to watch a plant grow? At some
>level, yes, but personally I enjoy watching my killies flare, my cichlids
>herd fry around their tanks, my catfish raid cichlid spawns, etc. Also,
>don't believe anything plant growers tell you - it's always easy for *them*,
>especially they want to sell you something.
>
>I guess where I'm headed is to say that I'm sort of down on live plants as
>an accent in a tank because it just doesn't work if you don't like algae. Rocks
>and driftwood look fine.
>I have grown java moss and java fern (and again, I can grow both but have
>seen other tanks with what to me are staggering amounts of the same, go figure)
>in dark tanks where the purpose of the plants is give the fish aplace to hide
>and maybe spawn. Beyond that, don't bother to try unless you're willing to
>increase your fish tending chores dramatically and suffer much frustration
>until you find the magic plants that like your water (and *everyone's* is
>different.)
>
>Matt
>Member, Aquatic Gardener's Association (finally :-)
>-- 
>"I am the chosen one."  | Copyright 1992 mattk@usl.com. Permission for
>                        | reproduction in printed media or by pay-for-read
>"And I Choose to be     | services explicitly disallowed. Permission granted to
>shopping!"              | USENET and like free facilities.

Don't feel to bad about this, plants are funny that way and one person's 
success is bound to be someone else's failure (probably mine :3) ) ! I can
not grow val in any of my 5 tanks which vary in fish load, lighting, gravel,
pH. One thing I do notice is that sometimes other plants seem to be the
culprit, i.e. some plant does fine for months, but does poorly when some
other plant is introduced and in turn thrives. I have 4 tanks that are 
constant work to keep the fish and plant inhabitants happy, and I have a
10g tank that every kind of plant seems to thrive in and never seems to 
require much maintenance. This tank hardly gets any algae, except for a few
cases of blue-green when I get lazy about water changes. This usually clears
up with a water change or two and a low dose of erythramycin. I wish my other
tanks were this easy!. I guess my point is for every kind of water, there are
plants and fish that will thrive, and the trick is finding them. Nobody can
really predict what plants will work for you, only those that they have had
success with.
-- 
_____________________________________________________________________________
Robert J. Raible		EMAIL:raible@cbmvax.commodore.com
VLSI Program Manager		 or: {uunet|rutgers|pyramid}!cbmvax!raible
Commodore Business Machines     "my comments, not Commodore's, ok ?"
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