HELP!! Hunt for Cold Water Plants

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rasprer

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I'm going to start a planted (Walstad) tank for my Axo's. The only problem I have is looking for plants that can thrive in such condition my tank is in.

Note that my tank has a cooling unit that keeps the temperature at a steady 14 degrees C and under low light. Had some things in mind but I would love to hear and see about more. I'm specifically looking for:

- foreground coverage
- driftwood/rock attachment (had the Java fern & moss in mind)
- background plants (had the creeping jenny & anacharis in mind)
- floating plants

Thanks Y'all!!
 
i have had luck with a couple plants

-chinese ivy
-Green tiger lotus
-red wendth

and there is 2 more but i cant remember the names of them, both are green high rise and grows really fast one grows wide while the other is a more narrow plant.

all those plants i have been told by LFS when i bought them were low light and low care. my tank light is on only for 5 hours a day and they all grow fine

hope this helps:happy:
 
thanks!! imma look em up. and about the tall plant, did you mean the anacharis/elodea/egeria?
 
Java fern, java moss are good, also duckweed as a floating plant. I have a hair grass plant that does particularly well.
 
Yes the duck weed is another good one, Java fern is only good depending on your substrate. I have trouble having mine stay planted in the sand. Not sure what you have

The other plant I was talking about is "Hygrophila corymbosa" -low light and grown fast and very tall

Not sure what the other one is called, sorry.
 
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How are you going to deal with keeping the dirt under the sand, given that axolotls like to dig? I've been mulling this over in my thread and have come up with a solution I think will work.

Also, frogbit as a floating plant is epic, and does ridiculously well in my two li'l Walstad tanks (both at ~18-20C though).
 
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mikeg said:
Yes the duck weed is another good one, Java fern is only good depending on your substrate. I have trouble having mine stay planted in the sand. Not sure what you have

The other plant I was talking about is "Hygrophila corymbosa" -low light and grown fast and very tall

Not sure what the other one is called, sorry.
Click to expand...

Java fern is a mainly floating plant.
 
Actually? The guy at the store told me to I have to make sure they stay planted or they will rot. But lol thanks that's a relief. I was going and replanting them in the sand every other day because I didn't want them to rot. :happy:
 
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Nope, it is usually rooted to driftwood or something similar, it takes up nutrients through its leaves.
 
The java ferns in the Doctor's tank - of which there are now a ridiculous amount - were all tied to the tops of rocks with fishing line. That worked great.

The java fern in my 5.5 gallon Glass Shrimp tank are all stuffed in the gap between rocks and in various other crevices, and they are also doing fantastic.
 
Olivia97 said:
Java fern is a mainly floating plant.
Click to expand...

Java fern grows on wood, coconut half, rocks, etc. Makes great moveable furniture. Does not like being planted in the substrate. Several species available. Indian fern is a floating plant that gets quite big and has soft light coloured leaves. It can be planted in the substrate but best replaced after it gets big and straggly. It makes narrower aerial leaves that stick out of the top of the tank. Great shade plant. Both make baby plants on the leaves and love cool water. You could have a great set up with just these two and never have to buy more plants.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
 
wandering said:
Java fern grows on wood, coconut half, rocks, etc. Makes great moveable furniture. Does not like being planted in the substrate. Several species available. Indian fern is a floating plant that gets quite big and has soft light coloured leaves. It can be planted in the substrate but best replaced after it gets big and straggly. It makes narrower aerial leaves that stick out of the top of the tank. Great shade plant. Both make baby plants on the leaves and love cool water. You could have a great set up with just these two and never have to buy more plants.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
As I said in my last post
 
intresting, i have a 1 foot long drift wood that actually a realy nice peice il lightly tie my java ferns to it and see how it works out.


i also have these small 1inch by 4 inch long peices of dark wood in my backyard that sink in water, if i rinse them well and tie the fern to them and let it sink to the bottom of my tank how well do you think that would work out.
 
I've had great successin my apuanus tank with hydrilla, dwarf lilies, water wisteria, the native creeping jenny here(pulled these out of the swamp, and they take over everything, love/hate them, they can be planted, attached, or left free floating), anubias is a slow but steady and pretty grower, and they look fantastic on logs. Java moss is fine, but java ferns hate me for some reason.
 
I hope you washed the plants well. I know someone who pulled plants out of the local ponds here(there are 6 quite big ones within 3k of my house) and didn't wash them. One of the plants had a parasite on it within a mouth he had endless counts of them in his tank. Some of his fish even got internal parasites and died.

But yes, bringing plants from the local pond is a smart idea if washed properly, if you live in Canada or most places in the states and even other places in the world that gets snow in the winter, then the plant should be able to live in your cold water tank.
 
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There are many aquatic plants that can live well in cold water. My favorite are of the Aponogeton Genus such as Aponogeton ulvaceus, Aponogeton crispus, Aponogeton boivinianus , and Aponogeton longiplumulosus.


Aponogeton ulvaceus are especially hardy as far as it goes for cold water. I know someone who grows them in their aquatic garden in Minnesota, and the plants often get frozen over in the winter time. In fact, they will die off and go dormant if your water temp is over 80*F.
 
You could also try one of the Anubias species. They are round-leaved plants so would add a bit of visual contrast to the java ferns. Anubias grow very slowly so are low maintenance. They have a rhizome like the java fern which must be tied to a piece of rock or wood - not buried as it will rot. In time the roots growing from the rhizome will attach the plant to whatever you have fastened it to. I attach mine in my fish tank to bogwood using elastic bands but other people use cotton thread (I find it rots or comes undone) or fishing line. They tend to be a little more expensive than java ferns to be honest but are nice-looking plants.
 
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