Swantje and Sven's Water Plant Page

In our aqua-terraria, we have photos, creeping ficus, an anubias (anubias barteri v. nana), a sanderiana, green hygro (hygrphilia polysperma), and elodea (also called anacharis; egeria densa).

The creeping ficus is suitable for the land part. Photos is a land plant as well, but does very well when growing into the water part. Sanderiana are often sold as aquarium plants, but since they are not real water plants, they do better growning emersed, which makes them well suited for shallow water. If planted completely under water, they will die after about half a year. The remaining three -- anubias, hygro, and elodea -- are water plants. Hygro and elodea can both be grown floating. If you are not experienced with water plants, we recommend hygro because it is very easy to maintain. Be sure to get the "green" hygro, not the "sunset" variety, the sunset hygro needs more light and therefore might not do as well in your tank. When we got our elodea, its leaves looked sort of soft and a little brownish. We still had the plant tank (see below) at that time. The new branches had stronger leaves in a lighter green, and it has stayed that way ever since. Once in a while, we have to throw away the old branches. The anubias has to grow rooted, therefore it is most convenient to buy them potted.

For several months, we experimented with growing water plants in a separate 10 gallon plant tank. Here is a description of the setup that we used:

Our Plant Tank

We experimented with growing water plants using

bottom fertilization,
CO2 fertilization (yeast method),
trace element fertilization (including iron), and
special lighting (a combination of a 20W VitaLite tube and a 20W GrowLux tube).

Our experimental 10 gallon plant tank housed

one bunch of cabomba caroliniana (Fanwort),
one bunch of vesicularia dubyana (Java Moss),
one bunch of ceratopteris thalictroides (Water Sprite or Oriental Water Fern),
one bunch of egeria densa (Elodea or Anachris),
two bunches of hygrophilia polysperma ("green" Hygros and "sunset" Hygros),
one bunch of Lilaeopsis novae-zelandiae (Micro Sword),
some lemnaceaes (Duckweed), and
some salvinias (Floating Fern).

We also had a photos in the plant tank (courtesy of Tapaboy's Newt Institute). In the aqua-terraria, we had two anubias, one anubias barteri v. barteri and one anubias barteri v. nana, as well as two Sanderianas (growing emersed) and one Arrow Head (growing emersed as well) at that time.

(compiled from various sources)
Name	Light (W/G)	Temperature (dF)	Carbon Hardness (dCH)	Acidity/Alkalinity (pH)	Rooted/Floating	Beginner Plant	Other Requirements	Comments	Name
Fanwort	3	72-82	2-12	6.5-7.2	rooted	no	needs fertilization		Fanwort
Java Moss	1	75-86	2-15	5.8-7.5	rooted	yes	may dislike salt		Java Moss
Water Sprite	2	72-86	5-15	6.5-7.5	rooted or floating	yes	needs fertilization	fast growing	Water Sprite
Elodea	2	59-77	8-18	6.5-7.5	rooted or floating	yes(?)	needs fertilization	fast growing, good tank oxygenator	Elodea
Hygro	2	68-86	2-15	6.5-7.8	rooted	yes	needs fertilization	fast growing (sunset is harder to grow)	Hygro
Anubias	1	72-82	2-15	6.0-7.5	rooted	yes	needs bottom fertilization, needs warm substrate	can grow emersed	Anubias

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swan@newts.org / Last update: December 15, 1997