Hi, I was just wandering if anyone would know why my anachris and moneywort will not grow. My water quality in my 30 gal. is very good and they get plenty of light. My goldies will strip the anachris down to bare stem so I put in 4 of them and 2 money worts.I have recently stuck them through plastic soda cup lids to keep them planted,[which to my suprise , they have stayed for a month] some of the anachris have leaves sstill, but they will not grow roots or attatch to the gravel. My moneywort is stoll in the pots they came in , but they will not grow any new parts. Does anyone know what I need to do to make my plants grow?

I get so envious of all of the posts where people saay that thier plants grow, and sometimes grow too much. Ijust want to keep the plants I have growing at all! My tank is starting to look bare again, being that each plant has only one or two stems. ANY ideas! I will truly appreciate any help.

Barbie

Aquatic plants need light, substrate, nutrients, and CO2. Fortunately, both anacharis and moneywort are relatively undemanding plants. What substrate do you have in that tank? How much is plenty of light? For a 30 gal tank you need a strip light that can provide at least 30-60 watts of light. Money wort will stay more compact with good lighting. Are you adding a liquid fertilizer? Trace elements are very important for healthy plants. Do you have activated carbon in your filter? Activated carbon removes some nutrients from the water. You should add more anacharis so the new plant growth outcompetes the goldfish predation.

Hello, thanks for the reply! YOu know my light says 'creates natural day light' but theres no wattage listed.it also says it is an ECLIPSE, do you know how to find the wattage? I haven't put in any substrate or fertilizer,I am a worry wort about putting any thing in the tank with my babies. Is there a reccomended brand that is non threatning to the health of the fish? Also, I do keep carbon in the filters, is there another choice? I feel so dumb. I have kept my fish alive in my 30 long, for over a year so I must be doing something right, but I feel I hve so much more to learn about them and the whole aqua scaping hobby.I used a link fom the forum and found a great deal on bunched plants I 'm thinking about ordering about 5 but I don't want to over do it.Do you think that it will be too many? Thank you soo much for your time!
Barbie

I like SeaChem's aquarium fertilzers, I use the tablets you stick in the gravel and also Flourish Excell, which is a liquid co2 suppliment. Just plain gravel should be a suitable substrate for undemanding plants like anacharis and moneywort. You need enough wattage of light and the right kind (full-spectrum light) for plants to grow, which is very important. If your fish eat your plants, try adding more plants to reduce the damage or try different kinds to see what they don't eat, or don't eat much of. Good plants that goldies usually don't do much damage to are: cryptocorynes, sword plants with tougher leaves, onion plants, java fern, java moss, anubias. I have tons of plants in my tanks, so I don't think getting 5 more will be too much, a tank with lots of plants looks great, and maybe your fish won't do so much damage.

I am gowing cuttings of my plants in a glass vase next 2 my tank... I am using the water taken from weekly changes 2 but them in.... will they be alright like this???
They have started shooting new leaves so they must be ok.... n e sugestions???

If they're getting enough light and not getting too hot or too cold they should be fine.

Replace your activated carbon with some other media and consider a fertilizer as suggested above. I use Seachem Flourish for my tanks. In the 29g goldfish tank, I have two fluorescent tubes (40 Watts total). Even with this low light conditions I have a lot of plant growth and I have to throw away a large volume of anacharis every other week.

what else can I usa instead of the carbpn? I thought it was necessary.

I am not familiar with Eclipse filters... but they should offer different media alternatives. I use sponges. Activated carbon is good for water quality but not so good for plants. If your current carbon has been running for a long time (more than a month), then leave it there. It will soon become saturated. Do not replace it in the future, just rinse it.

Eclispe filters have the bio-wheel, where the majority of your bacteria reside, and a cartridge that has the blue floss for mechanical filtering and a small amount of carbon contained inside. Try rinsing the cartridge as many times as you can - until the thing literally starts to fall apart, before replacing it. I hold it floss side down, just under the surface of some used tank water and pump in up and down rather vigorously. The yuck really just pours out. Then rub the blue floss briskly under water, shake it off and replace it.

In the future, if you wish, you can slit the floss away from the cartridge and shake the carbon pieces out into the garbage before you replace a new cartridge into the filter.

I also drop a small bag of ceramic (or lava rock or sintered glass) on top of the cartridge in the filter to add extra surface area for bacteria to colonize. This only gets shaken out in used fish water, too. That way, when you replace that cartridge you do not lose too much of your cycle. The bio-wheel only holds so much.....

It seems to me that the "Eclispe" light bulbs supplied with the tanks seem to loose their intensity rather quickly. I only replace other bulbs about once a year, but I have had to replace my Eclipse ones in about 6-8 months. I replace a bulb when my light intensity meter reads less than 50% of the original intensity promised. Eclispe bulbs contain mercury, so be careful where you toss it.

thanks I definately need a new light. The anacharis grows nicely when foating , I guess maybe because it is closer to the bulb. I did get a sword tha has survived a while I may invest in a few more of them.