# Potted plants?



## kittywolf13 (Aug 13, 2014)

I'm interested in doing a bare bottom 10g tank. I'm going for kind of a minimalistic/future with a touch of natural look. (I know sounds weird.) found an awesome diy for the bottom of the tank so it looks like sand... But my question is about plants. I want to place different glass cups and use them as vases. I originally wanted silk plants just cause my last attempt at live plants resulted in mostly dead plants and an algea bloom that killed off most of the tank. But I do l love the look of a planted tank. 

I was wondering if you guys had any suggestions of plants that do well planted and are impossible to kill?

I kind of want hanging plants as in money wort or whatever and I've seen people put pothos hanging outside the tank? I kind of wanted to do a shelf to put lucky bamboo. But haven't decided on that yet. 

Just want some ideas as I might not end up doing live anyways but am always in love with them.


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## RNHime (Mar 12, 2015)

Keeping live plants in their own cups/planters/vases within a tank is really easy! Java ferns, anubias, vals, and other stem plants are all easy to maintain this way. Just Google whatever you are interested in, and you'll find aquarium plant care pages that will tell you what kind of light or nutrient requirements they have. Avoid plants that say they require high light unless you have the proper lighting for them... anything labelled as "low/medium light" and "easy/beginner/hardy" should be workable as a "potted" aquarium plant.

And obviously, make sure they are truly aquatic species. Things like the pothos vine will happily grow with their roots in the water, but if the leaves are submersed they will rot and die. I actually have a bunch of pothos vine cuttings in a vase right now... I wonder if it would be worth putting them in my marketplace thread before the weather gets cold, haha. o_o Sadly they won't work growing out of our tank - no room to attach them securely there!

I also have a TON of baby spider plants, and I think they'd be cute growing out of a tank... just have to figure out how to make it work. =)

Anyway I think marimo balls work well for "futuristic" plants, too. They will roll around loose on a bare-bottom tank. Some bettas enjoy playing with them.


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## kittywolf13 (Aug 13, 2014)

RNHime said:


> Keeping live plants in their own cups/planters/vases within a tank is really easy! Java ferns, anubias, vals, and other stem plants are all easy to maintain this way. Just Google whatever you are interested in, and you'll find aquarium plant care pages that will tell you what kind of light or nutrient requirements they have. Avoid plants that say they require high light unless you have the proper lighting for them... anything labelled as "low/medium light" and "easy/beginner/hardy" should be workable as a "potted" aquarium plant.
> 
> And obviously, make sure they are truly aquatic species. Things like the pothos vine will happily grow with their roots in the water, but if the leaves are submersed they will rot and die. I actually have a bunch of pothos vine cuttings in a vase right now... I wonder if it would be worth putting them in my marketplace thread before the weather gets cold, haha. o_o Sadly they won't work growing out of our tank - no room to attach them securely there!
> 
> ...


hmm thats good to hear. i did like the idea that if something goes wrong i dont have to uproot the entire tank and just have to pull the one pot. But then i heard the plants do better if the pot has holes. so far the ones i have are various kinds of glass ware (not paint or glaze strictly clear). so obviously no holes. 

people have suggested ferns, and i think java (not sure which variation as im not totally savy on aquatic plants.) i had a few amazon swords and they did well till they died.... and also had some sort of fuzzy long plant. dont remember what it was... that one was still kind of alive... i threw it in a small pond we have in the house (man made no connection to any natural water ways) when i had to dump the whole tank for a horrible algae bloom.


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## RNHime (Mar 12, 2015)

I'm guessing the holes-in-pots thing would be to allow nutrients and fresh water to flow through? I guess that makes sense... Not sure if you could cheat that somehow in glass pots, hmm... I had java ferns corralled in a mini fish bowl within my tank once. They didn't have substrate, but it kept them all in one place. Plenty of "air-flow"; my betta would swim down inside the bowl, lol.

Anubias could also be kept in a pot with no substrate, they just need to be weighted so they stay in the planter.

A no-dirt garden is definitely futuristic, lol!

If you're worried about algae, look into treating it with peroxide!! Seriously, Google it, it's so simple and it works. Peroxide breaks down into water and oxygen when put in water: the extra oxygen kills the algae! Works on cyanobacteria, as well. Doesn't hurt fish, snails or shrimp. DOES hurt algae, so don't treat a marimo moss ball - they are a type of non-invasive algae! Also seems to zap riccia plants, so don't treat them... Everything else I have has been perfectly fine.


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## BettaSplendid (Jul 12, 2015)

!

I love the random things I learn here. *off to read about peroxide and algae*

I thought the java fern bowl idea was cute, btw. Made me think of a garden area inside the tank. Hehe.


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## Aqua Aurora (Oct 4, 2013)

Algae does not kill plants very fast, it takes the algae growing very thickly over the leaves and covering all the leaves to prevent the plant from being able to photosyntahsize and then it still takes several days-week to kill past that point.
Algaes occur due to imbalance in the tank, different algae come from different issues like hair algae is from lighintg-too long or too strong or both. When you get an algae its best to ID it once you know what you have you can look it up and find many sights that cover causes and how to fix it/get rid of the algae. If you don't fix the imbalance and just clean off the algae it will come back again.

If you don't want just vases most plants do fine tied to driftwood so you can elevate them more in the tank, most common plants put on wood (or rock) are java fern, anubias, and mosses but I've seen people put swords and dwarf baby tears on lava rock then dose tank with liquid ferts instead of using an enriched substrate to feed the plants (having both when first set up will make the tank unbalanced-too much ferts, however enriched substrates do peter out (loose the nutrients0 over time at which point they need either replenished(new enriched substrate added-if using soil this will get messy) or other fert options used).

Another dipping option for plants to kill algaes and hitchhikers is potassium permanganate, its not as easy to get as hydrogen peroxide (can find at most any pharmacy) but it works very well.


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## kittywolf13 (Aug 13, 2014)

Thanks for all the info. I will probably be redoing my tank sometime soon as I got some new plants and want to try something new.


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