Aquarium Gardening Notes

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Photo of the Day (#9)

Little Umbrellas
35 Gallon Tall
5/16/2008

A new bunch of Hydrocotyle leucocephala introduced yesterday evening. It's the plant in the middle mid-ground with the umbrella-like foliage. Click here to see more pictures of this plant.

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Hydrocotyle leucocephala

I received Hydrocotyle leucocephala from aquariumplants.com yesterday. So it took a week to arrive. Not bad.

The three bunches were all much larger than I expected. That's perfectly fine. They're healthy. I introduced the plants to a 20 gallon tank from which I had recently uprooted three large Amazon swords.

The picture in this article shows some of the new Hydrocotyle leucocephala planted in my 35 gallon tall aquarium. It makes a nice centerpiece as it stands almost 1.5 feet tall. Click picture for a larger view.

Roots appear on every node. Perhaps this plants prefers to creep along the bottom, but there isn't enough room for this at the moment.

The leucocephala is different in that the leaf stems are not as long as those found on pictures of Hydrocotyle verticillata. If you look closely at the leaf structure in the photograph, notice that the leaf stem between the leaf and the branch is very short. Compare this to verticillata.

In every photo, verticillata grows similar leaf structures but on longer stems. The branches are usually covered in the substrate, leaving interesting umbrella-like shapes floating on to of small stems. I'm not going to get that effect with leaucocephala at the moment, but I can't wait to see how the plant develops in my aquariums.

Photo of the Day (#8)

Golden Tetra Tank
40G Breeder from 2004
5/14/2008

This was one of my first planted aquariums. I used straight tap water. The golden effect is probably coming partly from soft white compact fluorescent bulbs. I always enjoy the effect of Cabomba carolinia forests seen on left.

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Aquabid - Buy Aquarium Plants or Sell some too!

I've just listed my first live plant auction on a web site called aquabid.com. I have three large Amazon Swords seen in the photo. They take way too much room in my small aquariums, so I decided to try and give them away to members of an aquarium gardening club, but no one replied to my offer.

This is my first listing on Aquabid, so I don't have first impressions of the bidding process yet. However, I can say this: Registration and auctioning on Aquabid is free. The listing process if fairly easy. It's not as complex as listing an item on eBay but it does not offer such tools as shipping calculators.

If you would like to get my three swords, click on the following link. Thanks for looking!

Photo of the Day (#7)

Large Amazon Swords
20G Wide
5/13/2008

Just removed these three Amazon Sword plants from my 20 gallon wide tank. They have grown to just under a foot tall. They were taking too much room in the aquarium. I've decided to auction them off on Aquabid. If you would like to purchase them, the auction link will be valid until late Thursday, May 15 2008. Click here to bid.

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Cat T.V. Tank of the Month

The February 2008 Tank of the Month on Aquatic Plant Central is worth an eyeful. I'm making a special note of it. Jessica Leebelt's 125 US gallon aquarium looks fantastic. I'm hoping to come back to this link and explore the fish, plants and layouts she used to build this beautiful aquarium.

See Jessica's aquarium here: Linky.

Controlling Brush Algae (Part 3)

This will most likely be my last post on Brush algae as I've managed to successfully control it using large doses of Flourish Excel. I've written my experience with this nasty stuff here.

This image apparently shows Brush algae under a microscope.

Here are a few last comments and observations I gathered from fellow hobbyists in an email forum discussion.

On the topic of Brush algae, in the reference book "How to Know the Freshwater Algae" by author G.W. Prescott: This type of alga is found in irrigation ditches in far western United States.

Other Treatments and Methods:

- Excel spot treatment with a syringe.

- Hydrogen peroxide treatment with a syringe.

- Keeping water fresh is good insurance against Brush Algae.

- Some hobbyists physically remove host leaves and then do major water changes when it shows up in their aquarium. (I was looking for ways to avoid this)

- Some hobbyists "nuke" the tank. They dismantle the tank and clean it thoroughly, thus, starting over. (I was looking for ways to avoid this)

Other Conditions that may encourage Brush algae:

- Many Fish: Some have said that particular alga thrive in water that has excess dissolved organic carbons (metabolic waste) from the fish and decaying plants plus relatively high levels of Phosphate coming from fish food.  The build up of fish waste and dissolved uneaten fish food, changes water chemistry leading to unpleasant complexities.

- John Glaeser made this observation: Though I can't prove it, I suspect Brush being opportunistic attaches to valued plants that have for whatever reasons are experiencing some sort of limiting factors in their growth equation........ thus reducing their growth or becoming nearly stagnant and less active. It seems when this happens colonizing algae attach to leaves and leach out nutrients.

Hydrocotyle verticillata

I'm interested in trying Hydrocotyle verticillata AKA Marsh Pennywort or AKA Whorled Pennywort. I googled about tonight and couldn't find online stores that have it in stock. If you have this plant in your aquarium and could spare a few, please write me a note.

For now, I settled on Hydrocotyle leucocephala AKA Brazilian Pennywort. I found it in stock on AquariumPlants.com. This would be my first purchase from this aquarium plant store.

Leucocephala looks just as nice as verticillata from the few pictures I found on the net.

It's supposed to be a tough, fast-growing plant. It should contrast nicely with the other types of plants I already have in my aquaria.

Notes from the plant dealer advise to not shade with taller plants. It is apparently also very difficult to find or is substituted with undesirables.

Photo of the Day (#6)

Shade Under Aponogeton
20G Tall
5/8/2008

Collected this plant today while doing maintenance on the aquarium. I think it's some kind of Aponogeton. It's been growing tall, flowering and creating shade. I've transplanted it to a taller aquarium. It may recede after transplantation.

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