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I'm looking for a floor covering plant, that basically creates the illusion of a fully planted bed. i.e. grass, or thick short foliage. I have a sand substrate and realsie that in order to stop the cory's / loaches etc digging them up, they will need to be grown on a mesh, and then the mesh will be placed under the sand with the plant poking through.
I have absolutely no idea what would be suitable. Preferabley something that could also grow up the odd bit of mopani or bogwood.
cheers
rob
My wife made the mistake of buying me a 2 ft tank and it grew to 7ft.
Try some vesicularia dubyana (java moss); java ferns grow nicely on wood, they need anchored at first. Glosso is the best but needs optimum conditions including high light intensity - it has the peculiar habit of suddenly erupting into a glorious mass of brilliant hue, and only grows tall under lower light intensities than normally required. Carpet plants are often hard to come by, at least 'round these parts. Good luck!
The toil of all that be helps not the primal fault
it rains into the sea, and still the sea is salt
I've got the ricca growing at the moment it's just tied to rocks and wood and i've always thought it gives more of a moss impression than lawn. But on the plus side is simple to grow major benefits come from using CO2.
do you have problems with it breaking free and floating round the tank?
On the whole no. When you first emerce the plant under water the lose pieces float away, but you can just catch them in a net and tie them to the next piece you do, or leave it floating to grow on before you put in under water. The main thing is that it is well tied down in the first place.
DO you have CO2 injection?
Yes it creates the heavy bubbling effect on the ricca. Keep in mind you are making a floating plant live underwater, it was designed to pick up CO2 from the atmosphere and can not do that underwater so adding CO2 really gives it a boost. You can grow it without but no were near as fast a growth rate is achieved and it needs to be kept in bright light if you grow it without CO2.
The only problem i have experenced with ricca is fish eating it
this idea's been used many times and is quite popular locally. A lot of the mosses are cultivated like that as well in the lfs.
java moss, christmas moss, willow moss (however, there's some ongoing debate on the real ID of these mosses) etc. riccia's one of the plants cultivated on these meshes too.
You could use
1. steel mesh
2. plastic mesh (those kind in DIY shops that could be used as window mesh etc)
3. fabric netting (the kinds very similiar to the material found in your fish nets)
basically, the idea is to weigh them down so that they can grow more manageably, well besides the convention way of tying them to driftwood and sorts that is.
if you have cories in the tank, I suggest you make sure that the plants are secure coz the little cories will definitely dig them up while going around the tank. I'm trying to cultivate some glossos in my cories tank, and I can tell yah, it's not easy. But it'll be beautiful if I can manage.
If you've got strong enough lights, you might wanna think about glossos. Very nice effect.
I've got my riccia, and java moss to start with. I'll try and grow them on abit in a breeder, away from current ,and with a small fertiliser tab first. Then, hopefully in a few weeks they will be ready to plant.
cheers for all yer help.
rob
My wife made the mistake of buying me a 2 ft tank and it grew to 7ft.
