Growing aquatic plants in small containers

by Peter Bradley
London, England

Upper: Bacopa Lower: Heteranthera zosterfolia-stargrass

Photos from Pauls Aquatic Plants

When you grow plants in aquariums, often you miss out on one of the most interesting and spectacular aspects of keeping plants...the flowers! Allowing plants to break the water surface gives you the opportunity to see the many wonderful variants of aquatic blossoms. This can be done very easily in small containers.

Spectacular results can be achieved with very low tech equipment. Any
suitable container such as a glass vase, pickle jar or Red Vine Licorice
Container works wonders. The plants I tried at first all can take cooler
conditions found in most centrally heated houses. All that is required are
good healthy plants, good substrate and natural daylight - a north facing
window is ideal. My experiments with the Red Vine containers came about as I was demonstrating what causes water to go green and showing that when you remove nitrates and with lots of Java moss, this can control algae - but this is another article.

The Red Vine Candy containers, courtesy of Costco, are ideal for small
planted aquaria because :

1. Being used for food they are non-toxic.
2. They are very durable, being made of tough plastic.
3. They hold approx. 1 gallon - just enough to support a Siamese
fighting fish or Paradise fish (being labyringh fish these do not require filtration.)
4. They have an attractive transparent lid.

Warmth is provided by way of a Reptile Heat Mat - in the UK it was an
Algarde but I expect you have a similar brand in the US. There was no need for a thermostat as the heat mat raised the ambient temperature by about 15 degrees, which in the average home is ideal for plants. Bulbs, such as Barclaya Longifolia particularly enjoy the gentle warmth through the substrate and flower easily in this set up.

My substrate is 3/4 silver sand and 1/4 Denerle duponic (but any laterite mixture could be mixed with the silver sand). The reason for the fine silver sand is that it is ideal for carpeting plants, such as Glossostigma. Other plants used were the dwarf Hydrocotyle Vulgaris. I was fortunate enough to be supplied moss which had been tissue cultured on to bogwood by Tropica in Denmark. However, Java moss on small pieces of bogwood works adequately. The only plant that did not do well was the hairgrass - it looks good in the picture but died within a couple of weeks.

Water I use is RO, buffered with 20% hard London tap water. Light is provided by a small halogen desk lamp. Algae shrimp are ideal for this set up and simply graze on the moss and require no feeding. Regular water changes every two weeks benefit both shrimps and plants and takes literally just a few minutes.

The total outlay is about 30$, depending on the plants used. I hope this gives you some inspiration. You do not need a lot of expense to achieve an aquatic wonderland.

Next Peter describes how to grow flowering aquarium plants in a simple vase with ordinary garden soil. Peter also writes a column for Practical Fishkeeping Magazine.