disaster !!!

[dw1305]

Hi all,

a plant that is totally submerged in water?

Yes what @hogan53 says, so that is a plant that grows beneath the water, it may produce a flower that emerges at the water surface, like Blyxa spp. and /or it might eventually produce floating leaves and flowers like Cabomba spp., but it can't grow emersed, can't support itself in the air, doesn't have a thickened cuticle or stomata and doesn't have any secondary thickening etc.

What about emersed plants? I can almost hear people yawning (or screaming) as I ask this question. But, I promise I'll leave it at that!

So a lot of plants spend some time submerged and sometime in the air, it maybe a regular seasonal thing or it may be on a more ad hoc basis. A lot of these will grow absolutely fine in wet soil, they don't need the support of the water. These are plants like Hygrophila corymbosa, Rotala rotundifolia etc

An example from the UK is a somewhat surprising one, but Creeping Buttercup (Ranunculus repens) can survive <"low down in turloughs">, where it may not be exposed to teh air for very considerable time periods. I've seen it myself flowering in the summer in places which would have been 6 - 7m underwater in the winter.

cheers Darrel

 

[jaypeecee]

Hi @hogan53 and @dw1305

Many thanks, guys, for persisting with me. I am now left in no doubt about the meaning of "obligate aquatic plants".

JPC

 

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

Yep, my understanding of “obligate aquatic” is that the plant must be completely submersed. Another example that springs to mind is hornwort - as far as I know that doesn’t have an emersed form; it simply dies out of water. (That said, I believe it belongs to the phylum of flowering plants - so, er, how does it flower?)

 

[jaypeecee]

Hi @Dr Mike Oxgreen

Thanks to you too for helping me understand this plant terminology.

JPC

 

[kilnakorr]

Not sure what filter you have. Was the two corners it leaked from opposite or on the same side?

 

[sparkyweasel]

(That said, I believe it belongs to the phylum of flowering plants - so, er, how does it flower?)

The flowers are tiny and green, so you may have had hornwort flowering in your tanks without even noticing. They don't need to be showy as they don't attract insects for pollination. Not sure if hornwort is one of them, but some plants that flower underwater release the pollen into the water to find another flower to pollinate, like some land plants release pollen into the air for the breeze to carry it off.

 

[rubadudbdub]

Assuming it is the filter body that is cracked its worth trying to repair it. You have nothing to loose apart from time and a couple of quid in acetone.

Eheims are made of ABS plastic, not sure about fluval. You can repair ABS with pure acetone, which you can get from boots from behind the pharmacy counter. Nail varnish remover is mostly acetone, but with additives, not sure if these cause issues.

If it's a hairline crack either use a soft paint brush or needle and syringe and coat the crack inside and out with acetone. It'll wick into the crack. Tie something round the filter to compress the edges together, belt, cord etc. Leave it overnight and test it. The acetone fuses the edges together. You'll see it make the abs edges sticky.

I bought some 0.5mm abs sheet to patch over the crack. Cut a square, coat the surface and abs with acetone and compress them together.

I've done this with a cracked eheim pump head and it worked. I've also used it last week on a hozelock garden hose fitting that must have frozen over winter and cracked. The latter still weeps but it's no longer a sprinkler.

This may get to you after your new filter arrives, but in case it doesn't I thought I'd share it.

FYI I ran the leaking/weeping eheim sat in a small plastic bin until I could fix it. It ran like this for a couple of weeks. Just be careful re water/electrics.

 

[DarrenMT10]

it was an allponds soloution er1 and i think the oring is fubar too anyway i have a fluval arriving today and some biohome filter media as i prefer that to the ceramic rings etc.
ive been doing water changes every day and keeping lights to a min im happy to say plants are doing fine so far ive had one or two leaves removed but most are allready showing signs of growth. buy the end of today the new filter will be up and running..
thanks again for all the advice and help guys

 

[Barbara Turner]

a lot its leaking from two corners i also suspect the o ring is buggered too. enought that i needed to run upstairs and grab a Bath towel to soak it up as it was quite a large puddle i also made sure to grab the dogs bath towel so as not to to face the wraith of my wife lol tbh i thinkthe filter is fubar .. if i lose plants and have to buy more i guess thats what i will have to do..
lesson learned allways double check equipment when using old used stuff in future..

I would attack it with acetone and silicone sealant, the gorilla sealant is excellent and clinging to plastic. If you only need it to run for a short while you don't need to open it.. Make sure you test it outside though and not connected to the tap.. if it still leaks add more sealant.

I made it down a grade 4 white water river in a plastic kayak that had fallen off the back of the trailer and had a 6-inch hole.. repaired with duck tape and silicone sealant surprisingly watertight.

 

[DarrenMT10]

new filter is fitted and running fine i can stop worrying now flow seems a lot better than my other filter too

 

[rubadudbdub]

Glad you have it sorted

 

[alto]

I would suggest splitting plant groupings into a smaller portions, covering more substrate area wth each plant type - this can stimulate plant growth, also allows more light and flow through the more spread out plant portions
eg, nymphoides spec.taiwan can be gently teased apart with minimal damage (I do thIs in water with lots of space to work in and good light so you can see how to untangle stems and roots without breaking)
cryptocoryne wendii will (relatively) quickly fill in a larger area when separated into several portions (I prefer not to cut rhizomes but carefully “squeeze” to encourage them to separate - George Farmer demonstrates this method is several videos)


Plant density is quite low and as it’s going to be run low tech, growth will be slower, so it’s important to stay on top of maintenance and any algaes etc

As the L brasiliensis is quite slow (even with CO2), I’d suggest adding more plants, or perhaps adding another ground cover

George Farmer shows some portions and aquarium coverage in this video