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Water hyacinth in discus tank and in compost bin

Z

Zante

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Joined
14 Jan 2017
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92
Location
Florence, Italy
Planning out my discus tank, and have already decided to have all the back edge thickly planted with emersed plants.

Now thinking of the water surface and since it might be an open tank I am looking in the direction of water hyacinths. The tank should have a surface of 220x60 (or 70 depends on some choices I have to make) cm, so plenty of room for them.

Tried them before on a smaller discus tank, 400 litres, but failed. Wanted to try again. but wanted to first know if it might have been the temperatures of the discus tank that killed them.

Also, I'll have to dispose of the extras that will inevitably proliferate if I can get them to thrive, and I don't want to risk it becoming invasive here. My parents have a compost bin, will that be ok for disposal or is it still a risk?
What about dumping them at sea? Will the salt water kill them?
 
First I'd check you can actually get hold of some. It was added to the eu banned plant list in 2016 so shouldn't be available now (there was a year ton sell off old stock).
You could try water lettuce in its place.
 
Edvet said:
Ceratopteris pteridoides is from the South Americas and a good nitrate eater.
It's the one in the back here:

9689364597_678f4ebea3_c.jpg39891049_00005534JPEGof by Ed Prust, on Flickr
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Looks very impressive! Nice.. 🙂 Did you ever grew it from the substrate or is it just floating? Did you secure it in anyway or is it just pushed and stacked in the corner by the flow?..
 
There isn't much top flow, but there was some wood reaching the surface, and the fern gets quite big so it can't flow past the brace. It all interlocked there, but mostly i was removing floaters because they grew hard. Still do, i usually have to clear tho whole surface (pistia now mostly) in order to get some light through. They seem to like EI
 
If not water hyacinth, what floater would you suggest that is as large? Not sure how big water lettuce gets, I'm not familiar with it.
Also if it blooms easily it would be a welcome bonus.
 
Edvet said:
There isn't much top flow, but there was some wood reaching the surface, and the fern gets quite big so it can't flow past the brace. It all interlocked there, but mostly i was removing floaters because they grew hard. Still do, i usually have to clear tho whole surface (pistia now mostly) in order to get some light through. They seem to like EI
Click to expand...

Well it looks darn nice on that photo, pitty actualy you need to open the hood to see it. At least i assume seeing your other flickr tank pics.
Actualy if it were an open top 🙂 in that floating plant bunch would be a perfect spot (island) for a South Amrican March Sun Pitcher.. <Heliamphora> as show off..
 
Zante said:
If not water hyacinth, what floater would you suggest that is as large?
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Beter don't get over excited. these plants require full sun and loads of ferts to get that large, let stand flower.. Under artificial light it's a chanllange to keep them.. Also water letuce, what you find on the net called Dwarf Water Letuce, is the same plant but growing indoor under artificial light. The big ones you can buy in the pond shops or garden centres will not survive these conditions for long, make small runners which will die before reaching adult size.. 🙂

I've tried both Eichornias and Pistia in the outdoor pond in the sun.. And i couldn't keep up with their apetite. Hyacint needs high temps to thrive, not only water temp invironmental temp as well, bellow 25°c it already has a hard time growing. Water letuce is less temp sensitive.. But all are darn hungry..
 
zozo said:
Beter don't get over excited. these plants require full sun and loads of ferts to get that large, let stand flower.. Under artificial light it's a chanllange to keep them.. Also water letuce, what you find on the net called Dwarf Water Letuce, is the same plant but growing indoor under artificial light. The big ones you can buy in the pond shops or garden centres will not survive these conditions for long, make small runners which will die before reaching adult size.. 🙂

I've tried both Eichornias and Pistia in the outdoor pond in the sun.. And i couldn't keep up with their apetite. Hyacint needs high temps to thrive, not only water temp invironmental temp as well, bellow 25°c it already has a hard time growing. Water letuce is less temp sensitive.. But all are darn hungry..
Click to expand...


No worries for the lights. When I had the flat renovated I had a number of ceiling lights installed on a timer exactly for this tank. There is a total of 150w of LED lights at 6500k plus another 80w of LED grow lights.
As for their hunger, 10 discus, 50 rummynoses, 30 corys and 6 or 7 bristlenoses (plus some splashing tetras, but I still have to research those properly) should provide plenty of food.
 
Zante said:
No worries for the lights.
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We don't, but the plant might.. 🙂 As said even in the sun outdoors during the summer thay are a challange to keep happy..
But give it a go, that's the best way to find out.. Good luck.. :thumbup: I'm very curious.. 🙂
 
zozo said:
We don't, but the plant might.. 🙂 As said even in the sun outdoors during the summer thay are a challange to keep happy..
But give it a go, that's the best way to find out.. Good luck.. :thumbup: I'm very curious.. 🙂
Click to expand...

I like to experiment 🙂

The question remains which plant though...
I have found out that water hyacinth is banned here in Italy, so I'd like a substitute. Fast growing isn't a necessity. The tank will have peace lilies, philodendrons, anthurium, peperomia, maranta, syngonium, adiantum and many others, I'm even expecting to have to dose nitrates once the greenery gets going! (keeping an eye on those TNC ferts)

So the floating plants aren't for nutrient export, I'm looking for something that'll look nice in an open tank.
 
Zante said:
I like to experiment 🙂
Click to expand...
Lets rock and roll, best way to learn..🙂

In my experience best chance for a flowering floater is the Nymphaea if you don't have to much flow.. 🙂 I failed with all others.. Well me failing doesn't say it's impossible.. But definitively hard..
dscf5303-kopie-jpg.78054


btw, right hand top on the wood is a Peperomia.. 🙂
dscf5300-jpg.jpg

Regarding lily, most available tropicals (as those from South America) are night flowers, thus only flower in the dark. This is a small African Nymphaea spp. I'm not 100% sure because it came without a proper lable, but i might have traced it back to N. Nouchali var. ??
 
I don't know how much ferts you'd be dosing, but you may have to dose plenty, even with the fish load if you're to keep both floaters and heavy emersed planting. In my experience I have found out I can't keep both floaters and emersed. The emersed growth outcompetes and kills the floaters for nitrogen(and not just nitrogen). It sort of defeats the purpose having so many plants if the fish can't produce enough to keep CO2 independent plants happy. Even with dosing, the nitrogen can dip so low once or twice a week to cause some unsightly yellowing on the floaters. Having said that, with ferts and plenty of light it may work. I just didn't see the point of it myself, as I keep plants for water quality, not for rabbit food 🙂

Also, light wise, you may need two levels. One above the emersed growth which can grow rather tall, and one lower over the tank to keep floaters happy. The emersed plants will otherwise cast quite the shadow and the floaters won't be happy. That's another issue I had. I gave up floaters, no matter how much I like them. Depending on how you set up your lights, this of course can be avoided.
 
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