# Did I trim my plants wrong?



## yum (Feb 11, 2008)

If you've seen pics of my tank in other threads, you know I let it just grow out of control. Duckweed covered the survace, rotala reached the top and stretched across the top, elodea did the same but stretched from one end of the tank to the other, just nuts! 

My neglect of the duckweed was especially harmful. It caused all new growth to be really thin as the stems put all their energy into reaching the light.

So, I tried to put some order to the mess and clear things up. anda: I scooped out almost all the duckweed and trimmed everything back. Now the tank is twice as bright and the fish have actual room to swim. My cories are much more active and I think everything looks happier for it.

Here's how it looks now: 


Here is my question. Even though the rotala is thin, it sent out some serious roots and instead of yanking it all up and making a mess, I decided to just trim the stems at the roots. I figured it's just future fertilizer right? I hope?

Here is how I trimmed the rotala stems:


bonus question: do you think the removal of all the duckweed will have a negative affect? I know that they do a great job of pulling excess nutrients out of the water and I never once worried about if I was overfeeding the tank.


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## mommyeireanne (Oct 24, 2007)

You can cut plants off level to, or just under the gravel and leave the roots. Massive root systems (like large sword plants) could cause more nutrients to be released in the water column, but I haven't had a problem with it personally. The same for removing too many plants at one time. Any plant that reaches air is the best. Per Ms Walstad's book, I now keep everything that can break the surface, and trim to thin other branches. I need to trim to have good growth, though. I keep my duckweed covering from 1/3 to 2/3 of the surface. I think this helped to solve my algae problem. I did some other things to kill BBA, but the duckweed (and other surface growth) was a fix for the underlying problem- too much nutrients in the water column. And so far it hasn't come back. :boxing:

Your tanks looks great!


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## Revernance (Aug 20, 2007)

You should always leave a bit of aerial plants in your tank. In your case, duckweed. 

The way you trim the rotala is perfect. I wouldn't worry about the roots causing any problems. When it rots, it will do so very slowly and will allow other plants to absorb whatever nutrient is coming out


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## mistergreen (Mar 3, 2007)

I always cut half way on stem plants. The old leaves would at least help photosynthesize when I'm trying to propagate..
But if you want to kill off plants there, you'd have to trim it like that.

btw. Your tank has potassium deficiency. You might want to add K+.


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## yum (Feb 11, 2008)

Thanks, everyone. Yes, potassium is a big a problem in my tank.


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