# HC, submerged, emersed, just need info



## fish_4_all (Jun 3, 2006)

First, being new, I appolgize if this is the wrong place. I am vernturing here from AquariumAdvice for a new view point and emersed information.

I am kind of new to planted tanks in the idea that I only recently figured out how to care for them properly. Fertilizers, medium to high light, water changes and dealing with fish in the same tank. 

I know the basics but I recently acquired HC and I want to supply it as best as I can because it is so hard to find. What I need is the best way to grow it both submerged and emersed. I have gravel in my planted fish tanks so some sort of planter or plant plug will be needed. I also have no idea how to grow anything emersed, let alone a once aquatic plant. Lighting, substrate, methods to take them from submerged to emersed, anything to point me in the right direction. 

And don't worry, I have lots of time so I will be frequenting both forums often. I can share what I learn in either with the other. The better informed we all are, the better it is for the hobby. :grouphug:


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## John N. (Dec 11, 2005)

Here's a good thread about growing HC emersed. Lots of great advice there.

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...rium-plants-discussions/26933-growing-hc.html

Welcome to APC! I agree with you, the more info that goes around, the better informed we are. You'll find APC a great place to learn and share your knowledge. 

-John N.


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## John P. (Nov 24, 2004)

Float it!


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## fish_4_all (Jun 3, 2006)

I am going to do 4 things to it. The first is float it as it is right now. The second is to plant it in the substrate probably using a plant plug. Third is to do the submerged to emersed evaporation thing. Last is to try simply going to a plant plug in a small "nano cube" type environment. 

Mainly I need the best substrate and what type and amounts of fertilizers if I should add anything to the tank water for the emersed growth. Everything else is trial by error.


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## John N. (Dec 11, 2005)

Uoooh! Keep us updated on your experiments. It would be interesting to see which environment HC grows faster in. I think miracle grow was mention in the above thread as a substrate for emersed growth, that should have enough nutrients that you won't have to add additional ferts. 

-John N.


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## Robert Hudson (Feb 5, 2004)

I am trying something else this week. I have a foam tray, from hamburger or chicken from the market. Mixture of potting soil and Flourite. Fill it with water enough to just cover the soil. wrap in seran wrap. Place out side under direct sun.


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## ianiwane (May 6, 2005)

Robert Hudson said:


> I am trying something else this week. I have a foam tray, from hamburger or chicken from the market. Mixture of potting soil and Flourite. Fill it with water enough to just cover the soil. wrap in seran wrap. Place out side under direct sun.


Try it out, but I don't think that is going to work. With it covered like that for one thing it is probably going to cook if left out in direct sunlight. Also HC emersed does not like wet soil just moist soil. In my experience when the soil is too wet the HC just melts.


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## dstephens (Nov 30, 2005)

Fish for All, welcome and you certainly hit a topic that has been of interest to me. I am actually trying the miracle grow soil. I went to Home Depot today and bought a seed sprouting kit and the miracle grow soil. Took all of my available HC pieces and planted into the tray after wetting the soil. I am really glad the previous comment was posted about HC getting wet feet and rotting when it is being grown emersed. I need to drain some of the water out of my greenhouse. The moisture from the evaporation should do the trick, although I know you can't let it dry out all together, right? Anyway, I am excited to see a number of folks excited about finding some effective ways to get this going. I love the plant, just have not been able to get it to take off in my tanks for a number of reasons. I would like to grow it like sod and have a significant amount to begin a new foreground in my 90 planted. More later, Darrell


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## fish_4_all (Jun 3, 2006)

Well I have 2 setups right now. 3 Cultures. One has a lot of water in it to let it evaporate, one is very moist soil and the other is just floating in my tank, no soil of course. I am giving Miracle Grow a try as it should work. I used my old double betta show tanks for the cultures. Hopefully they will work and I will have lots of it very soon.


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## dstephens (Nov 30, 2005)

okay, the greenhouse was a flop. I fried the HC. Had it in the morning sun and probably should not have had direct sunlight. How does it grow without the direct sunlight though? John P., when you say float it, do you mean literally just let it float in the tank and at that time does it grow more root structure, what does it do to get ready to plant in the aquascape? If you get some that is in great shape, should you just go ahead and plant it and not mess around with floating or anything else? I am not giving up on this plant until I find a way to successfully grow it!! I hope...


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## fish_4_all (Jun 3, 2006)

I think the best way to plant it either in gravel or a really good substrate is to use a plant plug or rockwool. These will allow you to plant the roots in the material and then put it in the substrate. A lot easier than trying to plant 100 little roots in the substrate all by themselves and you can fertilize the plug so the nutrient are specific to the HC. This is what I will try when I get some plug and some fert tabs.


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## fish_4_all (Jun 3, 2006)

*HC possible breakthrough*

I know it is early and it just happened about 4 days ago but my HC has taken hold of the mesh to my net breeder. If this is any indicator, it may be that HC needs something for the roots to take ahold of before it thrives. The pieces is tiny but it has grown 5 leaves giving a total of 8 and I haven't seem much growth from any of the floating, submerged nor emersed plants.

If you are trying to grow it try a very fine mesh for the root to take hold. I will be trying the same netting in a piece of the old net breeder I have, floating with about 1/2 inch of water from the mesh to the top.


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## primavera (Aug 30, 2005)

I grow mine in a mixture of cocopeat and sand in pots stood in water to soil level, in my emersed cryptocoryne setup. Change with EI tank water, and a bit of diluted Miracle Grow when I remember. I recently dosed more KNO3, 1/4tsps per 10 gal, they definitely greened up more. 

I've fried many emersed cultures before by leaving/forgetting about them in direct sun, even stray morning sun. I find bright indirect light to do best(North of N hemisphere, South for us down here). I've tried potting soil before, and always, they seem to rot my plants. So settled with cocopeat/sand mix, not too rich but modifiable.


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## fish_4_all (Jun 3, 2006)

Well so far everything is growing except for the culture I started with just really damp soil. I have filled the container with water to try and save it. I don't think that it likes a damp environment but like lots of water. The floating culture is multiplying and seems to be doing very well. The ones I put in a makeshift net only 2 days ago seem to be doing the best. I think the roots are very, VERY, important to this plant regardless of other speculation I have heard about them being a majorly leaf uptake plant. The roots have grown a ton and the plants are multiplying faster than the others, except for one. The one lone single plant that wound up on top of the netting of the net breeder is taking off and growing phenominally fast. It has quadrupled in size in 6 days. I think it is the breakthrough for growing this in demand plant. A simply mesh floating at at the top of any tank with the HC on top might produce phenominal numbers. All I do is keep the water line under the level of the cover so it doesn't smush the growth. And I mean a floating mesh, the part the HC is on is technically out of the water, not under it.


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## primavera (Aug 30, 2005)

Wow, that's amazing. And I thought they were really slow growing plants.
Just to clarify, you mean to say that the mesh keeps HC above water line? You just brought to mind, I do have a big 'float' of related Hemianthus micranthemoides aka pearlgrass in my tank. It sits on top of my submersible pump and sends roots down to contact the top of the pump. I just never dared to float HC, more or less because they get 'lost' among all my floating riccia and HM.


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## fish_4_all (Jun 3, 2006)

The leaves are "out" of the water in the sense they are on top of the mesh. The still have full contact with the water but the tops of the leaves are exposed to the air. In the other setup, the one with the cloth mesh and clusters, some of the leaves are starting to break the surface and completely come out of the water as the clumsters get larger and the roots get more numerous. Seems like water movement, fresh water changes and a good root hold are some keys to success with HC. Another one has also saud that HC grows very well ADa Aqua Soil and emergent/floating in a filter sponge. I would tend to agree with the filter sponge as it would give a great place for the roots but the mesh I am using may be easier to place in the gravel if someone wanted to. The only problem is there is some slime algae that grows in the clusters a little but is easy to syphon off. 

I wonder if there is a media that floats but is pourous enough for the roots to take hold and will hold nutrients? If there isn't, a couple of layers of fine mesh cloth floating with the help of a circle of wood or plastic or something just to keep it 1/2 inch from the surface should be a great way to grow it very quickly and still be able to transfer it to the substrate. If anyone has any ideas, post them, please.


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## ianiwane (May 6, 2005)

HC does grow really well in ADA AS. Take little plugs of it and in 3 weeks you will have a carpet with minimal or no dosing.


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## Lawrence Lee (Jul 17, 2004)

I grow mine on ADA aquasoil Amazonia.

I put a piece of old filter floss at the base of a clear plastic food container, add 1cm of ADA Amazonia, fill with tap water to soil level and sprinkle the soil with the stems of HC that I collect from my trimming. Leave the container on my bright verandah that gets mainly indirect sunlight. They just grow like that.

If I use submersed trimmings, I cover the container with its clear lid for a few days till I see new leaves develop. After that, I'd open a crack and gradually widen the opening over the week till I can take off the lid altogether.

Every night, I add water to a level just covering the tips of the plants. Next evening, it'll be dry, but the layer of filter wool acts as a reservoir so the container never dries up. I find this way, I can grow a thick mat of HC.

Try it and see.


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## fish_4_all (Jun 3, 2006)

Well it sounds like a lot of good ideas. Now I just need to modif my substrate in order to accomodate the HC. I have it in the 2 containers now with Miracle grow and it is growing well with about 2 inches over the soil. I will try and find the ADA AS locally but my only LFS sells Eco-Complete for $45 a bag so they would be way too expensive. Maybe Home Depot will have ADA AS. I love all the ideas as I all I want to do is get it to grow and it is, just slowly.


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## kram (Mar 8, 2006)

howdy


Just got my delivery of HC from Tropica so I thought Id just say something.

I had ordered 5 of the typical Tropica pots full of it but it got delivered to the wrong address and spent 6 days in a brown box (bagged) sitting somewhere else. I was sure it would be dead but I opened it and only 1 of the pots looked bad.

I just threw the pots in a 3 wpg 10 gallon fishless with CO2 and let them sit overnight on top of the plants already in the tank and within 20 minutes the four good pots were pearling!

Today I broke up the rock wool into plugs of about 1 cm in diameter and 1 cm deep and planted them in the tank. The substrate is fairly large gravel (2 - 4 mm) with old laterite balls in it and the rock wool really does help to keep the plant down.

I dont care what happens to the wool once its under a carpet of HC (hopefully). On each plug there are plenty of exposed roots and Im hoping these will start to spread the plant. There are some bits and pices floating around, mostly old leaves and tiny plant fragments but I bundled them up on some rock wool, put them in a tray, covered with net and they are sitting on plants at the top of the tank. I hope they will take root in the wool and increase my stock. But I might try the net trick as well. If it attached itself to the net it would be a bloody handy way of planting it later in little 1 cm squares.

There was no way I could have planted this stuff in my gravel without the rock wool so I do think that is a good tip which was given on this thread. I really hope they take off as they are seriously nice looking plants with all th ebubbles and everything.

Thanks for all th einfo on this great little plant!

kram


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## fish_4_all (Jun 3, 2006)

Can you say dismall failure on the emersed growth. It all rotted and didn't have a chance. I need a much better setup before I will try it again. Gonna make one that has some circulation and use old tank water for water source. Also gonna put it on rockwool for a place for it to take root. I think that any soil is really going to cause more problems than it is worth. Small gravel or pool filter sand would probably work much better. The small gravel for the fact I want to have a current. Floating it works very well by the way. The best I have had it grow yet.


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## dhavoc (Mar 17, 2006)

I have had reverse, some success with emersed, failure with floating it. maybe the current is to great in my tanks, but any floating pieces get torn apart and scattered like grass clippings around the tank, and i have never seen them grow either. but i took one of those plastic pans you use to catch water under indoor pots and filled it with about an inch of standard non-fert potting soil and some peat and added water till just at the soil level, pushed in small pieces (submerged growth) and let it go like that on my apt balcony where it gets ~4-5 hours of direct sun and shade/indirect the rest of the day, kept the water level at just over the leaves for a week and after that lowered it to below the soil level (soil is wet but surface has no standing water), it grows but slowly and very dark green. i dont fertilize so that may be part of the reason for the slow growth.


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## fish_4_all (Jun 3, 2006)

The HC I left floating was in a net breeder so it wasn't thrown around by the tank current. It grew, but not very fast. Any attempt I made to put the netting close to the surface led to algae covering the HC and having to clean it almost every other day.


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