10 Gallon Tank Advice on plants for beginner tank in my classroom

[PurpleFish]

I have searched around for what's already been said on this topic but the advice seems to vary depending on tank size, space required, fish in tank and water parameters. So I'm going to ask for some advice for my classroom tank...

Tank details:

• 10g with HOB filter and sponge filter
• 3 platies - who may have just reached breeding age judging by the amount of chasing and dancing going on
• 5 bue velvet shrimp - had them only 2 weeks, 1/2in in size
• one small java fern - making new plant buds near rhizome and off leaves
• one anubias petit - growing slow but has made two new leaves in about 2 months
• one floating ball of christmas moss
• some loose java moss
• various fake plants and decor that will likely disappear as my student learn how to make it a better ecosystem
• Good but low level light
• Flat glass lid - so not much vertical space for plants
• fully cycled but new, most living things being added slowly over the last two months
• Water: KH = 8 dKH, GH = 9, NH3 = 0-.25, NO2 = 0, NO3 = 5-10 (Before putting shrimp in, 6 days ago, NH3 was always zero; our water has some nitrates in it so we need help keeping them low for the shrimp)

My students (high schoolers) did some research and found that adding more live plants will be healthier for our fish and shrimp - No surprise to y'all, but good learning for them They are interested in adding water wisteria, red root floaters, and marimo moss balls. I do NOT want to have to use CO2.

My worries...

• That floaters will become a problem as we need light to get to the plants below and we will need to cut them back all the time. Yet, will they grow with the HOB filter and sponge filter disturbing the water surface? Will that help control their growth???
• Will floaters have enough room with the flat glass lid? There is only about 1 inch between the water surface and the lid.
• Is water wisteria a good beginner plant? Or should we try something else? (The students don't seem to want to get more of the plants we already have)

Thanks for your advice! This is their tank to make decisions with but I want to avoid disasters, and so do they. So, they know I ask for advice from y'all to help with their decisions

 

[dcutl002]

Have you considered Anacharis or Hornwort. I find them easy to grow. The Water Wisteria is a good plant too.

 

[bored411]

I have searched around for what's already been said on this topic but the advice seems to vary depending on tank size, space required, fish in tank and water parameters. So I'm going to ask for some advice for my classroom tank...

Tank details:

• 10g with HOB filter and sponge filter
• 3 platies - who may have just reached breeding age judging by the amount of chasing and dancing going on
• 5 bue velvet shrimp - had them only 2 weeks, 1/2in in size
• one small java fern - making new plant buds near rhizome and off leaves
• one anubias petit - growing slow but has made two new leaves in about 2 months
• one floating ball of christmas moss
• some loose java moss
• various fake plants and decor that will likely disappear as my student learn how to make it a better ecosystem
• Good but low level light
• Flat glass lid - so not much vertical space for plants
• fully cycled but new, most living things being added slowly over the last two months
• Water: KH = 8 dKH, GH = 9, NH3 = 0-.25, NO2 = 0, NO3 = 5-10 (Before putting shrimp in, 6 days ago, NH3 was always zero; our water has some nitrates in it so we need help keeping them low for the shrimp)

My students (high schoolers) did some research and found that adding more live plants will be healthier for our fish and shrimp - No surprise to y'all, but good learning for them They are interested in adding water wisteria, red root floaters, and marimo moss balls. I do NOT want to have to use CO2.

My worries...

• That floaters will become a problem as we need light to get to the plants below and we will need to cut them back all the time. Yet, will they grow with the HOB filter and sponge filter disturbing the water surface? Will that help control their growth???
• Will floaters have enough room with the flat glass lid? There is only about 1 inch between the water surface and the lid.
• Is water wisteria a good beginner plant? Or should we try something else? (The students don't seem to want to get more of the plants we already have)

Thanks for your advice! This is their tank to make decisions with but I want to avoid disasters, and so do they. So, they know I ask for advice from y'all to help with their decisions

More live plants are always better! They help keep the water parameters where they should be and are great for providing hiding places for fry (in case your platy are a mix of male and female) and for shrimp.

Red root floaters will be absolutely fine even with a glass lid (I have dwarf water lettuce in a 5 gallon tank with a lid and they grow just fine). They shouldn't get caught in your HOB filter either and won't mind the water current as long as it's not super strong. My dwarf water lettuce just floats around and eventually settles in a spot. If they do end up in the flow and knocked underwater, they tend to just pop right back up unless they get caught on a plant below and it's easy to just reach in and fix them. If you're concerned your HOB is too strong, you can get a sort of floating plant separator online or do a DIY setup with plastic straws to help.

To help control the growth? Well, you've got some options. I tend to just reach in and take out anything that covers more than half the water surface. You can then sell it to people (plenty of people are interested in floating plants so you can sell them online or even offer them in this forum under the Buy, Sell, Trade section), trash them, or put them in other fish tanks if you have them.

Water wisteria is a good beginner plant. Other options are things like Hornwort (mentioned above), dwarf saggitaria (an easy carpeting plant), bucephalandra, rotala, and cryptocoryne. Buce is like anubias and should be stuck onto something but grows slower. Rotala and hornwort grow well planted or floating and are fast growing plants so they would need trimming (I've had rotala growing on the surface and up out of a tank before). Dwarf sag and crypts would need root tabs put under them.

 

[Mudminnow]

Have you considered Anacharis or Hornwort. I find them easy to grow. The Water Wisteria is a good plant too.

Anacharis, AKA Egeria densa, also has the advantage of having thin leaves with large cells and easily seen chloroplasts. They're like ready-made slides to look at under a microscope. Therefore, it can be handy to have these around in a classroom setting.

My worries...

• That floaters will become a problem as we need light to get to the plants below and we will need to cut them back all the time. Yet, will they grow with the HOB filter and sponge filter disturbing the water surface? Will that help control their growth???

You're correct that floating plants can cause issues by shading the plants below and that they typically don't like a lot of disturbance at the water's surface. That being said, HOB filters and sponge filters rarely create too much of a disturbance for them. They'll probably get pushed away from where the water is the most turbulent, but that's about it. To control them covering too much of the surface too thickly, you'll probably need to scoop some out from time to time.

• Will floaters have enough room with the flat glass lid? There is only about 1 inch between the water surface and the lid.

I've only grown red root floaters in an open top aquarium. I've read they can struggle a bit if condensation is constantly dripping on them, but I don't know if that's true. I suspect they'd be fine.

• Is water wisteria a good beginner plant?

Yes. But, these seem to prefer growing rooted (vs floating). And, they need a bit more light and nutrients than plants like java ferns and anubias.

Also, you didn't mention if your tank has any substrate or not. If you're going to grow rooted plants, you'll need some substrate. Gravel (especially big gravel) usually doesn't work that well. Sand works fine, and soil (organic, without added fertilizers, capped with sand) works even better.

If you plan to float these, consider water sprite instead. It's similar looking, and I find it does better floating than water wisteria. (Although, it can get kind of big for a 10 gallon.)

• Or should we try something else? (The students don't seem to want to get more of the plants we already have)

Another plant to consider is Cryptocoryne wendtii (assuming you have a substrate). These come in many different colors and are (in my experience) on of the hardiest rooted plants out there. I've grown these in a classroom aquarium myself once upon a time. Excellent plant.

Thanks for your advice! This is their tank to make decisions with but I want to avoid disasters, and so do they. So, they know I ask for advice from y'all to help with their decisions

Keep in mind that new plants often melt when first introduced to an aquarium. This is because they are often grown emersed and need to adjust to immersed life, or the water conditions they came from were so different they need to grow new leaves better suited to your tank. So, if your plants melt right away, don't despair. They may come right back.

 

[Voyage]

I have searched around for what's already been said on this topic but the advice seems to vary depending on tank size, space required, fish in tank and water parameters. So I'm going to ask for some advice for my classroom tank...

Tank details:

• 10g with HOB filter and sponge filter
• 3 platies - who may have just reached breeding age judging by the amount of chasing and dancing going on
• 5 bue velvet shrimp - had them only 2 weeks, 1/2in in size
• one small java fern - making new plant buds near rhizome and off leaves
• one anubias petit - growing slow but has made two new leaves in about 2 months
• one floating ball of christmas moss
• some loose java moss
• various fake plants and decor that will likely disappear as my student learn how to make it a better ecosystem
• Good but low level light
• Flat glass lid - so not much vertical space for plants
• fully cycled but new, most living things being added slowly over the last two months
• Water: KH = 8 dKH, GH = 9, NH3 = 0-.25, NO2 = 0, NO3 = 5-10 (Before putting shrimp in, 6 days ago, NH3 was always zero; our water has some nitrates in it so we need help keeping them low for the shrimp)

My students (high schoolers) did some research and found that adding more live plants will be healthier for our fish and shrimp - No surprise to y'all, but good learning for them They are interested in adding water wisteria, red root floaters, and marimo moss balls. I do NOT want to have to use CO2.

My worries...

• That floaters will become a problem as we need light to get to the plants below and we will need to cut them back all the time. Yet, will they grow with the HOB filter and sponge filter disturbing the water surface? Will that help control their growth???
• Will floaters have enough room with the flat glass lid? There is only about 1 inch between the water surface and the lid.
• Is water wisteria a good beginner plant? Or should we try something else? (The students don't seem to want to get more of the plants we already have)

Thanks for your advice! This is their tank to make decisions with but I want to avoid disasters, and so do they. So, they know I ask for advice from y'all to help with their decisions

Have you considered ECO tanks? They have no water changes, no filters, all you got to do is feed your critters and buy plants!

 

[bored411]

Have you considered ECO tanks? They have no water changes, no filters, all you got to do is feed your critters and buy plants!

You do need a LOT of plants for eco tanks to work though and typically having fast growers when starting out is what works best. Because the OP is doing slower plants and a classroom setting with less effort involved in upkeep I don’t think they can do an eco tank.

 

[Flyfisha]

It’s a 10 gallon with live bearers ( platies) I don’t think even mentioning a no filter no water changes tank is a wise decision with a beginner reading about that right now?

I am not against the idea Voyage . I have a handful of very low maintenance tanks myself without filters.
Two 40 gallons with a handful of rice fish .

PurpleFish.
Consider fast growing floating plants like hornwort.
As mentioned in post #2 by dcut1002 .
If you have females they will likely already be pregnant and will drop fry. The hornwort will give some chance of some survivors?
How are you going on researching the nitrogen cycle?

 

[SuspiciouslyFishy]

In my experience, red root floaters are perfectly fine with an inch (or less, I used to keep barely a cm) between them and the waters surface, and also okay with a little bit of turbulence- they just float away to an area with less.
They will shade plants below, but hornwort, water sprite, elodea, java ferns and anubias are low-light enough that they usually cope (I've had elodea, java ferns and anubias personally), they just grow slower. Do scoop floating plants out and discard or sell them when they cover too much water surface though.

 

[PurpleFish]

Have you considered ECO tanks? They have no water changes, no filters, all you got to do is feed your critters and buy plants!

Those sound amazing! I'll definitely look into it for the future but right now it's more than I and my class can handle. There are other projects I have for them also.

 

[PurpleFish]

Thank you all for your input! We are putting it to good use but I’ve been too busy to post. Will do so soon

 

[Voyage]

Thank you all for your input! We are putting it to good use but I’ve been too busy to post. Will do so soon

Make sure to give us some pictures!

 

[KeeperOFnano]

Some of the most forgiving plants in our experience are :

Anubias (Barteri especially)
Hygrophila (and its many varieties)
Hornwort
Cabomba
Java Moss (great 'carpeting plant)
Amazon Sword (yes they can grow as a centre piece plant in a 10g and look really good)

With hob I would not suggest a floating plant. Especially not red root floaters. You can with sponge filtration, but low setting.

Floating plants are great for low flow, low surface agitation tanks. Also one must consider the fauna to select in such an environment. Labyrinth fish such as Gourami or Betta is a great match for a floater tank.