# How often do you trim plants back ?



## Acipenser (Apr 21, 2010)

My wysteria is going crazy, climbing out the top of the tank, sending out runners, I just devided it up about 3 weeks ago and it's come right back.

I am also looking for a sugestion of a higher light, harder to grow back ground plant , anybody ?


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## CRS Fan (Apr 21, 2010)

Hello Acipenser.

Wysteria is a water weed. Other good background plants would include Cryptocoryne crispatula 'Balansae', Ludwigia repens ‘Rubin’, Ludwigia ovalis, Microsorum pteropus ‘ Needle leaf’, Pogostemon stellatus, Hygrophila corymbosa 'Siamensis 53b', and Hygrophila polysperma ‘Ceylon’ to name a few. You may need to trim weekly or bi-weekly. Growth rates are really set according to light intensities/type (PAR), nutrient availability, and carbon availability (CO2 addition or Excel/Metricide addition).

Hopefully this gives you more to think about.

Best Regards,

Stuart

,


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## EDGE (Aug 24, 2010)

Plant selection is base on the water parameter, tank size, environment.

i.e. If you have a lot of light and CO2, java fern will over take a 20 gallon. However, under low to moderate light with no CO2 injection, java fern doesn't get too big.

'Harder to grow' is all relative to the plant and general aquarium environment and city water.

i.e. in Calgary where the water is liquid rock. the harder to grow plants would be soft water plants.

In Vancouver, the water is considered soft in most area. The harder to grow plant would be even harder to grow in Calgary without using Reverse Osmosis unit.

The harder to grow plant in Vancouver is soft and *acidic* water plant where the substrate needs to be acidic and the water less acidic. i.e. wild crypt sp. eriocaulon sp, tonina sp, etc.

At the same time, if we place a plant that needs harder water, in an acidic substrate, the harder water plant will have a easier chance to melt, i.e downoi.

Everything else CRS Fan covered.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

I trim my stem plants basically every week in my CO2 setups. And Edge is right, I have a Java Fern ball which took over my 20 gallon in 6 months. It was started with 4 leaves. You don't really want any fast growing plants in high light/CO2 setups. It's just a pruning nightmare.


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## ncutler (Apr 26, 2010)

I've found that I simply move the faster growing plants over to my lower light tanks to help with water conditions - they *usually* grow ok in those tanks so there's less pruning. If I need to propagate, I keep one or two stems in my high light tank.

But yes, I'm slowly moving over to slower growing plants as it becomes very tedious doing pruning bi-weekly.


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## plantedinvertz (Apr 21, 2010)

My wisteria grows crazy too =.= i trim like once every 1-2 weeks


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## neven (May 15, 2010)

Wisteria is almost uncontrollable unless you do multiple prunings a week, even at medium light.

If you want slow growth, you'll need to convert over to non stems for the most part. My tank is very low maintnence plant wise. Major trim every two month, and snip a few lotus leafs a week. The reason for this is because i have almost no stem plants at all. Mostly crypts, various ferns and anubias, plus 3 lotus plants. Oh and my lighting is on the threshold of low to medium, so my glosso grows decently, but doesn't invade everywhere quickly.


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## Johnnyfishtanks (Apr 21, 2010)

once every two weeks


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