Tissue Culture (variety issues) vs Traditional (snail issues) - Advice needed!

[Vlowman]

Hi all,

New in these parts - all advice appreciated.

I’m in the process of upgrading from a 24 litre PetsAtHome mistake to a 125 Fluval Roma - going from a tank full of plastic to, hopefully, a planted tank. Currently the new tank is in the process of cycling, while my fish (danios, plattys and electric blue rams) remain in the smaller tank for now.

With stock lights, which I believe fall into the ‘low’ light category, no additional CO2, and the intention of doing the best I can with root tabs and liquid fertiliser (rather than aqua soil), I resolved to go with relatively easy to grow plants - Amazon sword, crypts, bacopa caroliniana. I probably would have rounded that out with Java Fern and Anubias, but don’t yet have an hard scape figured out to stick things to yet.

The problem is that I wanted to get tissue culture plants (Tropica 12 Gro) because the lack of snails, algae, disease etc sounds great - especially since after half a dozen YouTube videos I can’t find any one size fits all way that causes no plant damage to ensure that I don’t get any snails in the tank, if I go the traditional route.

However, in the 12 Gro range, once you rule out all the medium/hard to grow plants, and carpeting plants - there isn’t that much to choose from: bacopa, three types of crypts and something called helanthium bolivianum. Can’t even get an Amazon sword!

What should I do? Bite the bullet and get regular plants? I really don't want snails but I'm not confident about what to do about that.

Meanwhile, while I didn't find this on their website, I did find this in a description of an Amazon Sword item sold by Aqua Essentials via Amazon:

"ALGAE FREE - due to the way these aquarium plants are kept, they are algae and snail free. Whilst this is not a cast iron guarantee (only tissue culture can offer this) all the pots are kept above the water line which minimises any algae or snails."

Can I ask what you think? Is this a good middle ground? Are there any suppliers you would recommend that do this kind of thing?

Thanks so much - apologies for the long post.

[Martinspuddle]

Greetings & welcome to

Tropica and Aquafleur do a range plants in dry pack, pots and tissue culture. All Tropica plants are grown in a pest free environment, so you can be sure of no snails or other pests. I get mine from Aqua Essentials (link below)

Here's a video with George Farmer on how Tropica grow their aquarium plants.


aqua essentials

[LookoutTrout]

Most aquarium plants are grown in nurseries like normal plants out of the water. If they are shipped directly to you they should be snail free. The bonus snails get added when your LFS puts the plants in their display tank.
I didn't know about this so got the free gift of bladder snails and MTS from my local shop. I gave up trying to pick them out and bought a few Nerite snails instead, they do a great job of clean up and keep the other snails numbers low.
You'll never stop all algae and there are loads of ways to keep it at bay, there's a lot to learn if you want a balanced tank. I try to keep it simple with inert substrate and water column ferts only, that helps but it can still get complicated and six websites will tell you six different things.

[Lo1]

Welcome to the forum.

[Stephen]

What should I do? Bite the bullet and get regular plants? I really don't want snails but I'm not confident about what to do about that.

Hello and welcome to the forum.
I don't have snails in my aquariums, this is mainly due to where I buy my plants.

I have a plant substrate (Tropica plant sunstrate) at a depth of 1cm under 3-5cm of aquarium sand (Unipac Samoa fine sand), the sand looks natural and is good for my fish, south American cichlids and corydoras.
The plant substrate helps to anchor and feed the roots, Amazon swords are a root hungry plant.

Where do I buy my plants?
The plants I buy are great quality and come chemical free and 99% snail free.
I always rinse my plants under running water and trim the roots before planting.
Here is where I buy my plants (click on name for link to website).
Aquarium Gardens
Aqua Essentials
Pro Shrimp

I also bought my Tropica plant substrate and Unipac Samoa fine sand from Pro Shrimp.
For a 125L aquarium you only require a 2.5L bags of Tropica plant substrate (Link) and 15kg of Unipac Samoa fine sand (Link)

This would be a great set up which can easily be built on by your preferred decor (rocks, wood) and plants.

All the best

[plankton]

Welcome to the forum.
Looks like you've had all the good advice (at least if you don't want snails - I love 'em!).

[Wishafish]

Algae free plants? Well they might be on arrival, but pretty much every tank will have some algae at some stage, even if you don’t have any plants at all. I wouldn’t buy plants coated in algae, but chances are you’ll get some however careful you are.

Snail free plants? Well opinions vary. I don’t mind a reasonable population as I think they are useful - I intentionally introduced Malaysian trumpet snails to my new tank as my previous population had died out. However I do buy snail free plants as I ideally want to choose which species of snails I have.

[fr499y]

Snail free plants? Well opinions vary. I don’t mind a reasonable population as I think they are useful - I intentionally introduced Malaysian trumpet snails to my new tank as my previous population had died out.

I'm the same. Ramshorn and MTS snails I always put in. I do try to keep the tank as natural as possible when it comes to cleaning and maintenance.

[Vlowman]

Greetings & welcome to

Tropica and Aquafleur do a range plants in dry pack, pots and tissue culture. All Tropica plants are grown in a pest free environment, so you can be sure of no snails or other pests. I get mine from Aqua Essentials (link below)

Thanks very much for your reply. I'd really got it into my head that only the tissue culture range were guaranteed to be free from pests. Do you think there's any chance that their potted range pick up any shell-dwelling hitchhikers on the way from Tropica to third party and then on to us, the customer - as the third party seeks to keep them watered and feed for a few days or whatever? Do you ever do anything to 'clean' the ones you get from AquaEssentials?

Cheers!

[Vlowman]

The plants I buy are great quality and come chemical free and 99% snail free.
I always rinse my plants under running water and trim the roots before planting.
Here is where I buy my plants (click on name for link to website).
Aquarium Gardens
Aqua Essentials
Pro Shrimp

Thanks for your input. I'm increasingly reassured that as long as I buy them from a decent range and from a decent supplier like AquaEssentials, I don't need to worry too much about this - certainly don't need to do any bleach dips or whatever, from the sound of it!

Think I might well go the the fully formed route after all - it'll be nice to get a bit more variety in there from the off, and I would certainly benefit from seeing more than a tiny cutting when trying to visualise what it will look like when it grows a bit.