My wife bought me an above-ground pond for my birthday, and the gears started turning. I love aquatic plants and wanted a better way to 'grow' them. I figured I could move them outside and let them get natural sunlight, and then move them inside to decorate my main tank. Plants that you can buy at a nursery for ponds... can they live in an aquarium? Or is natural sunlight key to their survival?

I've seen plenty of plants doing well (at least to me) in an inside aquarium. I think just LIGHT is important, and that's why indoor plants die. But those in your aquarium will have light, so I have hope... :P

They've got that super bright 25 watt 36" striplight. I think it's adequate, although some day down the road I want to get the 192 watt PC fixture.

Any pond plants you might recommend that would work in an indoor aquarium? I think it would be neat to change things up a bit.

I haven't had much experience with pond plants - I'm just starting out with my pond. ;)

I have a water lily, a dwarf papyrus, a 'normal' papyrus and umbrella grass.

I think the umbrella grass and water lilies would survive inside. :) I really like my umbreall grass. ;)

I've seen elephant ears inside tanks, too - seem to be alright. :up:

Beyond just light, the light should be in the proper wave-length. This isn't to say they will die if it's not, it's just to say that you will achieve optimal results with the proper wave length. This however, differs by species, just like with fish. A good way to ensure the proper wave length is to use a broad spectrum light, such as sunlight / natural daylight.

All that being said, it has little to no relevance to your current situation, except that your plants might do better if the tank is near a window.

It does get some natural sunlight during the day... Are those plants that you named off, Leema, able to be completely submersed? I can't have anything that sticks out of the aquarium due to my plexiglass cover...

Water lily is completely underwater in my pond. ;) Except for its leaves, which it puts up to the surface.

The papyrus won't survive completely submerged.
I wouldn't think elephant ears would either.

Umbrella grass... MAYBE. I haven't actually tried it, but looking at it, I think it probably would survive underwater.

Are you planning to rotate your plants inbetween the pond and the aquarium? If so, I think the umbrella grass would definitely be able to survive periods completely submerged.

Thats what I was thinking. I figured alot of my plants would do VERY well in the summertime out in the 15 gallon pop up pond. Then I could bring them in.

There's also a creeper I've seen in a tank... Would probably live underwater.. Can't think of it! Will have to get back to you on it's name, sorry. ;)

NP, I probably won't set it up til april or may. :D

my thoughts on this is Pond pants get huge between 3 and 8 foot tall

maybe you would just have to prune them sometimes :)

jade... Different species grow at different heights.

e.g. the papyrus plant I have grows up to 10ft tall.

The plant I need to find out the name of is a creeper. It grows up, across, etc. It doesn't really have a height because it grows on other things for support.

that sounds heaps cool get something like that and put it at the base of a nice bit of driftwood and try get it to grow around it like vines on a tree

It depends on the plant. Some are bog plants (emersed) and others grow better submerged. I bought some pond mint and grew it in my birdbath last summer. The stuff did fine as a floating plant in my tank when I brought it in for the winter, though I know it would have done much better in wet soil. What finally did it in was, my Swordtails decided it was a tasty snack!

Yep, depends on the plants, but most of the time they can. but only with Metal Halides @ 6500K. I have Water Hyacinth indoors, they are under Power Compacts and they recieve sunlight in the morning. They seem to bloom more often indoors than outdoors which is quite funny. Here are some pics.







Mango @ [aN-tix]