General Care Discussion :: plant question

[rfjedi]

ok so i researched that anacharis keeps algae growth down and lowers ammonia and nitrate lvls. i put 3 in my tank and my turtles devoured them.so 2 questions if i keep anacharis in there full time is it a plant that will make my turtles fat or is it like water, 2nd question is if it is to much which plant would survive with turtles but also help keep the place clean and give it a more "natural" look.

[jay2487]

Any live plant will lower nitrate levels. As for ammonia, only when it has been processed by Beneficial Bacteria into Nitrates. As for lowering algae, algae also feeds off nitrates so the only way it lowers algae is by eating the nitrates and denying them to the algae so not by much I would imagine. I don't think it will make the turtles fat as I throw big wads in my tank once a week and they to get destroyed. My turtles aren't obese from it. As for what will survive, I keep a few different types of plants and anacharis is the one that gets regularly destroyed. My hornwort survives great, also my cabomba gets eaten only occasionally. I also have some pink and green plant and a couple sword plants that never get touched. At one time I could plant anacharis and it would stay for a while and even grow but now that my biggest turtle has lost all interest in meats and only wants greens and the occasional pellet it just won't last

[TurtleKeeper48]

I tried a few different types of swords - all got destroyed almost imediately.

The only live plant I've had make it, from the limited number I've tried, is one lonely moss ball. They've left it alone for almost a month. I'm going to get three more (we have two turtle tanks - so I want two moss balls for each).

[jay2487]

They dont touch my swords, occasionally they may rip one up digging a sunken pellet or shrimp out from under it but they never bite it. For the longest my RES and my YBS both would only eat the roots of the anacharis, then I got 3 baby cooters and they stripped every anacharis plant to the stalks. Hornwort grows like crazy in my tank. The turtles couldn't keep up with it if they tried, but I don't think the big ones even like it. The babies will munch the needles once in a while.