Habitat - Indoor :: water hyacinth and other habitat questions

[Gary's Mom]

Hey everybody, we finally got Gary and Ace set up in their 120 gallon tank. We live in the city in a ground floor apartment, and we have the tank set up in front of the windows facing the street. Due to the size of our apartment this is the only place the tank would fit, but it's neat to see people stop on the sidewalk to watch the turtles swim and bask. The turtles seem to enjoy the attention! They sit on their basking dock and gaze out onto the sidewalk.

I'd like to dress up the tank, especially since it's become a public display piece. Currently they have their floating docks and we have some bricks piled up that double as steps to the dock and a hiding cave. Although they like climbing on them, the bricks are hideous and a filth magnet and I'm replacing them with a couple pieces of mopani (I read up on it and know about the boiling and soaking).

I'm thinking of ordering some water hyacinth to grow in the tank? I guess the turtles enjoy munching it, it grows fast, and provides some cover and hiding places for them? Has anyone else done this? Will it take over the tank or will it look as nice as I hope?

[Daniel3507]

i dont really know anything about plants other than whenever i put live plants in they make a mess when they are eaten. you could get some fake plants to add and sand looks great as a substrate if your thinking of one.

[Gary's Mom]

What kind of mess? Rot or algae or?
We've got river rocks in there for substrate. I'd like to make the tank look as natural of a habitat as possible with some sustaining life in it instead of how it looks now, which is a glass box with water and bricks!

[octpusgirl8]

Turtles tend to shred plants up pretty quickly, making a mess of plant debris that can clog up the filter. If you want the look of plants you'd probably be better off getting fake plants for looks and adding real plants in smaller amounts for eating/shredding purposes. As Daniel said, sand makes an awesome substrate, it's natural looking and traps a lot less crud than river rocks.

[Gary's Mom]

ahhhhhh, that makes sense. Fake plants for permanance, live plants as a munch treat. I just read the sand sticky and you guys are totally right, sand sounds like it will be a lot better for the health of the tank, there is a lot of crud stuck in those rocks right now.
As always, we all thank you guys!!

[marisa]

You're from Boston? I say good luck with keeping water hyacinth in an indoor tank on an on-going basis. Outdoors, with warm sunny weather, it grows quickly and looks really nice when it blooms. But indoors, without replicating the conditions it likes to grow in, it will eventually rot and die off. If a few manage to survive, they will not look like they would if they grew outdoors (although if you managed to keep them going and got them outside next year, they'd grow and spread).

Last year I tried to keep a bunch in with my turts, but the plants were eventually eaten from below (my turts love to eat the bulbs). If you want green decorations in the tank, buy some nice-looking fake plants.