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Hi all I have been considering a planted tank setup with sand and bogwood. I have some very good ideas. I would have to see how the turtle will react to some of the tall plants but I think that some carpet plants and ferns will survive quite well. I would have to establish the plants first before adding the turtle. What do you guys think? I mean if the turtle kills the plants then it is considered another feeding

I don't think too many people have had luck with RES and planted tanks. You might want to start out with some inexpensive plants, to see her reaction to them.

I just got a clump of java moss for my fish tank, and I had some extra so I stuck it in Ralph's tank. So far, I don't think he's chewed on it, but a lot of it got ripped out of where I tied it. I thought I'd try it in Ralph's tank, because he seems to be less aggressive in the eating of live plants

The only plants that have survived with my turtle are floating water hyacinth. But I'm not a green thumb, and they don't look too hot. I haven't noticed turtle attacking them much, but they're yellowing a lot. Must not be enough iron in my water or something. In any case, other plants that don't float on the surface she makes short work of.

yeah I'm figuring the same but I'm curious if ferns and carpet plants will work. I don't mind spending a couple of dollars experimenting alittle bit;) It is also fun researching some of the nice planted tanks people have for their Chiclid's and Oscar's which I have found out are pretty aggressive towards plants as well.

Someone told me that some crinum lilies might be a good choice. They're basically water onions, so the taste might put off turtles.

I've never seen those before I will look into them

robind, check the underside of your water hyacinth. Two years ago I had a lot of them growing outside, and when summer ended, rather than throw them out, I tried to save as many as I could. A good number were put in my turts' tanks. I never noticed them eating the leaves, but after a while the plants started to loose color and look sick. When I lifted them out of the tank, every underside of the bulb portions had been eaten, which was slowly killing the plants.

It's really, really hard to overwinter hyacinth in NE, even if the turtles don't get to it...

Mine do the same thing to water hyacinth and water lettuce. The bottoms get all chewed.

I would stay away from any type of lily though, lilies are generally poisonous to pets (which I assume includes turtles)

Yeah, the hyacinths are definitely getting chewed on...she chews on more than just the roots sometimes, and eats the whole plant. My goldfish like the roots too. I guess they're just doomed. Does having dying plants in the tank outweigh the benefits of having some live plants in terms of nitrate reduction?

Define "some." I would think dying/decaying plants would eventually increase the nitrate level. Mine got so bad some literally fell apart.

Well I make a point of removing obviously dead bits of plant, but some of them are just yellowing and curling around the leaves. Also it seems like hyacinths go through a natural cycle where they grow new bulbs then those die off and become roots. Though maybe I'm imagining it. I think the plants must be helping, though it's hard to say. I installed a coil denitrator not too long after I put the plants in. My nitrate tests used to be RED, but now they're much closer to yellow/orange. So from at least 100ppm to like 10-20ppm. And I hardly ever change any water : /