Comparing hornwort and coontail growth rates

[kindness]

I've been pleasantly surprised with my hornwort - it's thriving despite my notorious brown thumb. I've even managed to keep it alive, unlike my ill-fated duckweed. The growth is staggering, with these photos taken just 4 days apart. I've heard hornwort can take over a tank quickly, but this is on a whole different level - we're talking 1"+ per day.

I set up the tank about a week ago, using an established filter and media to get things going. Ran it for a couple days to make sure everything was working right - it was converting 4ppm ammonia every 24 hours, and all the checks came out fine. No fertilizers yet, just letting it ride. The lights are on for 12-14 hours a day, so we'll see how that goes.

[oldraider]

@bigtop Yeah, I was worried about the hornwort causing issues too. Thankfully, our betta seems to prefer it over the fake plants we had before. Those artificial plants were a bigger concern for me, to be honest.

I transferred some floating hornwort from the guppy tank to the cichlid tank, and so far, the cichlids are leaving it alone as long as it's floating. I'm a bit surprised the fry haven't explored it yet, though.

[sSjey]

I recall hornwort being one of my early successes with live plants. As my green thumb improved, I found the hornwort was actually choking out the other plants, so I had to let it go. One thing to watch out for with hornwort - it can be quite dramatic and shed all its leaves if it's not happy. I once added a beautiful rock to a tank with hornwort, only to wake up to a cloudy tank and bare stems the next morning. The leaves had all dropped to the bottom. Turns out, the rock was the culprit - I later discovered it was leaching something into the water, which became apparent when I soaked it in a bucket and the water turned cloudy. It was a nice-looking rock, with air plants attached, but not suitable for my tank.

[oldraider]

I've been pleasantly surprised with my hornwort - it's thriving despite my notorious brown thumb. I've even managed to keep it alive, unlike my ill-fated duckweed. The growth is staggering, with these photos taken just 4 days apart. I've heard hornwort can take over a tank quickly, but this is on a whole different level - we're talking 1"+ per day.

I'm familiar with hornwort's sensitive side, having had it disintegrate in my tank within a week when I used it as a floating plant to shelter my tetra fry. This time around, I opted for it due to its ammonia-absorbing properties, as I was transitioning my 55-gallon tank from gravel to sand and needed something to handle any potential ammonia spikes - the local fish store didn't have many plant options, so hornwort it was. I'm hoping some tetra fry will eventually appear and find refuge in it.