Terraced aquarium??

[tom e]

I would go with that pothos ivy. It's cheap at any greenhouse, home depot whatever. Grows easily from cuttings and is already a hardy plant as far as houseplants grow. You probably know someone who has it already and can just take a few cuttings..
People say the cuttings can be poisonous till they root so I set it up long before I had the betta in the tank. Between that and the hornwort, and low light: I haven't had even a speck of algae, so I'd say it's working really well.
I used binder clips to attach them to the side of the aquarium at the back, just dipped into the water. The roots have grown all the way down to the substrate and into it now.

[Nic W]

hmmmmmm... I may just take the "feeding door" off the hood and use water hycinth or something... I dont know... hmmmmmm now I am perplexed

[tom e]

That might be a great choice if you have lots of light or a sunny window. Wouldn't work in the setup I have though, cause I think that adding light makes for a different sort of balance. Not bad, just different. My 10 gallon combats algae (I think, lol)  by of limiting light and limiting nutrients. If the water hyacinth needs more light, you're giving it to the algae too, but then it may want you to add nutrients so that it can feed the photosynthetic process. I may be getting over my head here, lol.
At least it shouldn't need co2, because it's out of the water and can take it from the air like my pothos does..

Sometimes you just have to play with it to know!

Thought of something else though.. The plexiglass terraces, you can silicone them to the bottom of the tank too to keep plants where you want them. Most of my weekly work in the tank is pulling plants that have runners from areas that I don't want them to go. You wouldn't have to deal with it that way..

[Nic W]

I know this is old... but, my attention is back to my 55 lol...
for some reason, I never saw that last post, and you know, I never even thought about that, meaning the runner plants, that would be so much less work... they'd fill in one spot, and then, be stuck there, I mean, yes Id have to thin them at some point to alleviate crowding, but, thats cool.
God I cant wate... one more month til I can get another job (having surgery blehh)
then, I shall due my part to boost the economy lol

[WyoLance]

what are some plants I can have the roots in water, and that will grow out of the tank that will still absorb the nitrates and such? I was thinking of making a plexi planter to fit over part of my tank and drill holes in it so water fills it and some roots could come out...

You could use Spider plants. They are common house plants and grow very well just in water.