Better Down Where It's Wetter: How to Start an Underwater Garden - KAKE

Posted: 22 Dec 2019 03:18 AM PST

Underwater Garden

So, you love plants and the way they brighten up your home, bringing the outdoors in. But despite your love for plants and gardening, you don't have a green thumb. And you're tired of obsessing over your plants only to watch them die.

What you need, my friend is an underwater garden.

Underwater gardens may be challenging to set up, but they're easy to maintain. Even better, you won't have to worry about getting the watering ratio just right since these plants live, you guessed it, underwater in an aquarium tank.

Have we piqued your interest? Then sit back and relax while you watch your home water garden grow using this guide to everything you need to know.

Plants to Grow in Your Underwater Garden

Before you head to the store and pick up your supplies, you should first sketch out your ideal underwater garden. This sketch can be in your head or on paper. Better yet, head over to Pinterest and get ideas to use in your aquascaping designs.

Got it? Okay, it's time to decide which plants (also known as hydrophytes) you'll use in your home water garden. Our biggest tip when choosing hydrophytes is to find plants that have similar nutritional and light requirements, so they'll all be happy to share the same space.

Middle Ground Plants

Middle ground plants are also called bunch plants. That's because these plants are generally placed together in bunches. Each one needs its own hole for planting, but bunch plants don't root near as deep as background plants.

Bunch plants can be any shorter plant that looks nice with your aquascaping designs. Anacharis, ambulia, and Bacopa australis are all popular choices. But we also recommend that you learn about saltwater coral, an easy-to-care-for yet vibrant plant perfect for any home water garden.

Background Plants

Background plants are, you guessed it, plants you'll stick in the back corners of your water garden. If your underwater garden is in a large tank, you may want to add a third background plant in the middle. These plants are typically rooted, meaning they'll need some gravel or sand (at least 3 inches worth).

When it comes time for planting, only root your background plants to the base of the crown for best results. Background plants usually grow tall, up to 12 inches. Since your rooted plants will be such a significant feature of your garden, you may consider using different varieties.

Eelgrass, fanwort, and sword plants are all excellent options for your beautiful aquarium aquascape. So, too, are elodea. Elodea is a lovely narrow-leaved plant that can grow up to 3 feet tall!

Floating Plants

Last but certainly not least are floating plants. These lovely additions to your freshwater aquascape don't need to be anchored into the gravel. But they do need a ton of light, so make sure you incorporate a light source into your design.

We love crystalwort and hornwort as floating plants. The former is a bright-green cousin to moss. The latter has whirling narrow leaves, all attached to bushy stems that help oxygenate your aquarium.

How to Care for Your Home Water Garden

You've sketched out your aquascape design and chosen your hydrophytes. After visiting a local fish or aquarium store, your underwater garden is looking beautiful. Now what?

It's time to learn how to care for your home water garden. That way, it'll stay looking beautiful for years to come.

Light

First and foremost, you need a light source to keep your underwater plants thriving. All plants, including hydrophytes, need light to produce energy. The good news is you don't actually need the sun; an artificial light source will do just fine.

Your water garden will need about 8 to 10 hours of sunlight or artificial light every day. And if you're worried about your light source not being strong enough, 2 to 3 watts per gallon of aquarium water should suffice.

Temperature

Most hydrophytes live in warmer bodies of water. That's because they're generally considered tropical plants. Thus, make sure your home water garden stays around 70 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. If your home gets cold during the nighttime, consider investing in a heating unit for your tank.

Water Circulation

Proper water circulator is essential for plant growth. Good circulation helps move nutrients toward plants and prevents algae buildup.

Most aquariums come with filters for this purpose. If you instead purchased your aquarium used or borrowed it, you may need to replace the filter. In this case, a local pet store or online aquarium supplies shop will have the replacement filters you need.

CO2

Carbon dioxide is another must-have for hydrophyte photosynthesis. CO2 systems can be quite expensive but are a necessary evil if you want your underwater garden to grow lush. The good news is a few fish are a cheaper and more fun way to get some CO2 into your tank.

Fertilizer

We don't recommend fertilizers for your underwater garden, especially if you have fish. Harmful toxins or too much phosphate and nitrate can cause damage to your fish and lead to algae growth, respectively. Instead, choose a (preferably organic) aquatic plant food that provides trace elements and nutrients ideal for your freshwater hydrophytes.

More Tips for Your Unique Garden

As a gardener, you're always looking for new and unusual ways to amp up your indoor and underwater garden designs. That's why you need Kake. Subscribe to our blog today to stay up to date with all the latest home gardening trends and more!

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Outdoors column: Improving lighting products boost outdoors experience - Mankato Free Press

Posted: 21 Dec 2019 03:03 PM PST

If you love the outdoors, you've learned to adjust to the annual cycle of shrinking and growing days and, with each day, your dose of light and darkness.

Today is the day after the winter solstice, the shortest day of the entire year. With so much darkness today, what better day is there to delve into the topic of lights!

Avid outdoorsmen take great interest in lighting products. For anyone who has ever stumbled around in the dark trying to follow a path off the river back to the truck, blood-track a deer or pack up an ice fishing house after the sunset bite has faded, a good light goes a long way.

In the 1980s, Maglite flashlights were on the workbelts of law enforcement officers across the country. The handy and tough lights with the focusable beam were an outdoorsman's dream and were packed in many trucks and backpacks. Miniature versions followed, and most everyone had a model or two tucked away for outdoor activities or an emergency trip to the circuit breaker panel in the middle of the night.

Technology advanced as well as manufacturing and marketing, and light-emitting diodes (LED) became a more frequently used technology for portable light sources. LEDs draw very little power, burn cool and so don't waste energy as heat. And they can emit tremendous amount of light from a tiny bulb. For this reason, LEDs have some serious advantages over incandescent and fluorescent lamps.

In my younger years, propane lanterns were the default light choice. Generations before me burned kerosene. Lanterns provided light at campsites and a warming glow in a fish shanty but also gave me and other anglers fits. They melted wayward fishing lines. Ceramic mesh mantles crumbled and glass globes cracked from being knocked over.

It was during the early 2000s that I first experimented with LED lights in my fish house. E-commerce was established by early adopter companies in the late 90s and early 00s, and options on the market were minimal. I found a few 12-volt LED circuitboard strips out of Hong Kong for sale on eBay and took the plunge.

After waiting a whole month, my package arrived. I crimped an extra 6 feet of wire onto the circuitboard, bought some transparent tubing from an aquarium shop, mounted the circuitboard in epoxy inside the tube, and jury-rigged some wire loops from which to hang the contraption in my flip over fish house.

While crude by today's standards, that first LED light could be alligator-clipped to a flasher battery and I could have bright, cool light across the inside of my fish house floor. Today, nearly 20 years later, manufacturers are building LED lights into flipover tent poles. You can go to your local hardware store and buy a battery-operated, high-intensity output LED light that is ready to go out of the package at a campsite, fish house or cabin crawl space.

LEDs have made tinkering with my outdoor gear in the garage a more enjoyable experience. Replacing compact fluorescent and incandescent bulbs with LED corn cob lights has splashed light into every nook and cranny. What used to be a dim operation is now bright as daylight, all accomplished without having to add new fixtures or re-wire anything. I used to have issues with light being blocked by objects hanging in the rafters in storage, but the LED lights cast so much light, there are minimal shadows.

LEDs have taken over flashlights and headlamps. The 2 million candlepower incandescent spotlights I grew up using to navigate duck marshes in the early morning hours are now replaced by smaller, compact and longer running models powered by LEDs. Candlepower, an outdated and now rarely used term, describes the light output of one candle. Lumens, the more frequently used term today, measure the total light output in a single direction. While not exactly the same measurement, a conversion factor used is 1 candlepower equals 12.57 lumens.

As LED, lithium-ion rechargeable batteries, and manufacturing technologies have rapidly developed, the ante continues to be upped, and every year produces better and better flashlights and headlamps. Among my circle of catfishing friends, talking about headlamps produces the same spirited discussions as which rod or reel is best or Ford versus Chevy. The truth is most every flashlight and headlamp is good, and everyone has their own preferences for battery life, brightness, and comfort.

As a kid, I remember a few math teachers telling me I wouldn't always be walking around with a calculator in my pocket. I guess all of us didn't see smartphones coming. Not only does a smartphone function as a calculator, most are made with built-in flashlight functionality. Not bad, always having something in a pinch.

Offroad outdoor adventures demand premium lighting. Outfitting ATVs, UTVs and boats with aftermarket LED or High Intensity Discharge (HID) lamps has resulted in better — and, I would argue, safer — travels.

I run a 40-horsepower outboard motor on the Minnesota River. In non-peak, descending-stage, high-water conditions, I will run full power during the day with minimal concern about hitting objects. At night, regardless of conditions, it's a different matter. HID lights have been a godsend, helping me see objects at a safe distance and avoid them. The lights cut through fog and light up snags and riverbanks, helping give some perspective to me as the driver.

An assortment of lights and accessories help people make the most of their time outdoors at night. During this holiday season, when our days are shortest and night is longest, I'm grateful for the technology advances that allow me to better enjoy my time outdoors.

Let there be light!

Scott Mackenthun is an outdoors enthusiast who has been writing about hunting and fishing since 2005. He resides in New Prague and may be contacted at scott.mackenthun@gmail.com.

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