I use Hornwort alot, it grows like crazy, a single bag will be huge by the end of the summer and it will trap sludge because like Cabomba it is very fine leaved. I scoop it out with a net lined with cheese cloth every month to rinse it so it does not look too bad. Great place for babies to hide if you leave it in place. But it can be very messy if it starts to shed its leaves/needles. Most really fine leaved plants can get pretty ugly if they start to shed or the algae gets into them

I also like hornwort. It really multiplies and floats around all my submerged pots and hides them.

Yea, I was considering hornwort as well since it seems to be fairly popular, but didn't know if I'd be constantly pulling clumps of it out of my skimmer or not. I guess that would depend on if it was floating free or weighted down in some fashion, though.

What about some plants that are usually used in aquariums? A sword plant would be neat, except that it'd be an annual in my zone. Don't know what other types would be like, either.

I am considering trying some Rotala and some crypts see how they do but my temps are still too cool to move them even with the tank not heated. Both are cool water plants so I am hoping they will be ok, I would end up throwing them out anyway so it is worth a try. I have seen sword plants sold as pond plants but I haven't tried them. If they are cheap it might be worth it but they have been way too expensive for my taste. If you start researching cold water tanks I am sure you will find something. I would suggest crypts instead of swords just because they tolerate cooler water temps. Hornwort tends to sink I find by the way and is easy to anchor with a small rock. I also have some water violet, Hottonia Palustris it looks really nice under water almost like a pine tree. It is supposed to bloom and be fragrant but I did not get mine early enough last year. See what it does this year, although only 1 little 1" sprig made it through the winter. A single pot can be seperated into a bunch of stalks because it does not really root well and cuttings as well. My tank heater keeps the water just above freezing so it may survive at the bottom if your pond doesn't freeze solid.

I also use hornwort. I put it in those small 4" baskets they sell at the dollar store in gravel just to weigh it down. If I'm repotting waterlilies I will plant some in that pot as well. I find if it's not weighted down it floats and gets in my skimmer. The only thing I don't like about it is it collects alot of algae so I often lift the pot and rinse it off. They say it overwinters here left in the pond but I havn't had any luck with that. According to Bearberry Farms, a water garden store here that only sells hardy plants for our climate, Canadian pond weed is an excellent oxygenator. They also claim spearwort and spike rush are the best marginal/stream oxygenators. I tried camboda but the fish ate it.

Hi,
In case you are tracking this... I put the Rotala, Crypts, and Corkscrew Sagittaria out in the pond couple days ago. The rotala is looking fine- growing did not lose any color, no leaf drop. The crypts- dropped a few leaves but does not appear to have melted yet. The saggitaria- does not like the new situation at all, will give it a week and see if it recovers. There was about a 5 degree difference in temp. I would assume there is a difference in PH and hardness as I am using CO2 in the tank but I need get new chemicals for the test kit and have not got around to it yet. I will post an update in a month in case anyone is interested.

Interesting. Updates would be good, thanks.

In the meantime, I went ahead and put out some oxygenators as well - 10 or 12 corkscrew vallisneria underneath the stream output, a couple bunches of cabomba (25 or so stems - probably not enough, yet) spread out in baskets and planted with some of the lilys, and an Ozelot Sword plant as an experiment. My water temp is around 78 - 80 F, so it should be fine for the summer, and it doesn't seem to be doing anything too detrimental yet (melting and/or dropping leaves, discoloration, etc). I think it might be putting up a new leaf, but I'll have to wait to be sure.

The sword I pretty much checked for snails and then dropped it in the pond (planted in a 6" plastic pot with sand with pebbles on top), but I did quarantine the cabomba and val for a couple days to get rid of any snails and such - although moot point since I've already got 'em in the pond.

Oh yea, final stats on my pond - after the intensive cleanout and fish headcount - 9 or 10' irregular circle, 3' deep, 850 gallons, 52 goldfish (plus 2 fry that managed to survive through the cleanout process). I think I'm a might over-crowded, here.

Well, it's been about 2 months since I had planted a bunch of oxygenators, so I thought I'd give people an update in case anyone is curious.

Cabomba: I must say that I am quite disappointed in the Cabomba cause it didn't last long at all. I don't know if the goldfish annihilated it, or if it had just broken off by itself, but the majority of the Cabomba managed to find its way into the skimmer net in short order. I had planted the stems in pebble-filled baskets spaced in different areas of the pond, and I think I've got 1 or 2 spindly-looking stems still in residence. Maybe someone else would have better luck, but I'm not planning on trying this again. Next year I think I'll try some Anachris instead, or maybe some Ludwigia.

Corkscrew Val: The jury is still out on this one. I had planted about a dozen Val in an oil drain pan (Quickcrete medium sand with river rocks on top) and placed it underneath the stream output. Over a couple days the Val proceeded to shed it's cut/damaged/dying foliage, but then I noticed one day that pretty much every single Val was non-existent! I don't know what happened here, but I just left the pan in place and somewhat forgot about it cause I had a mass of watercress forming a floating mat overtop of the area. A couple weeks ago I had removed this mat of watercress and noticed that a couple of the Val were still there and were working on putting up new growth (3, maybe 4 plants). As of this morning the longest blade is probably only 4" long, but there are a lot of blades in the works so we'll have to wait and see how they do. The majority are also fairly "cork-screwey", so it should make a nice impact when swaying in the currents. I'm going to be getting some more Corkscrew Val in the near future and try planting them in some gravel to see if they fare any better, but at this point I'm still undecided - but am much more positive on the Val than the Cabomba. Of course the real test will be to see how it fares over the winter (I'm thinking it should be fine if it doesn't get trapped in the ice).

Ozelot Sword: I put this in the pond just as an experiment to see how well it might work, and I must say that the results have been mixed so far. I'm betting that the sword will not survive the winter here (research has shown that the Echinodorus species are hardy to Zone 8, IIRC), so because of that I'm viewing it as an annual and therefore cannot recommend it to someone who experiences colder winters - the growth rate is not fast enough to make it worthwhile. We have had an unusually cold July so that might have affected it, but as it stands it has been putting out a good-sized rosette of new foliage - unfortunately the longest leaf is only about 3" long. My Colocasia will put up a brand new leaf in less time than the sword will take to grow even 1/4". If you live in the southern areas where the swords can survive year-round, then it could make a fairly interesting plant when grown totally underwater, or even grown as a marginal in as little as 1" of water.
Another thing - I had chosen the Ozelot Sword cause it was variegated green and reddish, but in the pond environment the red coloration makes it look decaying/dead. An Amazon Sword or other all-green sword would be a better choice in this respect.

I've had Anacharis growing in the gravel on the bottom of the pond for twelve years now. Very happy with it. I have hornwort floating around as well. Not as happy with it because it looks swampy to me and gets in my net every time I try to reduce azolla/duckweed.

I have dwarf sageteria in one of my smaller ponds and am unhappy with it. I thought it would make a pretty carpet six inches high on the bottom of the pond but it has grown to well over a foot in height and lays on the surface of the water.

Hi
In my small ponds I grow mostly "aquarium " type plants
as i find them easier to sell to local aquariums and they generally won't over populate. Of course they can't compete with surface or floating type plants and are not nearly as showy as emerged growth.
My heavily planted 150 gallon aquarium developed an unfixable leak about a year ago so I turned this into a terrarium and moved the plants to the smalll pools.
One that has really surpised me ,is Madagascar lace plant. as it spread rather than growing upright. It made it through dormancy last winter but can't compete with alagae. No flowers this year though gary

Hi,
I have been transfering Rotala from the tank to the pond all summer, it is doing really well- good color, no die back. Only issues have been the fish pulling it out of the gravel continually until it develops roots. I am not getting the fast growth I get inside but it is not getting the fertilizer either. It stayed clean and although I doubt it will winter even with the tank heater I have a steady supply. I also stuck a crypticorne out there and it did ok, it took the move well, but it is not a fast grower, it is sending out babies to fill the pot. Leaves are covered with mulm so it doesn't look the best, not going to bother with it again. Corkscrew sag immediately melted and did not come back. I still prefer the Water Violet to all of them and it will winter for me, it is a bright green and has a nice texture, the pot from the garden center looks like a little pine tree in the pond, haven't ever had it grow to the top to bloom but I like it best so far.

wat are 3 Pros and cons for the 4 types of aquaculture systems?