# Planted Tanks > Plant Talk >  marsilea hirsuta

## Dodofish

Hi all,

like to know if anyone has experience growing marsilea hirsuta in low tech tank without dosing excel and injecting co2.

also, will it works if I cut the stem of the plant to replant it? Or do I have to cut at the node region?

Thanks.

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## magpie

Cut at the node region, if you cut at the stem area it will die off.

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## thebaldingaquarist

marsilea hirsuta without CO2 will simply stunt in growth. it will not die, but will not grow either.

No Co2 and no chiller, but does your tank have high light.. if it does, then perhaps its not a good plant for your tank, as its stunted growth means more space for algae to grow on..

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## Dodofish

Its a new micro tank which i intend to start. It will be based on low lighting.

Seems like its not going to work.

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## felix_fx2

how low your lighting is?

only had 1 attempt with it... fail also... only had a few node to play with... 
try out, at the most stunted then you'll have the perfect excuse to "upgrade"?  :Laughing:

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## Dodofish

Haha. I hope to have a bigger tank too, but that's can probably be true after a few years. The micro tank comes with inbuilt led which has 30 pieces of 0.06w led. The height is 15 cm, I think it can only support anubia, moss ball and java.


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## Urban Aquaria

I've tried marsilea hirsuta before in a low-tech tank with just light from office ceiling lights, it didn't die but grew very slowly, took weeks to grow a few new leaves... even slower than anubias.

I guess if you have a low amount of light in the tank, these plants could still work as part of a "slow-tech" setup.  :Smile:

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## Dodofish

Hmmm. I have to think of other plants then. Any other foreground plants which are suitable for low tech setup?

i am also considering of doing brackish water to breed nerite snails. Will this further restricts the type of plants which I can use?

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## Urban Aquaria

Can try moss tied to mesh or rocks, create a nice moss carpet, that could work well in a low tech/low light setup.

Brackish water tanks still have a good selection of commonly sourced aquarium plants to choose from, propular ones are Java fern or Java moss... you can check out this useful reference thread on many other plants suitable in brackish conditions:

http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?...ckish-aquaria/

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## felix_fx2

did I hear snail tech?

dodo fish, please do try breeding Nerts... it would be awesome...to have someone share experience...

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## Urban Aquaria

Yeah, if after observing their breeding behavior and you manage to find out how to accurately detect which Nerite snails are the male ones, i'd be keen to get a bunch of those particular ones from you too (all male nerite algae team = best GSA cleaners + no more white eggs stuck everywhere!).  :Grin:

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## Sleepy_lancs

I would be next in line to get all male nerite if you are offering  :Smile:

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## Dodofish

Haha. So many supports, I am not even sure if I will be successful. Probably I will check out the items that I need tomorrow and see how I start.

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## stormhawk

I had hirsuta before in a no CO2 tank, which grew well for some reason, although they never really had good lighting due to all my floaters cramming every available inch of water surface. I am not a plant person but this plant was easy for me in my old setup with GEX soil. I started out with a few nodes that I purchased from C328 and from there it started spreading slowly. I gave some to Felix but he didn't succeed with them and I lost the remainder when BBA started growing on the leaves.

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## cherabin

Marsilea hirsuta works in every single low tech tank of mine. High lighting of 55w PLL in a standard 2' tank, some with Excel dosing and some without. My first batch came from C328 and subsequently, I tried the Tropica 1-2-Grow range and it too flourish.

Having said that, I have also heard several accounts where Marsilea hirsuta just didn't grow and rot off.


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## Dodofish

Thanks. I will consider first before attempting it. I actually have some spreading very fast in my high tech tank. And i find them really beautiful.

But i just cant imagine how they will fair in low tech environment.

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## felix_fx2

> I had hirsuta before in a no CO2 tank, which grew well for some reason, although they never really had good lighting due to all my floaters cramming every available inch of water surface. I am not a plant person but this plant was easy for me in my old setup with GEX soil. I started out with a few nodes that I purchased from C328 and from there it started spreading slowly. I gave some to Felix but he didn't succeed with them and I lost the remainder when BBA started growing on the leaves.


LOL! don't remind me.... not enough nodes to grow... directly tried emerse.. still didn't have enough.. since emerse will have "some" getting dried up.
should have given me the BBA ones too  :Grin:  BBA shall not live out of water.

P.S: if got donation of this i will happy LOL... never going to buy what i going to farm. if i did, my farm will explode.. :Laughing:

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## cherabin

You should try growing hirsuta in low tech and you might be surprised, as this plant just simple worked for me in such tanks.

On another topic, i noticed Fishy Business has Marsilea crenata from the Tropica 1-2-Grow range available now and i am very keen to try, if i have the tank space. According to Tropica's plant description, it grows lower and smaller than hirsuta. A possible choice plant for the nano low tech planted tank.

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## Sleepy_lancs

Low light, it grows bigger and taller, High light it grows much smaller and shorter.

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## bennyc

Reading the thread makes me confuse. What conditions are good for them. My experience of them in a low light, excel tank results in very slow growth like urban say slower than nana. But they did not die off. Looks like they die off, but sprung up with new shoots and eventually runners. I have shift then higher and closer to the lights, pending to see if there is better growth.

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## thebaldingaquarist

based on my non chilled tanks.. for marsilea hirsuta, 

low light, no CO2, lightly planted endler breeding tank --> slow growth.. growth is faster than crypt parva, slower than nana.

medium light, DIY CO2, medium planted tank, shrimp tank --> showed growth, slower than staurogyne.. later death by Algae and neglect..

Medium light, CO2 on solenoid, heavy planted tank, shrimp tank --> show growth.. slower than staurogyne, still doing ok

Time to settle in and converting to underwater form... varies from 3 weeks to 5 weeks.

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## Sleepy_lancs

Mine is considered low light. 1.7wpg with CO2 and ADA substrate. Grows like java ferns. I don't feel it's slow.

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## Dodofish

tried to setup my new nano tank. but i think marsilea is a little too big for it.  :Sad:

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## Urban Aquaria

> tried to setup my new nano tank. but i think marsilea is a little too big for it.


The submersed leaf of marsilea is more like a larger version of glosso... for nano tanks, most people usually go for glosso or HC. 

If you find that marsilea looks out of scale, can try glosso instead, it can still grow in low tech tanks, just needs more time to fill in.  :Smile:

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## cherabin

Are the Marsilea hirsuta from our local farms? I find that the ones from Tropica grows smaller.

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## Dodofish

Yup the marsilea are from local farm. I can't afford tropica123, and my planting skills is still amateurish so I might kill the plant more than growing them.  :Smile: 


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## cherabin

You will be surprised the amount that you get with the Tropica 1-2-grow. With a cost to quantity ratio, I will go for Tropica's Marsilea. 

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## Dodofish

> You will be surprised the amount that you get with the Tropica 1-2-grow. With a cost to quantity ratio, I will go for Tropica's Marsilea. 
> 
> Sent from my GT-N8000 using Tapatalk


Come to think of it, I think you are right. I only had four or five stalks of marsilea and the condition is no good or near tropical's standard.

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