Cool-water plants in an aquarium?

I am preparing to set up a 55-gallon planted tank in my girlfriend's new apartment. I would like to use plants from a spring on her grandparent's property that has great sentimental value to her. But, the spring water is cool- about 58 degrees. So, if I take plants from the spring, will they be able to adapt to a room-temp environment? I certainly cannot afford a chiller.

Unfortunately, I don't know what all the plant species are. There is a rooted mossy mat-forming plant that looks silvery from all the air bubbles it produces:


A rooted broad-leaved plant with reddish foliage:


And a gelatinous alga of some sort:


There are also floating mats of Ricciocarpus, watercress, and moss in the spring run:


The spring is on the Western Highland Rim, in the lower Tennessee drainage.

So, any thoughts or advice are welcomed!

Hard to tell from the photos, but #1 might be Micranthemum umbrosum. Does it have tiny little roundish leaves? The second looks like a Ludwigia. Both should do OK. I would collect them with some of the cold spring water and let them come up to room temp on their own.

Otherwise, just take a bit of the things you want to try, and give it a go. So long as you aren't taking huge amounts (and the plant isn't a protected species), then a little trial-and-error won't hurt. That's often how I get things growing.

Hard to tell from the photos, but #1 might be Micranthemum umbrosum. Does it have tiny little roundish leaves? The second looks like a Ludwigia. Both should do OK. I would collect them with some of the cold spring water and let them come up to room temp on their own.

Otherwise, just take a bit of the things you want to try, and give it a go. So long as you aren't taking huge amounts (and the plant isn't a protected species), then a little trial-and-error won't hurt. That's often how I get things growing.

Thanks, Nativeplanter! The mossy plant does have tiny oval-slightly pointed leaves, kind of like chickweed.

I'll post updates (including better plant photos) when I get the tank started!

Hi Newt,

Cool Plants!

It's been almost three months, you going to update us?

If it doesn't take at room temperatures... basement? garage? back bedroom? Most homes have at least one room that is cooler than the rest. My boys insist that our bathroom has it's own arctic weather pattern.

I'd love to hear how this is going.

Enjoy!

Hey, Mander. I actually have not yet tried these plants. They're for a tank I'm going to set up for my girlfriend.....one of these days. I'm still working on the stand. I am a lazy, lazy man.

Hey, Mander. I actually have not yet tried these plants. They're for a tank I'm going to set up for my girlfriend.....one of these days. I'm still working on the stand. I am a lazy, lazy man.

Hey, Newt!

I'm a newbie to the forum and actually got started in NANFA after I googled *Ricciocarpus* and found your thread here when you said you had it growing in a spring nearby.
I keep a bunch of tanks, (currently dewinterizing them) and like native species of fish, inverts, and salamanders+. I also like different kinds of 'primitive' plants like liverworts and mosses in my terraria.

Here's my situation....I teach biology and have a serious need for the purple-fringed riccia (floating *Ricciocarpus*).
Could you possibly send some of these if I send you the shipping costs, etc. ...whatever is reasonable? Or would you prefer a trade of some kind?
If you can I would really appreciate it! (I know you don't know me from Adam, but still....) Thanks in any case.

Rik Post (siharimau@yahoo.com)
Dallas, TX 75214

PM sent.

I suppose I should update this thread- upon closer inspection the silvery plant is a moss, in fact the same moss that is floating on top of the water- it just has distinctly different submersed and emersed forms. I currently have some growing in my siren tank, where it is thriving. The 'alga' is actually just a strange growth form of the common cyanobacteria Nostoc commune. I put some blobs in the siren tank, but they quickly withered; later I noted more typical growths of cyanobacteria on some of the wood in the tank, but I cannot say whether these came from the Nostoc blobs. The red plant is Ludwigia palustris, just a small-leaved form. It grows quickly in a warm tank and soon resembles the more typical slackwater form of the species.