Ceratophyllum demersum - Rigid Hornwort

Hornwort is probably the most versatile plant that is known to me. It is a rootless stem plant, which can reach 50-100 cm.

This water plant is probably like no other plant able to remove large quantities of pollutants out of the aquarium water. Since this plant grows also flowing on the water surface, it does not rely on the CO2 content of the water reaching a growth rate of 10-20 cm per week in good light conditions.

These characteristics make this plant well suited for planting in breeding tanks with no soil to stabilize the water quality. It can even be used in small breeding cups often reaching just at moderate light a saturation of the water with oxygen, so that a ventilation of the breeding tanks is not always necessary.

Another advantage of the flowing Hornwort is that in its presence algae develop barely. The effect against algae can also be found in aquariums that are exposed to strong light, when they have a dense vegetation with Hornwort. Only under heavy fertilization algae have a chance.

I have not noticed an allopathy against other aquatic plants. On the contrary, due to the stabilizing effect against algae also slow-growing plants such as Hemianthus callitrichoides can be cultivate more easily and the way to beautiful natural aquaria ala Amano can be achieve step by step.

To let the Hornwort not taking away too much light, it can also be planted in the soil. The great advantage is that Hornwort has no roots and no runners are formed. So it can be so easily transposed, also in the neighborhood of lawn building aquatic plants, which would otherwise be easily eradicated while gardening.