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Plant all at once or bit by bit?

chrisfraser05

Member
Joined
12 Jun 2010
Messages
434
How have you all gone about planting your tanks?

I was considdering sorting my scape before deciding on what plants to use then getting them all in a oner and spending a day planting.

I've since decided that I'll do the scape but am going to get the plants a few at a time and fill the gaps so to speak.
I think it might end up giving me a more natural look as I'm sure I'll end up ruining the scape by lining up the plants or grouping them un naturally!

How have you all ended up with your layouts?
 
I did the majority of mine in one go to help avoid algae but it was also only stuff that could survive a dry start. I'm still waiting to add more Riccardia as its expensive stuff and also some planting that has to adapt to being half emersed (so couldn't do it from the beginning as it wasn't filled).

If your worried about unnatural groupings then try and work out where to put the different species of plants to get nice transitions and how the different leaf shapes and heights work together. Dwarf Hairgrass makes for a great transition plant as you can cut it to different lengths and you can also see through it to the plants behind. I found inspiration in scapes from Andy H, Graeme Edwards and Amano so maybe worth a search.

If I were you and were unsure of certain plants and positions then you can always plant it up to begin with with cheap stems you can take out later to help boost the plant biomass or use Amazon Frogbit to not only boost the biomass but also help shade the tank from excess lighting until its established.

Hope theres something helpful in the rambling :thumbup:
 
thanks for the help :)

I've got a planted 80lt at the moment with some pretty well established stuff including some dwarf grass and lots of egeria stems so I'll keep taking cuttings from them to propogate more until time to set the 300 comes round.

I thought nothing of it ordering the 300 but as the time grows closer the size of the task starts to prey on my mind lol

I am thinking of where best to put my sword at the mo as it looks ace but will look odd against stems etc I think!
 
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