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Emersed aquascape - Jagunco do Monte

ghostsword

Member
Joined
19 Nov 2009
Messages
3,423
Location
Cape Town, South Africa
Ok, Crazy idea, but it may work. Will be a fight to keep the algae at bay, but I am looking forward to the challenge.

The weather is picking up, so it is time to move some scapes to the garden. :)

The tank is an acrylic tray of 50cm, by 30cm by 15cm tall, so shallow.

I have purchased some EBI Gold substrate a couple of months ago from Edis, the substrate is just like Amazonia, superb.

I placed two bags of EBI regular on an iwagumi, I will do a journal soon about it, and was left with the sand type of EBI Gold. Very much like Amazonia sand, and way cheaper.

I left the soil on a bucket for two months, it froze a couple of times, and still did not crumble.

So the plan is to plant HC or hairgrass on the scape, add some pressurised CO2, light is natural light outside, and add ferts daily.

No fish, or shrimp or the like, maybe some red ramshorn snaills.

Some pictures:
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Jagunco do Monte by GHOSTSWORD, on Flickr

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Jagunco do Monte by GHOSTSWORD, on Flickr

7024565885_918f2f5a9a.jpg
Jagunco do Monte by GHOSTSWORD, on Flickr

7024564355_68ae2db353.jpg
Jagunco do Monte by GHOSTSWORD, on Flickr
 
I'm looking forward to seeing how you combat the problems of growing the tank outside :wideyed: I can only just about keep an indoor tank alive lol. I'm loving ohko stone hardscape.
 
will you need added co2 in such a shallow tank?
 
I will add CO2 to the shallow tank, for two reasons..

1 - CO2 is cheap, I will use 500gram welding CO2, very cheap. If it gets expensive I will just use a FE.
2 - With the unlimited light I need the plants to have as much as they can get to grow, and the water being 10 cm deep some parts will be underwater, and those will for sure be attacked by algae, given the chance.

This is a test, it may not work. With the unlimited light given by the sun I need to add as much co2 as I can, at least until the plants get emersed. Not sure if I will try hairgrass or HC, maybe some tripartita or marsilea. The dragon stone (red) will have terestrial mosses and wild flowers on top. If this works out the next step it to try a larger tank, but I will then need to sort out filtration.

I will be dosing EI (all in one) on this, so lots of ferts also, and eventually the water will just be topped up to keep the substrate moist.
 
how about just raising the filter outlet to give surface spray? lots of gas exchange that way too.
 
darren636 said:
how about just raising the filter outlet to give surface spray? lots of gas exchange that way too.

What Filter? No filter here.. The water will eventually just be about 10cm, enough to cover the plants, imagine a mini swamp. The CO2 is just for the beginning, to get the plants established.

I realised that today is Thursday, so I will be buying some plants from ADC in London, good Tropica plants. :) Will see what they have there, but I would like uniformity, maybe just HC or tenelus in front, or hairgrass, etc,

At the back I may use marsilea, looks fab emersed, and will also use some Polygonum sp, got great results last year.
 
any plants that are above the water level won't benefit/need co2 so keep your water level lower and just allow them all to take their co2 from the atmosphere
 
ah! I see :) well i am curious to see how it goes
 
hinch said:
any plants that are above the water level won't benefit/need co2 so keep your water level lower and just allow them all to take their co2 from the atmosphere

:) Yep, but to start I need to have as much humidity as possible, and I need to dose as much CO2 I can to get it started, once the plants emerse they are fine. )
 
Do not keep it on sun it get's hot then you get green algae everywhere :) Shade should be fine. Good luck
 
Radik said:
Do not keep it on sun it get's hot then you get green algae everywhere :) Shade should be fine. Good luck

Thanks, will have it on full sun!! :)

Basically I want to test the theory that if we have enough co2 and ferts the plants will do well. :)

If it gets full of algae then I let the water level drop, and let it stay emersed.

The water level should drop in about one week. Getting about 10 pots of plants tomorrow. :)


___________________________
Luis
@ghostsword
 
Radik said:
yes but water may get really warm :) do you want salad soup? :)

:) Radik do you think that I did not have a tank out on the garden, on the sun? :)

Had daphnia on it, it was algae free. Ok, no co2 or ferts, but it was clean as a whistle. I used it as a bug farm. :)

Also I would be happy if the weather in london gets hot enough to kill all the plants, especially a they are all from the Tropics.

Yes, it may fail. But got to try. :) it may just work. :)


___________________________
Luis
@ghostsword
 
i have a small pond in a barrel. Same thing really. But this year it will be for live food too :)
 
Radik said:
yes but water may get really warm :) do you want salad soup? :)

Radik,

I had some plants on the window sill trying to grow emersed, we had hot weather in uk this week.. and all my plants melted (one emersed was growing fine for months) i tested the water and it was very warm.. does warm water kill plants?

Cheers
 
darren636 said:
i have a small pond in a barrel. Same thing really. But this year it will be for live food too :)

I always wanted to do this, a small pond with small fish.. Maybe danios or even guppies.. But would have to be raised with clear sides, to see them. :)

My issue in the UK is not the heat, but the cold. :) the frost would kill most plants, never had issues with heat.


___________________________
Luis
@ghostsword
 
ha :) you are not from around here are you ! ? my girl now thinks that the UK never gets any sun.
 
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