• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

all planted,just hoping it grows.(need a name now)

soton_dave

Member
Joined
28 Mar 2009
Messages
142
Location
Southampton
this is my first atempt at a planted tank having only really keeping marines and cichlids in the past but i felt up for a new challenge so here it is.

i was up untill about 1:30am this morning trying to get things looking like i want them and so far im quite happy with the results :D
the tanks a rena bow fronted tank with 2 25w T8's
filteration aqua one aquis 1250 with a spraybar spanning the tank about 30mm below the surface,all the plants are swaying with the flow but im prepared to up the flow if needed.
CO2 by a FE into a jbl defuser?drop checkers showing light green using the dennerele fluid that came with it.
substrate is eco_complete
ive got a bottle of flourish and have dosed the tank with the recomended amount but am open to advice on a shop bought fert that will do the plants the most benifit.

anyway on with a couple of pics.

IMG_0032.jpg


ive planted HC in the front and parvula mid groundish and tied moss onto the arching piece of wood,the moss i got from a small lfs for £1 and the HC and parvula were from p@h not the best quality but im too impatient to wait for a delivery and wanted to make a start.

IMG_0033.jpg


the plants in the back and the mid ground were also form a lfs but i havent got a clue what they are so any info on them would be great,not too sure on the one in the back so may rip it out yet.

still want a fair few more plants but not too sure what,something quite dense for the back and some smaller clumping/ground hugging plants to put just behind the wood on the left that will hang over the wood to make it blend a bit better.

coments and critism always welcomed. :D
 
Re: heres hoping

looking smart.

one bit of advice my friend, just cut the grass down to about a cm tall.it'll look strange at first.

you'll more than likely loose most of that grass, it'll end up in a brown mess and give you problems.

switch your filters off and snipp it down to size. it will grow back :D
 
Re: heres hoping

hi dave,
great start.i love the wood.wish i had the patience to plant the hc properly like you :D
neil
 
Re: heres hoping

thanks for the comments.

hoping to get out over the weekend looking for the other plants to finish the planting so the grass will probably end up moving so i'll take your advice and chop it once its in its final spot.

doing the HC wasnt half as bad as i expected tbh,i never split it all into single plantlets but alot of it is but got fed up to tell the truth so the last of it was planted in small clumps of 2-10 plantlets.

any plants i should be aware of to avoid,dont want to just throw money away.
when i go shopping i seem to buy what i like the look of and worry about mishaps later....lol,thats what i done with the plant in the background,really liked the look of it in the shop but now its in the tank im not too sure about it.
 
Re: heres hoping

soton_dave said:
any plants i should be aware of to avoid,dont want to just throw money away.
when i go shopping i seem to buy what i like the look of and worry about mishaps later.....

I think we are related...I've lost a fortune doing that....

Great start to your tank would like to see an update on the carpet
 
Re: heres hoping

It certainly does look like mondo grass. I was sold this my a LFS near me completely unaware by both me and the shop (i hope!) that it was non-aquatic. Sure enough it didnt last more than two weeks, rotted away slowly and generally messed up my tank water. Best to remove.

The decor seems a bit sparse if you ask me. Theres no apparent boundaries. Nicely done though :)
 
Re: heres hoping

HI
Bow fronts can be awkward to scape but if you use the width to your advantage you can create a good feeling of depth,maybe you could consider a pathway from right to left passing through the middle,
nice start
regards john.
 
Re: heres hoping

thanks for the positive comments and advice.
after reading about the mondo grass not being an aqautic plant i went out today to find a replacement and came home with some microsorum pteropus'narrow' to replace the mondo and some anubias barteri var.nana to put just behind the wood,after reading about how to plant them i discovered that its not recomended to plant them as such so out came some slate chips and the fishing line and after cleaning and trimming the roots they were tied to the slate chips.

IMG_0035.jpg


i just put them on the substrate and gently brushed a little around the slate just to disguise them a bit

IMG_0037.jpg


IMG_0036.jpg


IMG_0038.jpg


before putting the new plants in i removed the parvula to give it a trim as recomended by saintly and decided when re-planting it to try and keep it in a more concentrated area rather than spread about as before

IMG_0039.jpg


thanks again for all the positive comments and advice.
going out on monday looking for more plants want something fairly dense to put behind the anubias thats behind the bigger piece of wood and something for the right hand corner,im pretty much decided the plants at the back on the left are going so want something to replace that want something fairly dence/thick.
any recomendations?

cheers dave
 
Re: heres hoping

If its not to much trouble i think it would be better if you tie the Anubias to the wood, rather than on slate chips. Reason being theuy don't actually grow very high and it'll look far better seeing the plant grasp hold of the wood and slowly creep along the length of your wood. Just an idea. In a few months time you'll see the height your Anubias will get to won't be much higher than it currently is, if any higher at all. Other than that nice scape, i look forward to future updates :)
 
Re: heres hoping

i did consider tieing it to the wood but decided against it in the end,im trying to keep the biggest piece as a barrier/dominent feature if that makes sense,the anubias is tied to the slate and the ones behind the wood are actually leaning and touching the back of it so hopefully in time it will grow over the wood.

think ive got some growth on the hc :D some bits dont look too healthy but others are showing new leaves.
 
Re: heres hoping

went out today an got some more plants,i wa looking for something to go near the middle of the tank behind the anubias behind the bigger piece of wood but didnt want anything too tall so after looking around i decided on Lilaeopsis Brasiliensis,ive planted a fairly large area which goes to the back of the tank,i also got a bunch of stems(dont know what its called so any advice welcomed)which ive planted behind the bigger piece of wood and a smaller clump to the left of the Lilaeopsis Brasiliensis at the back,just waiting on 20 stems of rotala from saintly that will replace the original stems in the left corner and thats the planting sorted out :D

IMG_0040.jpg


IMG_0042.jpg


getting more new growth on the hc :D

IMG_0041.jpg


stopped dosing flourish now an gone on to tpn+ dosing 3mil per day to start with mon-fri,the tanks 170ish litres so with substarte and wood taken out i recon about 150ish litres so thats the recomended dose it states on the box,so i'll see how it goes.

comments and critism welcomed

cheers dave
 
Re: all planted,just hoping it grows.

all the planting is now complete,wanna say thanks to saintly and TBRO for the plants.
dosing 3m of tpn+ a day at the mo,drop checkers light green and the stems are growing got some new leaves on the anubias as well so things are looking good so far,got some more hc so thats looking better now.
would it be worth getting a bottle of flourish excell and dosing that as well as the tpn+ to help the plants establish themselves? really want the hc to be sucsesfull.

heres some pics of how its looking now.

IMG_0044.jpg


left side
IMG_0046.jpg


right side
IMG_0045.jpg


comments and critism welcome

cheers dave
 
Re: all planted,just hoping it grows.

thanks for the positive comments.
the original hc has definatly grown on but most of it was only planted yesterday so im hoping it does well and the blyxa was only planted today but im keeping my fingers crossed that it all works out ok.
getting new shoots daily from the parvula since chopping it down and a few new leaves on the anubias ive also trimmed the moss a couple of times,was looking un-tidy.

would dosing excel or easy carbo help at all or would i be throwing money away,thinking more to get the hc growing than anything else

cheers dave
 
Back
Top