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Concrete Mountain Landscape

While dry starting you may as well wack your lights up to 100% as the plants aren't limited on co2.
I wouldnt spray ferts, the soil should be enough during dry start.
Wouldnt worry about a few leaves dying off, as long as it's just a few then it's normal, if it's a slow decline if more and more then you need to think about a cause...

It's looking great though

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
 
Thanks, light ran on 90% today... Tomorrow I will reprogram it reaching 100%

I will relax with the ferts then, what ever dosed should also be bound to the top layer of the substrate in the tropica soil. And when root reach through that, they have tons of micro's available... in the red clay granulate.

I wonder if all this sunrise sunset and light intensity ramp up and down, is really something that benefits the plants? Or if it is just for me to have fun, and actually waste time on full light intensity to support the photosynthesis?

Anyway I find it nice/cool to have a slightly red tone the days first hour and slightly blue in the last hour. To top it off I have been playing with the idee of programming a step engine with an LED on a stick to look like the sun passing over the mountains in the back, using an arduino. Together with film on the glas and LED strip at the back bottom.
Anyway, now the ide out if anyone feel bored one weekend!

I ran into a problem, luxury problem, but still.... I am going on holydays for 7 days in 41 days from now....

I am thinking the best solution is to keep the tank emersed, and find a friend who is willing to ventilate and spray every evening? I can not ask for more than that, but would it be enough?

Still no sign of growth.... getting a bit impatient!

Thanks again for all the support.
 
I wonder if all this sunrise sunset and light intensity ramp up and down, is really something that benefits the plants? Or if it is just for me to have fun, and actually waste time on full light intensity to support the photosynthesis?
I think it's more for the inhabitants; if you imagine waking up in the morning and all of a sudden being blasted with a load of bright sunlight in your eyes :woot:
As for the plants I'm not so sure o_O
 
I think it's more for the inhabitants; if you imagine waking up in the morning and all of a sudden being blasted with a load of bright sunlight in your eyes :woot:
As for the plants I'm not so sure o_O

Well that makes sense. And also I find it fun to play around with having the red sunrise/set and the blue hour after sunset.

Anyway here is a quick update:
I spray the plants now just RO water I buy in the supermarket. No frets.

I think the carpeting plants is slowly starting to grow. MC looks best, HC have some yellow spots here and there, and the hair grass have a hard time some places...

Don't know if the concrete sucks up moisture, or raises ph... as it definitely would without the color fix sealing liquid mixed with the color pigments at the paint job... It should seal everything and make the tank ready to fill with water and plants after curing...

But the Christmas moss also have a hard time... mabe It is not suitable for yoghurt method, but after a few days most of it was pretty brown and looking dead. As you can see in the following video.

In the video I try to show the secret way the fish can swim through the LH mountain... I really hope they will! :happy:

A little video:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QK_jmUwmKPiuHAXRs5qa9-wrrJ_CfH9x/view?usp=drivesdk

But the alternanthera reineckii mini really responds well to the DSM in my tank!
 
Last edited:
30 days update:

HC
is having some trouble in areas with just aquasoil - gettig yellow and dying of. But it is doing well in the main substrate. Maybe it is because of the limitet "container" size for the substrate, and that it is actually drying out? If you have any thoughts on this, please enlighten me!

MC is doing ok I guess. Hairgrass I dont really se any growth, but I only spread out one pot...

Alternanthera reineckii mini, have grown really well, and to help it grow compact I trimmed of the tops after the following pics was taken. Trimmings whent straight into my other plantet tank! =)

95% of the Christmas moss is completely dried out, or died of for other reasons? A few small spots is still green, the place with most alive is allmost on a vertical surface, which does not make sense to me, as the rest looks dried out... well I guess I have do glue in patches where I like as the tank gets flooded.




Day 1 - (just for easy reference)
DSM dag 1.jpg



30 dage.jpg

30 days

Some more pictures:
20200104_113927.jpg 20200104_113935.jpg 20200104_113948.jpg 20200104_114011.jpg


I have some questions:
  • Should I do anything about the dying (brow) plants ?
  • Should I trim the carpet when I flood or just leave it with some time to adapt?
  • End of january I am going on holidays for one week, would I be best off flooding tank soon as possible, and change a lot water until the holydays? Or should I have a friend to come over and mist the plants every evening and wait to flood after I get home?
  • Please tell me, what else would you plant here?
 
As this is my first dry start... I really appreciated some advise on above questions please!

My instinct tells me to remove all brown plant material, and that will be most part of HC in the back mountain chains. I probably order some ekstra moss to fill out those lines when I order the last plants for the flooding.

Anyway here is a picture of the Alternanthera reineckii mini after the trim.
It grows bigger that expected, atleast in its emersed state.
20200109_085018.jpg
 
When I did my dry start I went on holiday for 10 days and left it dry. I left small ventilation holes to stop mould and asked a friend to pop in twice to spray. Unsure if your rocks will absorb water so you might need it spraying more.

Much less work to leave it dry for a few more weeks and then you can spend plenty of time optimising your flow and co2.
 
Thanks a lot for your reply, that is what I will do.... I think a spray everyday would be best.

What do you guys think of the dying/brow plants? Should it just cut it out, and/or remove with tweezers?
 
Go to Emmersed Growing : "Andy's HC Propagator Step by Step . " will probably help also Nigel 95 I think has a video of how to dry start somewhere.?I will try to find it later
 
Thanks guys...
Tank is ready for me to order plants... but I am so much in love with most plants I am looking at.
Trying to make a realistic shopping list I always end up with plants summing up to the wrong side of 100 euros... and this might be overkill! Ok there is a few plants for my other tank among them, but still!!

Please help me out, what would be your top 3 or top 5 to ad to this tank?
 
This was my last try:

Planter.png


The plants with XL is a 9 cm "in vitro" wich contains more than 3 times the plats material as a standart 1, 2 grow from tropica (5 cm in vitro)
It might be enough with just a 5 cm for some of the plats, but its just 1 or 2 euros more to get the bigger one!!
 
I would add some staurogyne repens in the foreground where the dark/shadow areas are created by the rocks. I would probably add a small buce like kedang plotted about randomly or towards the back to keep perspective, and maybe some moss on the rocks/creeping down.
 
I would add some staurogyne repens in the foreground where the dark/shadow areas are created by the rocks. I would probably add a small buce like kedang plotted about randomly or towards the back to keep perspective, and maybe some moss on the rocks/creeping down.

Thank you. That sound like a very good idea! Have you grown staurogyne repens in the shade like that before?
Personally I think it grows very slow in my other tank, but it is also a low light tank. But not in the shade...

Ok sorry but the following is a lot of questions, mainly about plant care and possibility. Hope you will take your time to help me out, and thanks in advance. :angelic:

Do you guys think it could work with rotala Vietnam along the back mountain chain, if I trim it to stay lowest possible, I hope it could work like another 'layer' before the back mountains. Read it can be trimmed to stay as low as 3 cm.

Then I plan to plant some stems that can grow taller behind the big LH mountain. On the left in the elevated substrate corner, and on LH mountains right side.

I am unsure about back RH side just next to the HMF. This spot is the end of the I flow... but I might try some stems here as well, because you can see the mat from the HMF if you look from the 'right' or should I say wrong angel.

Is Buce smaller than Anubias bonsai pettite?

I will buy plants from wasserflora, and among other plants buce is something I would like to try. If one who knows the different species could tell me what species that would be the smallest, I would really appreciate it. They don't have that many!
Here is a link, my own guess is the one called buce red mini, but that is just according to the name..

https://www.wasserflora.de/shop/search.php?search=buce

I am not sure about the alternanthera reineckii mini... mabe I can keep it low enough to keep perspective... Think I overplantet a bit, but unsure what groups I should pull out. Any suggestions is very welcome as well.

Allso should I expect the alternanthera reineckii mini to drop all leaves when I flood the tank?

And would it be beneficial for its transition if I prune it just before the flood, so new shot can grow out straight into submerged form?

The plant mass of MC and HC is pretty dense now...
I would like to share some of the MC with my low light tank. Would it be better to wait until plants moved into submerged state in their current environment? I would this be same same?

Is there a chance that the brown and dry christmas moss will regrow when flooded or should I just clean it off?

And ofcourse here is a 2 days old update picture:
20200202_155727.jpg

Funny to see how the alternanthera reineckii mini is bushing from the pruning, and how the stems that I found to short for pruning a month ago now has grown really tall.

woups... another question is it ok to prune/cut the stems if there is only one node (set of leaves) below the pruning point?
Guess that is how I keep it as short as possible?


...again thanks for reading and helping me out, this forum is pure gold!
 
Great work! can’t help but think that the AR detracts from the overall large feel of the tank making everything look smaller .
Have you considered a smaller plant as a replacement?
 
I really been looking at plants and plants and plants... So many, so nice, and jet I agree the AR is really big, especially the lump right in the middle, maybe even more or all of them!

Have also considered low small bushes, of stones or very small piles of branches with moss in it.
Or some trees, a big one to the front, and then some smaller ones to the middle ground and some extremely small ones on the mountain range in the background.
If you or others have some good ideas for plants I am all yours!

Have considered Mini Bolbitis as a replacement, but it will be 5-7 cm high and 5-10 + wide.

https://www.wasserflora.de/p/mini-b...difformis-t220910an-a7759.htm?slpos=a7-765672

Maybe it might look good to keep a single bush or two of the AR right up front, and then moss bushes (which can stay way smaller) further inside the tank.
Unfortunately I do not have much experience with all these plants, as this is my first high energy tank...
Good ideas for AR alternatives and other plants and moss choices?
Back to research. I'm on my knees, begging!! :)
 
If it was my tank I’d try hydrocotyle verticillata . You don’t need much, just a pot or two max and plant individual or couple at a time randomly .
It grows in a tree like fashion that will give you the look you’re after.
Try to create layers, like moss on top or sides of those mountains; some hairgrass at the base of the rock structure, anubias or bucephalandra in the shaded spots and all those crevices...
You can even get creative with a sand path running from the front and dividing into two smaller narrower paths with one going over the hill to the right behind the big mountain and one towards the left behind the other big rock. Throw some rock chips to roughen up the sand path as to not look too perfect and you’re good to go. Carpeting plants will grow over and give it a natural look .
Just some ideas...
 
I really been looking at plants and plants and plants... So many, so nice, and jet I agree the AR is really big, especially the lump right in the middle, maybe even more or all of them!

Have also considered low small bushes, of stones or very small piles of branches with moss in it.
Or some trees, a big one to the front, and then some smaller ones to the middle ground and some extremely small ones on the mountain range in the background.
If you or others have some good ideas for plants I am all yours!

Have considered Mini Bolbitis as a replacement, but it will be 5-7 cm high and 5-10 + wide.

https://www.wasserflora.de/p/mini-b...difformis-t220910an-a7759.htm?slpos=a7-765672

Maybe it might look good to keep a single bush or two of the AR right up front, and then moss bushes (which can stay way smaller) further inside the tank.
Unfortunately I do not have much experience with all these plants, as this is my first high energy tank...
Good ideas for AR alternatives and other plants and moss choices?
Back to research. I'm on my knees, begging!! :)
Hi

I believe in its emmersed form AR mini doesn’t become so mini and reverts back to the height of normal alternanthera. However it’s submersed form it’s should stay pretty small.

cheers

conor
 
...
Just some ideas...

Thank you very much... Thouse are really inspiring, hydrocotyle verticillata was among my 'need to have' plant list, but as I had to do something to cut down the amount of different plants. I decided to delete all the plants that requires soft water.

But it is so... what to say cute/nice and different. would it be waste of time and money try growing it in my hard to very hard water. Think I have read a water report on 20-22 dh. (Gh or something!)

thanks again.
 
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