Dutch Nature style

[plantbrain]

Haha, I sent a lot of gel cups to the USA and these were sold for 50 dollar a piece so maybe not per stem, but at least per portion.

So it was you that is to blame eh?

Do you have a pic of the Hygro red?

 

[Yo-han]

Used the black background for a few weeks. Really loved the look, but unfortunately my plants did not. The Rotala sp. 'green' and P. erectus lost most leaves in the lower half. The growth of R. mexicana 'Araguaia' slowed down significantly. The Persicaria sp. 'Sao Paolo' turned more orange than red/purple and the leaves became way smaller and lost the big lower leaves as well. Nothing else changed regarding nutrients etc. Only the black background blocking light. Changed it back to see whether it was really due to the background but I'm quite sure.

 

[flygja]

Interesting, I actually never thought about that before. My tank has a black plastic backing attached and it will be quite difficult to remove without pulling the entire tank and cabinet away from the wall.

 

[Yo-han]

Very hard in such case indeed. But all those in tank backgrounds do the same; take away light from the lower part of the plant.

 

[alanyusupov]

Used the black background for a few weeks. Really loved the look, but unfortunately my plants did not. The Rotala sp. 'green' and P. erectus lost most leaves in the lower half. The growth of R. mexicana 'Araguaia' slowed down significantly. The Persicaria sp. 'Sao Paolo' turned more orange than red/purple and the leaves became way smaller and lost the big lower leaves as well. Nothing else changed regarding nutrients etc. Only the black background blocking light. Changed it back to see whether it was really due to the background but I'm quite sure.

Hi Johan
Is your Sao Paolo is this

or looking like this?

Regards
Alan

 

[Yo-han]

Unfortunately probably more like the second. Something I was questioning for a while now but I kept calling it 'Sao Paolo' because this way it is marketed by Dennerle. But I do wonder whether it is sp. 'Kawagoeanum' like you do. At least I never had the color pop that purple like in your picture and the leaves grow always a little up instead of down like the real 'Sao Paolo'!

 

[alanyusupov]

Unfortunately probably more like the second. Something I was questioning for a while now but I kept calling it 'Sao Paolo' because this way it is marketed by Dennerle. But I do wonder whether it is sp. 'Kawagoeanum' like you do. At least I never had the color pop that purple like in your picture and the leaves grow always a little up instead of down like the real 'Sao Paolo'!

Is not only Dennerly, Tropica do same thing with plants name
Micranthemum(?) sp. "Montecarlo-3" : Neue und besondere Wasserpflanzen - Seite 2 - Aquascaping - Aquarium - Wasserpflanzen - Flowgrow
Regards
Alan

 

[Yo-han]

Yep, all nurseries do. I always believed the Ammania 'bonsai' from Tropica was the real Rotala indica. The Dutch ones are a real pain in the *ss. They sell about half the plants under different names

 

[Martin in Holland]

Yep, all nurseries do. I always believed the Ammania 'bonsai' from Tropica was the real Rotala indica. The Dutch ones are a real pain in the *ss. They sell about half the plants under different names

Be happy you don't have to get your plants from China....they don't even know Latin names, just some made-up at the spot names like: easy red or butterfly dot... LOL....Here I can only look at the plant and hope it's the right one. I don't even know the name of half of the plants I have in my tank.

 

[Yo-han]

Haha, agreed! Will be hard to know whether they grow fast, tall or are very difficult in that case. Still we should be happy to be able to buy plants in shops. I know people in Afrika and that means driving hundreds of kilometers to a shop to find 10 plants.

 

[Yo-han]

Plantwise not much changed but last week we received a batch of beautiful Sphaerichthys vaillanti. Couldn't leave them in the shop so I took 6 home. 4 females and 2 males as I assumed, but one male shows very pale vertical bars right now so I assume this is a female as well. The light from my aquarium was still dim when I shot this, so not a very good picture but I needed to share it:

 

[Martin in Holland]

handsome looking fish....

 

[Trevor Pleco]

That your scape looks superb whether its's a white or a black ground is a great compliment for starters..
Perhaps go for white when it comes to a comp tank shot as then the branches create a stronger focus point than with black. You could try some stones and decide from there, but not missing them..

 

[Yo-han]

Little update! The wood was overgrown by trident so I sold half of it. Now you can see the Bolbitus again Normally I trim most plants, but I pulled out all stems in the back and replant the tips because the bottoms where getting old. This is how it looks now:

A better picture will follow soon I hope, not much time right now...

 

[Yo-han]

1 week difference:

 

[Yo-han]

Latest update. From this:

To this:

 

[parotet]

Love it! Can you please tell us which species are in this last layout? I guess you have less species than before but looks much better... looks now really wild

 

[Yo-han]

Haha, there are even more species. I think over 30 right now

 

[flygja]

Did you take pictures of how you changed from substrate to white sand? I'm thinking of doing the same in my own tank, seeing as how my cories and discus love ripping hair grass during feeding time.

Its probably a messy process but will appreciate pictures.

 

[Yo-han]

I do have a few phone pictures. Basically I removed the glosso, sucked the aquasoil away with a hose and poored sand in the tank. Removing the aquasoil (with substrate below) was the most messy job and clouded the tank for a day. No big deal however. Here is a small timelaps: