Mixing glosso with HC

[hotweldfire]

Guys (and gals), any advice on how to make this look natural?

TBH it's not glosso, it's Elatine hydropiper. Introduced it a couple of months ago to my main tank and it's gone mad. Is, in fact, threatening to take over the HC. Both are growing in front of a wall of dragon stone.

But they look a bit of a mess. I think I need to rearrange and replant. Do people tend to put the HC further back for depth effect or use the glosso/marsilea/hydropiper as an accent popping up here and there?

Any photos/links of successful examples?

Ta
Sajid

 

[Stu Worrall]

tbh I don't think you'll find may examples of this as there's hardly any tanks on here that have hydropiper in them as its hard to grow! I failed miserably when I tried to grow it so well done for getting it going. Have you got any pics of how its set out in your tank as an example? I would say you could carpet with either then use one in areas to highlight.

 

[George Farmer]

Hi Sajid

Good question!

The biggest issue with mixing carpeting species is managing their different growth characteristics and rates.

You are best positioned to know exactly how each species grows in your setup. With this in mind you need to plan the planting accordingly in terms of its positioning and density for each species. How you do this is more down to your own taste but you have two basic choices; wild or formal. Or a blend of the two (my personal favourite).

I don't have experience with your particular plant combo but am currently growing a complex mix of glosso, hairgrass, Staurogyne, Lilaeopsis and H. 'Japan'. Maintenance is required almost daily to keep it in check, especially the Hydro Japan. I dare not leave it a week without pruning, otherwise it would be a tangled mess.

Depending on how messy your carpet is, I would consider a complete replant with the above considerations in mind and keep up the pruning to keep it in check. I set aside 10 mins every evening for my little pruning session. It's very therapeutic after a hard day at work!

Cheers,
George

 

[hotweldfire]

Thanks both. Photos below but not that helpful I'm afraid. Taken with my phone.


MainFeb1 by hotweldfire, on Flickr


MainFeb4 by hotweldfire, on Flickr

FTSs. Both plants growing in front of manzi with F. fontanus on it. Both struggling to grow on the right side as you can see. Down to the insane mini xmas moss ball in the middle which is shading that area. I pulled that out today and is going into a new nano. Grows to fast in a high energy setup for me. George, I'm lucky to manage a trim once a week as you can probably see from these photos.

It's hard to see from these shots but the look is jungle transitioning into desert. The "desert" is currently occupied with moss meshes etc so doesn't look particularly barren. It's loosely inspired by this:

I've not mirrored that yet by growing anything in front of the big dragon stone on the left hand side. I could grow some more of the carpet over there I suppose.

Here's close up of carpet:


Carpet1 by hotweldfire, on Flickr

Carpet3 by hotweldfire, on Flickr

HC in front, hydropiper behind. Was originally all HC but hydropiper is gradually taking over. I know it looks like glosso, but it is hydropiper. I have glosso as well and the leaf size is about 1/3 of the size. It just need a trim as it is growing too tall.

I'm minded to pull the HC out as I'll never have time to manage the different growth rates of the two plants (i.e. the faster hydropiper). But it took me so long to succeed with HC I can't bring myself to do it.