My first - "3 of life" :)

[zozo]

Thanks Marcel, where do you buy your led strips.

I searched internet for the best specs i could find at the time and always go for China wholesale suppliers. These lights came from AliExpress.. They do free shipping and the strips are actualy rather cheap. I get 1 meter strip for the price i would pay for the shipping cost billed in my own country which is € 7 for any small package not fitting the letterbox. Which is rather a rip off IMHO.. I do not know about other countries and import fee and vat. But here we have a margin of € 22 anything lower will not be billed because the paperwork is more expensive than profit, probably. So i always order in small batches not higher than € 22.. It's an automated process every package is scanned as a single order so if i have to spend € 90 and i can spread it over 4 packages i would be stuppid not doing that at a 21% tax rate. That's the tip i can give with it, find out if there's an import fee margin and play with the rules to ypur advantage..

 

[zozo]

Marcel, this is an epic tank but it really requires a DIY Kessil type of light to highlight areas of it. Time for you to get into action..... [ I am going to copy.. ]

Thank you rebel, yes i agree this tank would need spotlights. I integrated this idea into my later low tech tank. And also this works pretty good. This build is yet not realy finnished i still need to build an automated control for the lights. For every single spot, but since every spot is AC 220 volt this is not realy difficult but rather expensive. I would need 5 x DC controled AC dimmer wich again are on a multi channel DC controller. I can build such a dimmer for € 23 a piece, the multi channel controller is about the same price. So that would € 125 only for the dimming part. I rather not spend so much for it. Might just take the leds spots apart and see if i can run it on low power controllers instead.. Still researching the possibilities. So for the time i'm controlling it manual, but spot lights are indeed the way to go and give much more possibilities and also for ambient night lighting it is an awsome effect..

 

[zozo]

Little bear is unstopable and keeps throwing flowers around.. 3th flower stack already..

The young plantlets on the flower stacks end also grow steadely..

Actualy a bit to steadely, i did cut one away, it was rooting into the tanks substrate with 20 + cm long thick roots and pulling itself under i had to pull it up every few days.
So i took it out and since it completely developed emersed, i try to keep it growing on in a south american jungle terrascape in the livingroom. See how it holds on.

Also this plantlet is already bussy making flowers.. Unbelievable fertile plant it is..

Flower stack 1

and flower stack 2

Now i was also growing a single stem of Pogo stellatus broadleaf, which was dying in my low tech. Didn't want to trash it and removed to the high tech in higher light.
The way it developed i saw it probably has the same potential as the echinodorus, a very sturdy stem capable of supporting it from submersed to emersed. And it's already over the top filling up the spot where the echinodorus plantlet stood.. Looking at it's crown leaves not drying out within a week, it takes it well and probably is going to transition, maybe with emersed site shoots.. Still a bit to soon to say, but it's definitely looking promising. Some Pogo flowers above an open top would be top notch.. They are awfully beautifull.. Lets go for it!!

Whish me luck.. Thanks

 

[AnhBui]

Beautiful. I start feeling jealously ah and good luck

 

[zozo]

Thank you @AnhBui..

For the ones curious about what happened to Kleiner - Kleiner Bähr.. It moved here where i still had a free spot to share.. Next to some other plants from the same natural region. Literaly they are all from and in the same boath... I realy hope it takes the change and survives the move, it stands in peat soil now... I had bad luck before repotting plants and not surviving the transplant shock.. I might feed it with some tank water it originated in to get it to addapt easier.

But this is actualy something for the emersed section and if it ever gets a hold and grows healthy i might update it there..

 

[Tim Harrison]

I've somehow missed the updates on this...fantastic journal

 

[zozo]

Thanks Tim! Comming from you means a lot to me..

 

[Greenfinger2]

Hi Marcel, Great plants and photos mate

 

[zozo]

Thank you Roy..

 

[Nelson]

Awesome emersed growth .

 

[zozo]

Thanks Neil.. It indeed improved OK..

October last year.. With mainly some ricia and UG, the rest is still tiny.. Ricua and UG are probably outcompeted, at least not realy to see anymore, got to dig realy deep to find some of it back.

Today.. Note the anubias nana petite, still petite as can be, they grow faster submersed.

 

[zozo]

Little update on the pogo erectus broadleaf, as expected with only seeing it developing a rather thick stem, that it would be able to support itself above a tank planted 20 cm deep.. At first it needed a little help to erect above the surface and now 12 days later it's still healthy and even grew a few centimeters. This plant is extremely hardy and takes the transition like a champ, it came back with emersed growth rather quick.. As far as i can tell it's a perfect candidate for open top tanks with emersed growth, its a survivor.

Tho it imediately started shedding all its submersed leaves, it's the erect stem in the back, nothing there anymore.
Unfortenately i only got room for 1 specimen, but could look stunning if with a bush and keeping a part submersed as well

Sorry for the dirty outlet.. Now lets wait if it ever will flower..

 

[PARAGUAY]

Forgiven for the dirty outlet .Looking great this tank

 

[Nelson]

Great stuff .Flowers look beautiful,so hopefully that's coming .

 

[zozo]

Thanks Paraguay, it's more i can't forgive myself.. Looks awfull, but still to lazy sometimes..

I hope too Neil, thanks.. I've seen them flowers in Wabi Kusa, so it's not impossible.. I just do not know the (light?) requirements for it. In WK it's something to play with above a tank i rather stuck and can play that much with light.. It's wait and see if it will as is.. We are half way already..

 

[Daveslaney]

Fantasic tank and journal. Real credit to your skills and knowledge

 

[zozo]

Fantasic tank and journal. Real credit to your skills and knowledge

Thank you Dave.. Skills and knowledge, well a lot goes from the heart without realy knowing, call it gut feeling gathered over the years and love for plants. Also a lot are just coïncidental succeses of which i realy didn't know where it would go when i implemented the idea. And i tried quite a few.. Also had few failures ofcourse, can't show them because they are not there anymore. But all in all, it's still a huge gain.. Experimenting and learning was the whole idea behind this tank, start with the plants rather than the scaping. I love to let mother nature just go her own way and see with what scape she comes up with, then you only have to provide some bones, the dressing is up to her. This is what i do in the garden and it seems it can pay off in an aquarium as well. This is a more is more concept i wanted to know if it can work...

So the credit actualy goes to mama nature, i'm just a simple clerk giving her some suggestions and a helping hand..

And thanks evrybody els for the likes..

Did some rearanging today which made me look where i didn't look for quite some time.. I had to laugh..

 

[Jack Reilly]

Wow, this tank makes me wish i could shrink myself and dive in and explore.

 

[zozo]

Unfortunately my laptop with photo editing software crashed it's hdd, need to repair it. So for now i'm stuck for some time without it on anothe rnotebook.
But yesterday left the lights on to take some pics from the submersed part.. Because pics see more than i do.. And now i see the tank needs a heavy trim, but i still do not realy know where to start..

Those black and ember tetras do realy well together.. Since i added the blacks the embers are less shy and more outgoing. The school together and embers copy the blacks bold behaivor..

The emersed Pogostemon stellatus is doing OK, not yet flower time, also in the WK they are without..

And i definitely need a pair of glasses, i just have problems to admit to that.. The Buce m. catherine mini is growing realy wel.. And with the naked eye it looks rather clean to me.. And then it show this on th picture..

I should take pics more often, or indeed maybe buy some spectacles..

What i also notice, the hairgrass, it stopped growing upwards and now is forming dense cushions with entangled leaves holding eachother down forcing to grow horizontaly. It's like it doesn't only need a trim, but also need to pull out of the substrate to thin the carpet out.. It's suffacating itself..

 

[Nelson]

Proper jungle .