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Critique my aquascape Newbie nanoscape plant help

chrisccsci

New Member
Joined
16 Apr 2021
Messages
5
Location
Portsmouth
Hi everyone,

New to ukaps and new to the hobby, used to keep fish many years ago but didn't have much luck with aquatic plants. Like some others I have been watching aquascaping videos online which inspired me to get back in to it. Got to say great forum this, it's great to see so much constructive help and friendly advice.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone has thoughts or ideas on my new planted tank. I must admit, I have jumped in pretty blindly with this one, and could do with some help on spotting things that might go wrong before they happen! I have done some reading about the plants but only on the websites of the sellers and Wikipedia, which I'm aware are not the best sources of information.

I have got a Fluval spec V 19 litre tank with Tropica Soil Powder and some Driftwood. My goal was to make a nice home for a Betta, using south east Asian biotope plants which needed lower CO2 and could do okay with the standard light that came with the tank. I have some Tropica premium nutrition which recommends 5 doses per week for a 100l tanks, so I have been using 1 dose a week for my 19l.

For the plants, In the back left I have Hygrophila polysperma, In the back right I have Hygrophila corymbosa. I have attached java fern and java Moss to the driftwood, and have a foreground carpet attempt of Marsilea crenata. I also have some floating Asian Watermoss, for which I have made some floating airline rings to try and keep it over the Marsilea for shade, but away from the light needing plants at the back.

When putting this aquarium together I suppose my main thoughts were with the future Betta, or shrimps, and making a heavily planted aquarium with lots of hiding places and branches, with area specific species, so it would all come together and attempt to replicate how it might be naturally.

Now it is all in the tank, and from the apparent ease of the species I have picked, I am mainly concerned about whether I have too many plants, too potentially big plants, or whether I will be able to keep up with their nutritional needs. It has only been set up a few days, but so far it is looking like the H. polysperma might dominate. The Marsilea has signs of some small new roots, but the H. corymbosa is looking like it might struggle.

I don't know much about what I'm doing, so would greatly appreciate some feedback and advice if anybody has any!

Thanks for your time to read my post. Photos attached.
PXL_20210416_110505378.jpg
PXL_20210416_110321835.jpg

PXL_20210415_200436246~2.jpg
 
Welcome Chris!
I think the plants look quite healthy so it's definitely working! I would say scale is definitely important in a scape, especially a small one and because a lot of the plants are big they actually make the scape look smaller. I think also having a transition from foreground to midground to softnen the height differences help too. Maybe even some pops of colour to or at least darker shades of green for contrast. Just my two cents :)
 
Hi Courtney,

Thanks very much for the great tips and advice! I definitely agree that it looks smaller than it is, I will have to look into ways and ideas to make a nice transition to midground to stop it being such a big increase in height. It is quite a long and narrow tank, so I struggled as a beginner since there is not a lot of room to work with in this direction.

Adding a bit of pop is a great idea, I will have to see if there is any reddish or darker plants that would fit in nicely! Thanks very much for your reply!
 
Wow those two look stunning! I see what you mean about the scale. These certainly look much bigger and really stand out. Might have to move a few bits around this weekend and see what I can do! Thanks 🙂
 
Looking good so far 😃 Be mentally prepared for the plants to start shedding their old leaves once they get going with new growth :)
Dont worry about having too many plants for a betta though, as long as they can lurk around and through the plantmass they will be happy as a clam.
 
Thanks very much, I will keep that in mind! Have been a bit concerned by some of the lost leaves which I have come across so far, so it's nice to hear this is not something unusual. Do you know why do they do that out of interest? That's great news for the betta also! Thanks for your reply.
 
Have been a bit concerned by some of the lost leaves which I have come across so far, so it's nice to hear this is not something unusual. Do you know why do they do that out of interest?
More than happy to be corrected but its just the plants adapting to their new surroundings.

When the plants are emersed they have access to an abundance of co2 and will change their leaf shape accordingly to maximise this, I would also imagine the shape or texture of the leaf will in some way differ to prevent itself drying out.

So when the plant is submerged in water it suddenly finds itself starved of co2 and needs to adapt to maximise the available carbon in the water column, hence requiring a different leaf shape, texture and or thickness.
The old emersed leaves are no longer efficient so the plant probably strips it of any available mobile nutrients and puts its energy into creating new more suited leaves.

That's a very basic idea of whats going on but in a nutshell the plant is simply getting rid of excess baggage.
 
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