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Planting HC in EcoComplete ??

Tony Swinney

Member
Joined
14 Dec 2008
Messages
1,185
Location
Cobham, Surrey
HI

I'm just planting a load of HC for the first time (thanks Aaron), and my substrate is Eco-Complete, which is quite "chunky" compared to the tiny HC. The tank is drained, so I'm pushing small clumps of 4 or 5 stems in to the sub every 25 or so mm.

Is this correct, and will it be OK ? It feels like the HC wont be able to 'grip' the EC.

I dont want to spend the next couple of hours planting, only to find it all floats to the surface when I put the water in !

Cheers
Tony
 
if you want to do it right, the get i stem about 1 inch long and bury the mother until you just see the top, even if fully covered it will grow back. if you got straggly stems left over just bury those too. you cant always get a good stem.

with tweezers, plant it, then, wiggle the tweezers a little as you withdraw.
 
i think done this way it roots better. if you "plug" it like i did in my MA scape, you get the odd bit that don't make it through the submerged transition whereas you can discard any bad bits planting individually. but once it's took hold of the substarte there's no real difference. you may want to invest in easycarbo and really pump the co2 to make sure you give the HC every chance of success.

another experience from the MA tank was don't fill with uber cold water....im 90% sure this saw off some of the HC.it did recover though

on start up. 6 hours light per day for first few weeks (MA scape still on that lighting to make the scape last a little longer )
easycarbo every day
high co2 and make sure you have uber circulation to the foreground.
good ferts from the outset (w/c 50% twice a week. unless using fresh ADA AS)
 
Thats great info, thanks Mark :D

I've just finished planting and have filled the tank. Water might have been a bit cold at 18º, but the hydor has it up to 21º now, so should be at 24º pretty quick - theres only 14L in there and the turn over is pretty fast !

I went with little clumps of stems (anything form 5 stems up to about 30 I guess) and pushed most right down into the sub, with just leaves showing. A few jumped up when I filled it, but not many. Learnt a quick lesson though - dont try to re-plant them once there's water in there - they dont stay down :lol:

CO2 is on now, light is 18w and set for 6 hr day, will dose TPN+ and EasyCarbo tonight too.

A little pic of the progress (more in the journal later :D ) :

NanoRouge_9.jpg



Thanks again for your help Saintly. Maybe you have an emotional tie to this HC, as I think you provided the original stems to Aaron, that this is all from :lol:

Cheers

Tony
 
Tonser said:
Thanks again for your help Saintly. Maybe you have an emotional tie to this HC, as I think you provided the original stems to Aaron, that this is all from :lol:

wow, it's getting about a bit.

it looks like the acicularis (or which ever grass you have) could of been split even more. split it into individual plants.

there's enough HC to cover pretty quick...good job!
 
saintly said:
with tweezers, plant it, then, wiggle the tweezers a little as you withdraw.
:lol:
On another note, looks like you're off to a flying start! IME you should be careful with the EC and the Acicularis. I've seen the odd couple of new leaves (very) shortly after planting, then it just seems to wither away, never put out any runners. But with plenty of CO2 & ferts it should just take off.
 
saintly said:
it looks like the acicularis (or which ever grass you have) could of been split even more. split it into individual plants

Yep its acicularis. I'll spilt it up some more when I do the first big water change, cheers.

YzemaN said:
IME you should be careful with the EC and the Acicularis. I've seen the odd couple of new leaves (very) shortly after planting, then it just seems to wither away

Thanks for the heads up YzemaN, I'll keep an eye on it, and not overdo the EC. The CO2 had the DC to yellow within an hour last night, so theres plenty of that in there ! The Acicularis and HC were pearling too 8)

I'll continue this on the tanks thread now (link in sig), to keep it all in one place.

Thanks for your help guys :D

Tony
 
saintly said:
Tonser said:
Thanks again for your help Saintly. Maybe you have an emotional tie to this HC, as I think you provided the original stems to Aaron, that this is all from :lol:

wow, it's getting about a bit.

it looks like the acicularis (or which ever grass you have) could of been split even more. split it into individual plants.

there's enough HC to cover pretty quick...good job!

sure is lol, i sent it to about 3 people now!

You will get a nice carpet planting it like that.
 
Hi,

I ended up just sieving my ecocomplete to only get the small grains. worked a treat. :D

Best Regards,

John
 
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