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Revamp

Ashton

Member
Joined
7 Sep 2008
Messages
46
I'm not very happy with my South American biotope so I was thinking of doing a revamp and just keeping the fish South American. I've got a beautiful Juncus Repens which I love and I was thinking of keeping this in a corner and just covering the rest of the tank with low growing foreground plants and either small pieces of bogwood or large stones. The tank is 2 ft long buy only 1 ft deep and I've had problems with planning due to the lack of depth so I don't really want to go overboard with different plants.

I'm looking for some really good, low light plants, but would rather plant them in the substrate than tie them onto wood or stone. I once had a Pogostemon helferi in another tank and it grew really well on a piece of slate but I couldn't get it to grow in the substrate, Has anyone any tips that would help me if I bought this plant again? I was thinking that I'd only need about 2 different plants.

Any suggestions would be appreciated, I have Hagen Beach gravel in the tank and I use Easy Carbo daily and although the lighting is on the low side, about 1.5 watts per gallon, I haven't had any trouble getting plants to grow in this tank.
 
Hi,
Not sure why you'd have trouble growing P. helferi in substrate. Was this in the same tank? Did you change your habits from one location compared to another? You'd have to look at what other factors changed in the tank or technique when switching from above the substrate to in the substrate. CO2 is appreciated so the liquid carbon is a good idea. Search the Plants sub-section for threads on this species. Plenty of data available.

Cheers,
 
I've had sporadic melt on downoi a couple of times now, it seemingly doesn't like changes while in its submerged form. I never did get to the bottom of it but it was always the plants that had come already submerged that melted on me.
 
Well, we know what melting means right?
This plant became a nuisance in my tank, so much so that I was forced to throw bucket loads of it away. With proper CO2 this plant is bulletproof.
2010414060038170470S600x600Q85.jpg


Cheers,
 
I know, I know. Insufficient Co2. I think I'm good with this scape, possibly. Don't get me paranoid it's only a week old!
 
ceg4048 said:
This plant became a nuisance in my tank,

the only time i tried it, it turned into a weed also. i dont really like it if I'm honest. blyxa is my new weed, and cor blimey it gets covered in flower buds. i like weeds :lol:
 
Mine has never been that lovely dark green colour I want it for. I think I must be doing something wrong somewhere.
 
It was in a different tank but I did have the same type of substrate, I also had CO2 in that tank, but it was the Tetra Optimat one, and to be honest I kept forgetting to squirt it every day as with the Easy Carbo I always do it at feeding time. I'll give it another try but is there another low growing plant I could use either instead of, or as well as :rolleyes:
 
Well, I regret to advise that all carpet plants suffer the same difficulty. You could substitute moss as a carpet, but mosses are generally very slow growing. If you want to keep a carpet plant then you need to be more disciplined about your CO2 application. Stop forgetting to add the EasyCarbo everyday any you'll be fine. ;)

It's worth having a look at Riccia and Java Moss Lawn A Step by Step Guide in the Tutorial Section

Cheers,
 
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