Starless & Bible Black

[Vinkenoog1977]

Finally finished up planting this evening; planted nearly everything last Thursday, except for the moss, which has now been slabbed on there. And now we wait. Will dry start this one till at least September 1st. So far it all looks good, just one single Crypt on the right hand side to the back which is doing poorly; leaves are all hanging limp, except for the newest leave, which looks fine; will see how she adapts. The rest looks fine, already really like the look of the tank, the different shades of green really compliment each other well, and I can't wait to see my carpet grown in and the moss covering all the wood.

Hope you guys like it!

 

[Alan Fluxion]

Progress on your lawn?

 

[Vinkenoog1977]

We're only 6 days in, but I can already see some new grass popping up, and the MC is starting to take hold as well, the Pogostemon Helferi is doing nicely as well!

 

[T.Tamas]

Finally finished up planting this evening; planted nearly everything last Thursday, except for the moss, which has now been slabbed on there. And now we wait. Will dry start this one till at least September 1st. So far it all looks good, just one single Crypt on the right hand side to the back which is doing poorly; leaves are all hanging limp, except for the newest leave, which looks fine; will see how she adapts. The rest looks fine, already really like the look of the tank, the different shades of green really compliment each other well, and I can't wait to see my carpet grown in and the moss covering all the wood.

Hope you guys like it!

Arrange the trees closer together, covered with moss, so that would be like an old pine tree.
Otherwise good vision, trouble-free sequel

 

[allan angus]

looking good is it flooded yet ?

 

[Vinkenoog1977]

Arrange the trees closer together, covered with moss, so that would be like an old pine tree.
Otherwise good vision, trouble-free sequel

I tried every which way, arranging the branches, and this was the best look I could come up with.

looking good is it flooded yet ?

Not yet, this is only day 7 of the dry start, it will remain "dry" until at least September 1st.

Progress on your lawn?

It's going good, the hairgrass is starting to spread and the Monte Carlo is starting to root and spread as well. The Pogostemon Helferi is looking good, no real growth as far as I can tell.
The Crypts are, who could have thought, starting to melt. I removed around 10 leaves today which had gone or were going yellow. Was to be expected, but still feel gutted, as always, which explains my love/ hate for Crypts.
Quite surprisingly, the Riccia is starting to attach itself to the lava rocks! Was just a gamble, wondering if it would, as I read that when grown emersed, it does attach to wood and rock, but since this was harvested from another tank, I was sceptical; glad I gambled it!
One problem I am having, is that the moss that is higher up on the wood, keeps drying out. I'm now misting 2-3 times a day, and can barely keep up; this type of wood doesn't hold moisture too well, so I'm not sure if the moss will take on the higher-up parts. Plus, the T5s are giving up quite a bit of heat, so that doesn't help either.

Some pics:

 

[Alan Fluxion]

Look at the Ricca, that's growing fast! Mine melted... jus tlike everything else is

 

[Vinkenoog1977]

Weekly update! The carpet is growing great! You can see some definite growth from the MC, and the E. Acicularis is starting to throw out new shoots daily! Some of the leaves of the MC have gone yellowish, but I'm pretty sure that was due to me not siphoning off the standing water for a couple of days, but they are recovering nicely. The moss has already attached and grown, especially on the rock, but on some parts of the wood as well. The higher parts of the wood is still a bit of a problem area due to drying out from the lights, but we'll see how that gets on. The P. Helferi is looking great, nice, lush colour, and some growth as well. The Crypts are pretty much done melting now, I hope; lost around 50% of the leaves, but there are quite a few new ones there as well. One thing I have noticed is that the smaller/ younger the Crypts, the less they melt. Makes sense I suppose, since the younger plants have less/ no established root systems, but still, was nice to see/ notice.
Some pics.

 

[allan angus]

going well

 

[Vinkenoog1977]

Thanks Allan, am very happy with the results so far!

 

[Alan Fluxion]

That looks neat! Very nice job, the grass having 2 different colors will look sweet

 

[Vinkenoog1977]

Thanks Alan!

 

[Gruff]

Cool apartment. Do you have any pictures / plans etc of the cabinet you made at all? Looks pretty swish

 

[Vinkenoog1977]

Will do some pics, but it's just an IKEA cabinet which I reinforced.

 

[Vinkenoog1977]

Weekly update of the dry start... Things are looking very good! There are only a couple of more Crypt-leaves that are melting, but the loss has been made up by plenty of new ones! The mosses have really started to take off in most places, already around 2 cm. growth! The grass is spreading nicely, but the MC isn't growing as quickly as I has anticipated based on earlier dry starts. Still early days though, 6 more weeks to go, at least!
I decided to add the java ferns now, and they are adapting quite nicely! I took these from Heat in the Jungle, which will be moved and rescaped anyway, as soon as this tank is ready to take fauna. Got some plantlets from Indiscipline as well, they were starting to drag the parent leaves down, so decided to remove, and then figured: why not? And things snowballed from there, to the point that Heat in the Jungle now only has the Trident left, all the regular and Windelov are in here now, and I think they fill out the hardscape nicely!

Let me know what you think![DOUBLEPOST=1405794861][/DOUBLEPOST]Sorry Gruff, completely forgot to take some pics of the inside of the cabinet (it's a mess in there now anyway), will do some next week, if I can remember it then at least.

 

[allan angus]

looking great

 

[Vinkenoog1977]

Thanks Allan, am real happy with it, it's really starting to look as I had envisioned!

 

[Michael W]

Very interesting journal will definitely follow this to watch the progress! Great start!

 

[Fern]

I think this will turn out to be pretty good, nice start!

ps: King Crimson are one of my favourite bands

 

[Greenfinger2]

Hi Vinkenoog, How did i miss this one Great thread This one is coming along nicely The plants are looking fab to Will be follow from now on