Evening
🙂
I thought I would do an explanation about how my tank is planted in case anyone wanted to know, since I noticed some people maybe wanting to plant in a similar way. I'm really flattered that people like my tank and my planting!!
🙂
This is my first tank and I've spent the past 9 months learning a lot and fiddling with it a lot, it's not finished or perfect by any means, it's absolutely riddled with spirogyra which is the bane of my life. However I am pretty happy with the natural-ish feel of it, it's definitely looking the best it's been so far. Motherfish as always takes pride of place in the front.
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I don't use CO2 but I do use rainwater, which I think helps me grow plants which are more picky. I like to just try plants and see how it goes, sometimes it's great, sometimes it's rubbish, I was very sad when my Rotala Wallichii hardly grew for 2 months, but every failed plant is a spot for a potential great plant, so I ripped it out and added an echinodorus instead lol. Every area of the tank I've completely changed at some point as I've learnt, except for the tiger lily and the crinum as their roots are extensive and I don't want to disturb them. I use soil under sand so I can grow a wider variety of plants, and can grow some red plants without CO2. I really like mixing colours, so I have dark pink from the tiger lotus, a brighter pink/red from the Ludwigia sp. Mini Super Red, a hint of orangey-red from Rotala Hra (this plant doesn't love me but it puts up with me and has about 50% nice stems, it's a bit hidden atm cos I did a trim of the roots a week ago), and browny-pinks from Echinodorus Rose. I also like to make sure that all the shades of green are there, from deep dark greens, to emerald-rich, to bright and yellow-y. I think it gives the tank more depth and contrast. If I did the tank again I would've included some java fern on wood because that's a really nice green. I think thats what's nice about the right side bit of tank, it's just nice green stripes with slightly different shades and textures, if I had a bigger tank I'd do the same but with even more varieties of long thin plant.
In a no CO2 tank obviously some plants won't be as thick and luscious, but I still like them so I fake that by cramming in lots of plants with different heights, leaf sizes and textures to cover any bare areas and make it more interesting. It's not dissimilar to the way a floral bouquet is done. I use a lot of grasses (Vallisneria Nana, Echinodorus Tenellus, Eleocharis acicularis) which always fill an area out and give it definition in a nice fluffy way. The vallis nana adds height and movement but isn't too thick or heavy, the smaller grasses add volume. I don't know why, but apistogramma look great amongst grass so I recently added a lot more of it and I love it. I use a few stem plants as background clumps (Rotala Hra and Heteranthera Zosterifolia), but they're not as good without CO2 and have tatty bottoms, which I hide with echinodorus and grasses, as well as place a few single stems of stem plants which do grow nicely for me (Ludwigia sp. Mini Super Red, and Ludwigia Arcuata) at the front of the clumps, where they blend in and add highlights. When you mix the plants up a bit it makes it look more natural, you can just take a few stems from one bush and dot them around the rest of the tank and it'll just soften everything, like in the wild when plants sow themselves and end up in random areas as a nice surprise.
My feature plants are Nymphaea Lotus red and Crinum Calamistratum (which if I did it again I might not put where it is, it'd go further into the back and it really has taken over the front, but I don't have the heart to move it because it's a real star plant). I also have 2 Echinodorus Rose, and 2 Echinodorus Hadi Red Pearl which are low with round dark green leaves, I really like them. The Echinodorus Rose in the front left corner I would move and put a Hadi Red Pearl there instead, but the otos really like sitting on it so I won't for now. Echinodorus make fantastic filler plants for both background and foreground, they look especially beautiful with grasses so are perfect for my tank, and they come in all sorts of sizes and colours. My dream is to get the very rare Echinodorus Iguazu 2009, which is massive and a fabulous green.
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Sorry you can see my reflection, will one day soon try to take some better pics.
I really love sandy areas, but I don't like just basic sand with nothing in it, it looks a bit barren to me. I use a few handfuls of gravel and some small pebbles (I picked them up at the edge of the stony carpark at my allotment lol) to add a bit of variety to the sand, along with some small dried leaves and twigs, and I keep MTS to turn it + they look cute in it. I think of the aquarium a bit like a theatre set with layers of lines adding depth, and in the front/around sand I use small grasses to create definition. My grasses are mostly grown in drifts, like triangles/lines coming out from the heavier planting. I never plant in a grid, and I prefer to plant grasses individually rather than in a big clump so it looks more feathery. If I had wood in my tank I would follow the lines of the wood and extend in that directiom across the sand with the grasses. I use Hydrocotyle Verticillata at the edge of the major planted areas with the grasses, they look like toadstools and are really magical. Previously, before my tank got overrun with algae that took it over I used Hydrocotyle Leucocephala, which I glued to small pebbles and made pretty arches. It looked great and is not as demanding as Hydrocotyle Verticillata. The grasses and hydro are thicker by the bigger plants, and then thin out but still there as details. Finally I have some small buces (Bucephalandra Kedagang Godzilla) which I glued to my prettiest pebbles, these act as a strong structured mini entrance plants, like bushes at the sides of your front door or something lol. Most lowdown plants are a bright green, and the buces add a nice bit of dark green and purple, something like Crypt Albida Brown would work well too to add that little detail.
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The tank many months ago with Hydrocotyle Leucocephala archway, and when my lotus was a behaving better.
The most important thing to me is that the fish enjoy their home, which I think they do! The kuhlis love rooting about amongst the mulmy roots, and climbing through the stem plants, the otos basically live in the echinodoruses big wide leaves, and the apistos seem to like it all, honestly my faouvirte fish they're so intelligent and funny. The big handfuls of leaves also provide a feeling of depth in the tank and help it look more natural. Since I don't have a dark background, I put big dried leaves right at the bottom back of the tank between the plants and the glass, partly to get the depth that the darkness brings, and also so the fish feel safer and not exposed.
Some babies, they're really getting bigger
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