Sticks & Stones - Journal

[elwaine]

Update - 1st planting

The water is still cloudy and tannins are leaching into the water from the driftwood - so that's why things look yellow at the moment. Here's what I planted so far:

Plant List (so far):
Epiphytes on driftwood: Anubias nana petite - #1 in photos
Mid-ground sides: dwarf Hairgrass (Eleocharis acicularis) - #2 in photos
Foreground sides: HM (Hemianthus micranthemoides) - #3 in photos
Foreground center: HC (Hemianthus callitrichoides) - #4 in photos
Low background: Lobelia cardinalis small form: - #5 in photos

Right side:

Left side:

The 3-D in these photos is lost. The HC goes considerably deeper into the back-center than can be appreciated in these photos. It grows between the gnarled tree roots (driftwood) and is already cool to look at - even in its current sorry state. It takes a few weeks until plants adjust to their new environment. After they adjust, the foreground and mid ground plants will green up, thicken up, and form carpets. (And if I say that with conviction 3 times fast, each evening for 3 weeks, that will actually happen.)

On each side, HM separates the HC from the dwarf hairgrass and will have a layered look when both fill out and grow into carpets... a great suggestion by czcz.

Still to come: Java moss, which will be tied to the "wings" of the driftwood sculpture. That arrives next week.
Java fern (needle leaf - currently out of stock everywhere). They will provide a strong visual focal point when tied to the lower branches of driftwood.
Finally, umbrella hairgrass for the background (also unavailable at this time).

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

Looks great man, love the driftwood that has the planted Anubias on it. Keep it up.

 

[czcz]

Man, straight plants like dwarf hairgrass looks great by the "petite" and L. cardinalis "Small form". I need to remember this for the next tank.

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

Hey once that hairgrass gets to out of control for you i'll be happy to take some off your hands

Haha

 

[starrystarstarr]

This tank is looking pretty sweet so far. I cant wait to see it mature.

 

[elwaine]

Observations about ADA's Aquasoil Amazonia

Appreciate the comments above... thank you.
____

Observations about ADA Aquasoil Amazonia:

Aquasoil granules look sort of like gravel but they disintegrate easily with slight pressure. In the air they turn into fine soil when squeezed between thumb and forefinger. Under water they turn to mud. The granules have little density so they do not grab the plant roots or stems as well as denser substrates, such sand or aquarium gravel. As a result, plants that are lighter than water (e.g., HC,) are somewhat difficult to plant in Aquasoil if there is water in the Aquarium at the time of planting.

ADA literature advises that planting should be done with just enough water in the tank to keep the Aquasoil wet. That’s fine if you know exactly what and where you want to plant, and have all of your plants on hand before filling your aquarium. But if you plant after filling the aquarium, you’ll find that getting plants like HC to stay in Aquasoil, and not float out of the substrate, can be a little tricky.

After a few unsuccessful attempts, you get that first little HC plant to stay put. Then, as you go to plant a second HC next to the one you just rooted, you unknowingly disturb the soil and uproot the first plant as you insert the second into the soil. And that can happen repeatedly.

So here are a few tips for future users of Aquasoil: if you have to plant after the aquarium contains water that is at least several inches above the substrate;
1 - move very slowly as you insert the plant-holding tweezers into the soil… and just as slowly when withdrawing the tweezers (hopefully sans plant). You must avoid disturbing the grains of substrate holding adjacent plants in place.
2- before attempting to plant, have a beer or a Bourbon. That will help to steady your hands… or at least make you less upset at watching all your newly planted greenery float to the top of the tank.

Another thing: as stated in ADA's description of the product, there's a lot of humic acid in Aquasoil, so monitor the pH closely if you chose to use that substrate. In addition to water changes, it is likely that you'll need some chemical means of raising the pH. It may take several days of treating the aquarium with pH elevating solutions, in addition to several PWCs, before the pH stays above 6.6. Finally, Aquasoil Amazonia will tint the water yellow. That will clear, but will likely take many PWCs.

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

If I ever get enough light to grow HC, I will deff. keep that in mind, except for the beer part, i'll just drink some cold medicine for now

 

[JustOneMore20]

Somehow I missed this journal.

Looks great so far! I can't wait to see everything grow in. Smart move on the acrylic. I wish I had thought of that for my 40 breeder. I have dwarf hairgrass everywhere in the tank now.

Adding some Purigen to your filter will help remove the yellow tint faster.....if it bothers you (or anyone).

 

[czcz]

Great post. When planting stem tops or carpet with little roots, angled tweezers seem to help too: after straightening the plant out, I can release the plant/tweezers and dip the tip into the substrate (making the tweezer's body closer to vertical), which seems to also fill in some substrate under the planting spot, then pull the tip out at an angle while staying in a pretty confined space and not disturb the adjacent planting.

Another thing: as stated in ADA's description of the product, there's a lot of humic acid in Aquasoil, so monitor the pH closely if you chose to use that substrate. In addition to water changes, it is likely that you'll need some chemical means of raising the pH. It may take several days of treating the aquarium with pH elevating solutions, in addition to several PWCs, before the pH stays above 6.6.

I understand your train of thinking here, but acidic substrates and acidic conditions are good for almost any plant (and required for some plants) and so another school of thought is to use this to our advantage: don't add fish yet or care about pH and just grow plants for a couple weeks, then gradually add fish. This of course also coincides with the plant adjustment time you've found as well as the usual time to play with plumbing and dosing and CO2 or whatever without caring about hurting animals. After that initial shock of Aquasoil Amazonia's initial pH, you'll find it buffers pretty well to the low 6's then gradually (the consensus is 3 months) loses any of its buffering capacity. Its such a gradual change all but hard water fish/fish that should not be kept with acidic substrate seem to not care. Its a change so gradual Neocaridina sp/Amano Shrimp/cute inverts don't care.

Tangent via edit: Plus the driftwood is buffering down too and your plants love you. Its these conditions that really help us through the establishment period of a tank. There used to be an interesting argument by some people that these are such good conditions that short term Aquascapes (3 month growout/trimming then tear down and start over) are weaksauce and avoid established tank issues (weird deficiencies, etc), but I think everyone agrees its cool to see how talented folks experiment. I like that you keep making awesome tanks

 

[elwaine]

Thanks Kristin and czcz for the advice and pointers. There is so much to learn. The planted aquaria of today are nothing like the simple tanks I had back in the dark ages and they are a world apart from the marine aquariums I am familiar with. But I must admit that I am having more fun with the planted tanks than I'd imagined.

 

[elwaine]

3 week follow up

Since the last set of pictures:
1. The water has cleared.
2. The HC has adapted an is beginning to grow nicely.
3. Fissidans fontanus was recently tied to 6 of the pieces of drift wod.
4. Needle leaf Java ferns and Wendilov variety Java fern has been added to the near background.
5. the mid ground pockets of HM are growing nicely.

I am still waiting for my background plants, but for now, here are a few pics. (I apologize for the quality of the pictures. I don't have time to do a really good job... maybe next time.

If you look closely, you'll see little white blobs of crazy glue (gel) that I used to tack down the ferns... like in this close-up shot.

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

Wow Larry, that tank has REALLY taking off. What was your lighting, and how big is the tank again?

 

[elwaine]

Wow Larry, that tank has REALLY taking off. What was your lighting, and how big is the tank again?

Hi Ben,

It's about 18 gallons according to ADA... but it's actually 17. The PC light fixture holds 2, 65 watt bulbs, but I'm using only one bulb... so that's 65 Watts or approximately 3.6 watts per gallon. That is still in the medium-high range for this size tank. I did not want to use the full 7 WPG for a number of reasons:

First, I don't have enough experience with planted aquariums to push the lighting that high. Running the tank at 7 WPG would probably result in my growing more algae than plants.

Second, even if I had the experience (e.g., had my fert scheme down pat, etc.,) the aquarium is too young to run well at full power (and light is what powers the aquarium). So I'd still have algae problems because, at present, there are not enough fast growing plants to out-compete the algae. (Keep in mind that the bulk of the plants you see are slow growing ferns.)

Finally, keeping the wattage down (to a level that is still high enough to grow just about any plant) results in a slower rate of growth, less maintenance, and wider latitude in controlling what goes on in my mini ecosystem.

As for "REALLY taking off," the fact is that not very much growth has occurred during the 3 weeks since my first planting. The the HC stopped dying back and has just recently started the initial stages of spreading. The HM is starting to rock! A. nana petites are pushing out a few new leaves, but the dwarf hair grass hasn't done much of anything yet. And If I removed the ferns, you'd be hard pressed to see much of a difference between what you'd see today and what there was three weeks ago.

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

Well, sure looked like it grew a bunch since last time I saw it

 

[czcz]

I especially like that on the initial look of the full tank shot the "Windilov" by the "Needle Leaf" fern makes it look wilder and invites a closer look (face squinting close to the screen) to see they are actually different plants. And the time you spent planting the HC/carpet really shows.

 

[elwaine]

Fully planted.

The tank is now fully planted. All that remains now is to wait and watch it fill in over the next few months.

I added the following to the background:
far left & far right: Potamogeton gayi
mid left: Mayaca (Mayaca fluviatilis)
mid right: Rotalla Wallichii (Rotalla wallichii)

To complete the list:
Microsorum pteropus var. Needle leaf
Microsorum pteropus var. Windelov
HC (Heminathus callitrichoides)
HM (Heminathus microanthemoides)
Anubias Barteri Var, Nana Petite
Dwarf hairgrass
Fissindens fontanus

Full frontal assault

Wild and almost wooley

 

[elwaine]

Fun with a camera

Just goofing around and having some fun...

Sticks & Stones

Big red

Shrimp on a log - tastier than smoked salmon on a bagel

Sometimes it's important to be taller than HM

Munchies: after a few whiffs of CO2, nothing tastes as good as GSA on an A. nana leaf

Guppies in the grass (actually they're Endler's live bearers)

Hiding in the grass

Heminathus microanthemoides: a grace little plant with a big ugly name

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

Looks great, can't wait to see everything grow into place.

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

Also, I really like that "hiding in the grass" picture, very natural looking.

 

[elwaine]

Thanks Ben.

Check out the 3 photos of a RCS that I took with a macro lens. (Just click on the Images link under my avatar and be sure to view them enlarged.)