120 Gallon ADA like

[Plantbrain]

Made a big mess today.



I moved the Ludwgia red to the rear, remove the R. macrandra completely and the Bacopa lanigera. They are weedy, no one seemed to by or keep them for a reasonable $ and they can be bought fairly cheap.


UG is extremely dense:






This is the stunted Rotala "sunset". The leaves are about 1/2 as long as what I had prior, they have reddened up a little since I got them Friday. If they revet back, then Antbug's issues is most likely CO2 and/or light. Since Aaron's tank has less light than mine, but both tanks produced larger/longer leaves, the light may not have a large influence, perhaps with color etc......but not with actually leaf size I would suggest/argue/think.

A few more tweaks on Antbugs tank, and I think he'll have a dandy tank though. $$$ does not come easily, so upgrades like an ATI light system is not something many walk out and buy tomorrow.

Good CO2 can be worked on now however.

I moved the L pilosa away from the L inclinata as they are similar in coloration.

It's not the best place for it, but it does high light a nice plant.
It's worth 15X as much as the L. "red" and is a nice slow grower.

I might remove the L perunesis/granulosus and sell that and move the Red ludwigia over to that spot. I might change the L pilosa again, not sure, we will see.

Downoi has really bounced back from the dinky stump leftovers. I'll allow that to expand and come down in front where the E hydropiper is now on the left smaller side, sell that bit of E hydropiper.......then have extra grow out space for the downoi and the E Hydropiper as well.

I have some different wood pieces I'll attach the mini pellia to on the far Right. I removed the Starougyne purple, sig other said it did not look good. She was right.

I explored using the L pantanal and Red Macrandra in the spot where the L pilosa is now. Did not look good and the growth pattern would not look right/trimming etc, over time.

Rotala "sunset" today, let's see it in 2-3 weeks.

[Plantbrain]

You can really see the density changes of the Elatine triandra in the prior pics and then after a serious hacking, then the growth of the new Elatine hydropiper, the mini Glossostigma looking stuff.

[samh]

I'm interested in that rotala sp sunset, it seems that it's been a difficult plant for some people on other forums, looks to me alot like cuphea angalloidea but more red...
Penthorum looks like a terrestrial plant very interesting.

I've been searching for scapes where people have used nesaea triflora but can't find any. It's a rare plant here and i think it could look pretty cool in a garden situation. It seems to be a moderate grower making it easy to handle....

[Plantbrain]

Well, I've had no issues growing R sunset it's a weedy plant. It readily forms many side shoots and each forms a new plant, so excellent self propagation.

When some folks start growing plants and suggesting they need some special treatment, rather than just better overall conditions a red flag should jump out at you.
Both Amano and myself have not found this to be the case.....both independently.

Penthorum is a nice USA native, so is the R sunset it seems.

[Plantbrain]

I hacked a sod out of the UG, left it and simply tucked the edge of the rug back under. I'll remove the rest of the rug and then replant plugs well packed into the area later. Did not feel like it yesterday so I left it.

I re roped the Fissidens and then finally got around to adding the Mini pellia to the wood on the Right side. That was a PITA. The stuff crumbles, makes tying Fissidens in lots of tiny clumps look easy.

Looks nice though. I think I'll cut the shape in Stain steel mesh I want for that area and then use a hair net. Either that or some Green fingers following the flow of the other branches.

The other side with the Fissidens will have another green finger coming out of the middle, I just started a piece of wood that will be used for that. The Downoi has recovered and grown into large nice sized plants pretty fast. The L inclinata grows at a break neck pace. Trimming is aggressive.

I will likely sell the L penuinesis and then move the Ludwigia red to that position. The Rotala Sunset will end up in the Rear I suspect where the R macrandra was. This opens up one space for something new to toy around with in the background area.

The Ludwgia pilosa is coming along nicely and has reddened up more than I thought it would. I'm not sure this is the best scape layout, color scheme to highlight the plant, but.........oh well for now. If I get rid of the L inclinata, it'll be moved back over there, but I do not want two plant so similar in coloration this close. In another 2 weeks or so, I'll have some real nice stems of it and will be able to rescape a larger group and have more options to explore. It contrast nicely with the UG and the Fissidens, and the downoi looks decent as long as I have a Fissidens finger between them.

If I move the L pilosa, then this opens up a new spot in the mid foreground row also.

[nornicle]

I can't believe how much green water I got in the first 3 weeks of ADA soil

I'm still doing 50% changes every 2 days... how long did it take for your tank to stabilise? or did you never need a period of stability because you are a planted tank god?

[FishHeadSoup]

Pure awesome

[Plantbrain]

I can't believe how much green water I got in the first 3 weeks of ADA soil

I'm still doing 50% changes every 2 days... how long did it take for your tank to stabilise? or did you never need a period of stability because you are a planted tank god?

I've never had GW using ADA AS. When I was dosign Jobes sticks and NH4, I managed toget GW, I have very high light and little less than optimal cO2.

Tank started off well and I did a bit more work etc, but it's just gotten more and more easy to care for.

[Plantbrain]

The Day's harvest: about 100$ worth of UG. That's 150$ for every 2-3 months.





Before:


After:


Rotala "sunset" is growing nicely and the leaves are getting larger and wider:




Note the size increase the last 2 weeks on the Downoi scraps & stumps. Now folks would pay good $ for them.
I will move the R sunset to the middle row where the L inclinata is now and move that to the rear or just keep a little bit.
Then allow the downoi to fill back in nicely in the rest of the area:


The Ludwigia pilosa is doing nicely and has reddened up more than I thought it would. I'll keep the position it is at for now, it contrast better and is not as weedy as L inclinata.


Can you spot the fish recently added?

[samh]

Man that rotala sunset is a nice stem

[luka1213]

Beautiful tank,good on you mate
where did you get the driftwood?

[Plantbrain]

Man that rotala sunset is a nice stem

It will redden up, get larger and is an easy self propagator.
I had other plans for it 2 months ago and had it the back shaded.

[Plantbrain]

I get my wood here:



It's about 30C and we still have lots of snow above 2500 meters.
But it's melting. Peaks are about 3250 meters.

Last year we had 18 meters of snow.

Not much this year.

[foxpuppet]

Can you spot the fish recently added?

i love how even the reflection of the plants on the underside of the light fixture is awesome!!!

is it a pencilfish?

[Plantbrain]

The hole by the main piece of wood will have more UG added.


I like the color of the R sunset, I did not really give it a chance before.
I can get a nice thicket going and it'll look nice like the L inclinata, but nowhere near as weedy and folks will actually buy sunset off me.

Good choice, but as is the case often times, you have to try it and see what you think.

Just the way it goes most times.
l
1st Harvest from the Elatine hydropiper, the root mat is really dense, more dense that Gloss, HC etc. It stays pretty well rooted unlike most plants this size( dwarf Clover, HC, Gloss even).


Where the tank is headed the next 1-2 weeks.



I am uncertain how the new Alternanthera cardinalis will do, this is a different vareirty than what we typically get in the USA.
The A reineckii tends to do better for me in lower light, as an understory plant.
I want to see if this biotype will be different.
N. pedicillata is the normal type Yellow etc, it is not the Golden N pedicillata from FAN.
UG will fill in the back side there, more downoi will be trimmed as it grows and will fill that spot in nicely.



This Right side below hopefully will recover from these new Erio broadleaf. We are not sure what species they are. I mixed some of the smaller trimmings of the Tonina. The yellow leaves are the dying emergent leaves on the Erios. Hopefully they will make it and retain the slight off blue color. I also removed most of the Fissidens, it was a trap for detritus and algae. Mini Pellia seems to work better.