Green Phantom

[Zikofski]

thnx TT, and @daizeUK i totally understand where your coming from BUT, that has the potential for imbalance in co2 going up and down, i rather get it to the level i want and stable to prevent fluctuating co2 and therefore avoiding that side for algae to grow i had bad algae in my old tank if u remember and i am sure that was imbalances with co2 flow and ferts, so i am trying to do this right from the start

 

[Zikofski]

okay major update, with plants 

 

 
honestly i was a little disappointed with AE with the plants they gave me it was mostly mid to back ground plants and i ordered a mixed box of 10 but really they gave me a mixed box of 5 x 2 if that makes sense only 5 different plants twice

but the plants did look good and one of the plants was one that i wanted sadly no crypts
 
so this is the list of plants i know i have i need to ID two of them
 
Echinodorus Ozelot
Echinodorus Reni
Nomaphila Stricta
 
and i bough Separately Vallinseria Asiatica (lovely looking plant with twists glad i got this and hope it grows)
 
so onto the pics
 
i shall start with the Valli, i only bought 2 bunch's of these and i got 6 individual plants from that i placed them around the back and left side of the tank and i tried to separate them so i am hoping they will pop more plants and fill in the gaps around the tank if there is any haha

 
my Ozelot i got two pots of this which i managed to break down into like 6 plants i spread them out into 3 bunches in the tank, i love the red coloration on these makes the tank not look so perfect or green as the plants look a little dirty to me which i like



 
next onto the Reni now this i do now know how this will go in my tank never seen or heard of it before it is stated as a foreground plant with the Ozelot as a mid ground, i don't know but they where taller and bushier than my Ozelot's so i put them towards the back, again two pots broke them down into like 8 smaller plants but i bunched these together to make around 4 bunches in the tank


 
now the next plant i was disappointed in it is a stem plant but a very tall stem plant and i feel may out grow my tank hugely so i shall see once i starts to grow i may hack at it massively to keep it in check and to bush it out a bit, this one is called Nomapgila Stricta again two pots got around 12 individual stems so again grouped 3 stems together and spread them out over the tank

 
okay the next two plants i have no idea what they are so if someone can ID them that would be great these looked more foreground so i left them in there huge bunches and just put them between the the Ozelots

 

[Zikofski]

right i put them into the tank, how i did that was after i broke up the plants all plants except the two i don't know and the stems i trimmed the roots and then stuck them in the tank, i removed any already dead leafs tbh almost non, plants from AE seem to be amazing in that sense no snails or random critters lying in the plants either but i still washed them in some of my tank water before putting them in the tank, i lowered my water to about 1/3 left and putting them in made the tank really mirky and dirty again so i had to wait to get these pics till the morning but so far i am really happy with how it looks only thing missing is my mass foreground plants that i have ordered yesterday and was delivered only a few minutes ago i ordered 6 crypts a red stem plants, anubias and some DHG yes i am giving DHG another go in this tank first of the pictures from today
 




 
as you can see there is a lot of room at the front still for some lovely crypts and some DHG, i am not sure where to put my anubias yet may put it on the left had side wood
 
now you may have noticed my drop checker shocking blue in these pics, okay that has confused me, as in my last tank i had my co2 on 1hr before lights on and turned of 1hr before lights when out and the drop checkers stayed green 24/7 now why is this drop checker going blue over night? do fish have anything to do with this? i have the same amount of surface movement as i did before so i am guessing i am off gassing co2, is this okay to happen? should i run my co2 24h? or will this effect the fish once i get them?
 
many questions even from a moderately experienced guy like me haha still always learning

 
okay onto the list of plants i just received il post pics later today or tomo once i get them and there in
 
6 Crypts varying in colour n sizes
Cryptocoryne legroi
Cryptocoryne costata
Cryptocoryne wendtii brown
Cryptocoryne petchii
Cryptocoryne bullosa
Cryptocoryne beckettii
 
lovely red stem plant that i think i had in my old tank and it failed miserably so i am giving it another shot
Alternanthera reineckii Purple
 
typical anubias and good old DHG i think thats what it is as it looks identical
Anubias barteri var. nana
Tropica Eleocharis sp. 'mini'
 

 

[daizeUK]

Looks great!  Wow you are really packing those plants in!
 
Have you tried turning on your CO2 a bit earlier to get it green before lights on?
 
This one looks like it might be bacopa australis to me:
 

 

[Ch4rlie]

Looking good Z, tanks gonna be great once these plants settle in and start growing
 
The two unidentified plants - 
 
Had a quick look online, the first one, as Daize said, could be Bacopa Australis or even Monnieri 
 
http/www.aquaessentials.co.uk/bacopa-australis-p-6678.html
 
http/www.aquaessentials.co.uk/bacopa-crenata-monnieri-p-5357.html
 
The second one, looks like Bacaopa myriophylloides?
 
http/www.aquaessentials.co.uk/bacopa-myriophylloides-p-6421.html

 

[Zikofski]

well this heat we are experiencing in the uk is effecting my LEd's i have had two LED's blow which is caused by the way the LED's where made up i have ordered a few spares and a few extra things to improve the performance of the LED's and help with heat dissipation may haft to get fans for the heatsink's as well i shall see how we go for the time being its a gd job the LED's are easy to find which ones are broken and are so cheap to replace

 

[Ch4rlie]

Good thing the LED's you have are easy and cheap to replace and yes, would suggest fans for the heatsinks, would make life a little easier if you have those.
 
Annoying though, having blown LEDs.
 
BTW - are the plants I linked or Daize suggestion anywhere near like the unidentified plants you have?

 

[Zikofski]

sorry yes i think you are both right, thank you for that. well its time for another update, well so i bought 6 crypts but i ended getting like 6 to 12 individual crypts for each pot so i think my tank is well and truly fully planted now

i hope it fills out really nicely and not get to much of a jungle i may need to remove plants if they get to big
 
okay firstly i shall start with the wonderfully coloured Alternanthera reineckii Purple i so hope this plants grows and keeps its purple red colour looks so beautiful in the tank giving some colour in there

 
then i did my anubias i attached it to the left hand side wood looks good and again adds a different shade of green much darker then the sounding brighter greens of the valli and swords i tied this on using fishing line






 
now the infamous crypts bare in mind each crypt i got was just 1 pot i am amazed and was not expecting at how much i was going to get, i broke the crypts into 3 categories Background Mid ground  and Foreground, as some grow bigger than others i mixed and matched them a little and tbh once there went int the tank i had no idea which ones are which haha

 
so first off i did Cryptocoryne petchii lovely plant and probably i received the most from this plant

 
Cryptocoryne bullosa was my next one again lovely plant i love how there are a verity of browns dark green and light greens patch in places with all these crypts


 
next is one of my favourites Cryptocoryne wendtii i placed this plant closer to the front of the tank and close to the rocks

 
again another of my favourites Cryptocoryne beckettii along with the wendtii i placed this at the front mixed them in with each other and i hope will fill out, at the front

 
Cryptocoryne costata was next and this plant looks like it could be very big so i put these towards the back of the tank in amongst the amazons and vallis 

 
and the finally crypt, Cryptocoryne legroi this is a small crypt and made sure this was at the very front of all the plants looks very nice and i hope it stays small

 
so the last plant to be crammed into my tank was Tropica Eleocharis sp. 'mini' there is not much space for a carpet plant but i managed to cram it into the bottom right hand corner lets hope it grows and not just fizzles out like it did in my last tank at least i don't have corydoras to keep uprooting it this time which i think was the problem with most of my plants in that tank

 

[bluesword23516]

Looks amazing! I am so jealous!

 

[Zikofski]

haha thank you

 
just as its easier to see what it looks like here is the full tank shot
 

 

[daizeUK]

Looks gorgeous!  A lovely variety of plants.  I like Crypt legroi, it's a lovely little crypt.

 

[Xzavier247]

What type of rock is that? I'm very interested now lol

 

[Zikofski]

thank you both and its mini landscape rock from Aqua Essentials

 

[TallTree01]

It looks bloody amazing.

 

[Xzavier247]

Thanks and BRAVO with the tank!