New Method To Grow In A New Tank Without Algae

[Guinness]

I am sure I read an arcticle on here recently, where is was suggested that you plant carpet like plants on a decent substate (ADA), then simply cover the tank with about 7/8 inches of water & add a plastic/ glass cover & allow to grow in for a month.

No need for filtering, heaters, water changes ferts & the like & should stop algae growing.

Has anyone else come across this artical & could point me in the right direction ?

 

[plantbrain]

Well,

http/www.barrreport.com/articles/3361-ne...-add-water.html

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[SuperColey1]

lol

Not quite the hornets nest it stirred on APC.

Good article though and a good read. Maybe something I will try in the future.

Andy

 

[Guinness]

I started last night. Will try anything once- what have you got to lose ??

Will let you know how I get on.

Cheers.

 

[plantbrain]

lol

Not quite the hornets nest it stirred on APC.

Why am I not surprised?

I've banned 3 folks and closed 3 threads after 3 years on my site.
Now that's nice.
Folks debate about plants, rather than personal debates, reactionary responses, belief etc.
Which is the goal. This site is pretty good about that and the mods are good here.

Good article though and a good read. Maybe something I will try in the future.

Andy

Yes, AGA wants an article about the "new" method.
It's very easy to do.

I sold two tanks I did this way, made 300$ and spent about 40$ total and simply the time to do the initial planting(maybe an hour) and waited 4 weeks. Not bad I figure and it looks nice.

I did notice a slowed growth rate with lower temps, I grew the plants outside and it got into the 8-15C range mostly for sometime here. I moved things inside and they perked right up.

Things can look quite nice.
BTW, HC does very well at moderate low light and with EXCEL.
I'd suggest this on smaller tanks.

No algae that way either.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[businesslamb]

Hi Tom,
Interesting idea, do you reckon it would work on Crypts as I understand they often grow emersed in the wild. once they have built up a good root system you could fill the tank add stem plants and you may be less likely to suffer algae problems.

Cheers

Businesslamb

 

[mlawson]

Hi Tom,
Interesting idea, do you reckon it would work on Crypts as I understand they often grow emersed in the wild. once they have built up a good root system you could fill the tank add stem plants and you may be less likely to suffer algae problems.

Cheers

Businesslamb

Crypts would work, as well as most plants apart form pure aquatic species like Egeria, Vallis, Cabomba etc.

I have tried this method after I saw this post. I have an container of water in a grenhouse which has a substrate of aquatic soil, stem plants grow emersed from the water and include plants like Rotala, hygrophila and bacopa species. On the surface of thw water there is a thick layer of duckweed and some amazon frogbit, I'm pretty sure these limit the growth of the stem plants. I also have a seed tray which is almost floating on top of the water, this is also full of aquatic soil and I'm growing glossostigma, HC, hairgrass, and Pogostemon. The glosso has grown really well and there is now a carpet, although it has been in there for the longest. The other plants are still taking a while to transform to the emersed growth. The only problem is, is that it is rapidly getting colder as the winter approaches here in the UK and soon I wont be able to support these plants. However, last year some Hygro survived thw whole of the winter in the tub, but this is because I think we had a mild winter.

I also have an 8cm glass cube which has HC growing in it. There is a substrate of Eco-complete from my other tank and I kept it wet and planted quite a small amount of HC in. To keep high humidity I simply put some cling-film over, there is 0 maintenance and I keep it by quite a bright window. It has grown pretty slowly, but what has grown is very healthy and it seems to have smaller leaves than in my other tank.

I have some pictures if anyones interested.

Cheers,
Mike

 

[Ark]

im really interested to see pics of the glosso hc and pogostemon as i wanted to grow a few of these emersed in my new 80cm plantedtank

 

[plantbrain]

Well,

It got cold for a few weeks and less light also:

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[Underwurlde]

Cool.

I'd also love to see some pics of your lab Tom.....

Andy

 

[plantbrain]

My Lab?

http/www.invasive.org/eastern/images/768x512/0002159.jpg

Not exactly a nice place to visit

I do lab studies with Hydrilla mostly.
We have one field site, but the new herbicide claimed to work does not seem to do much vs a control.
I have another herbicide which does work about 50% like copper, but breaks down easily.
Copper never breaks down and kills many other non target critters.

The main issue with Hydrilla is those bad little tubers from Hell.
http/www.invasive.org/eastern/images/768x512/0002160.jpg

Herbicides do not go into the sediment and these little suckers do not all germinate every year, and they can live up to 7 years before sprouting. I did a 3 week test and many of the plants produced tubers from a single 10cm shoot fragment!
3 weeks to produce that!

So, I'm looking at low voltage effects on tuber viability(hoping to kill them below the surface, without adding voltage to the water column above). Cheap, effective, no dredging, hauling, chemicals, etc.

We do sediment testing/analysis, tissue analysis for N, P, Fe etc,

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[Guinness]

Well after 2 weeks, I have a white sort of 'candy floss' algae on the ET & dwarf hair grass. HC is doing well though.

Have stuck to the rules- any comments or ideas would be great .

 

[Underwurlde]

How can you get algae? I thought all plants were grown emergent, out of the water... The idea being they get access to atmospheric levels of CO2... Or Have I missed something here?

On a similar issue, I have a very small tank of mainly HC and some ET in AquaSoil on my window sill, covered in cling film (allowed to breath every so often). After 1 week, no growth, but ET leaf tips tuning brown. I watered with locally hard water + trace + KNO3 + KH2PO4 yesterday.... we'll see if thing now improve...

Andy

 

[Guinness]

No idea

I'm no expert- algea is there & don't no why. Substrate is damp, no water.

Have whacked in some Excel- hopefully will do the trick

Mr Barr- any tips ??

 

[Underwurlde]

Sound then like a mould... or pinhead fungus