New Plants In The Aquarium

[waterdrop]

I guess if you have to bury the crown for a day or two then so be it, but check each day to see it you now have enough root spread to anchor with the crown just above the substrate surface. In my opinion it's perfectly ok to discuss beginning plants here in our section as you'll get about as much traffic on beginner stuff here as over there where they're sometimes a bit more focused on advanced stuff. WD

 

[Aqua Tom]

Well half of the vallis is looking a bit worse for wear now. So i will have to thin out the dodgy plants.

The Cabomba are growing like crazy, as ar the Crypts & Anubis I planted on the center bogwood. Actualy the Cabomba will need trimming soon as half the plants have reached the surface & are growing along it.
Could i cut the top 6" off the Cabomba & replant that bit?

Seems Vallis isnt as "easy" as I hoped

 

[ATK!!!]

wow i think i bought my plants form the same company as you

 

[Rynofasho]

All looks very good! I wish I could make up my mind on how to plant. Just so many options and variables that I can't ever make up my mind.

Plus, I'd LOVE to change to sand substrate, however I couldn't even imagine how difficult of an undertaking that would be with 20 fish in my tank.

What sort of lighting do you have? Also, FWIW, Flourish Excel can 'take the place' of CO2 for a bit -- it is basically just organic carbon so it does the same thing, it will just cost more in the long wrong, but if you want to grab a bottle and see how your Valls react before you go getting a whole set up, might be worth it.

 

[Aqua Tom]

All looks very good! I wish I could make up my mind on how to plant. Just so many options and variables that I can't ever make up my mind.

Plus, I'd LOVE to change to sand substrate, however I couldn't even imagine how difficult of an undertaking that would be with 20 fish in my tank.

What sort of lighting do you have? Also, FWIW, Flourish Excel can 'take the place' of CO2 for a bit -- it is basically just organic carbon so it does the same thing, it will just cost more in the long wrong, but if you want to grab a bottle and see how your Valls react before you go getting a whole set up, might be worth it.

Already using it & Trace, although my water is so hard that the trace is probably not required.

I have 2X 30 w t8 tubes. over the 180 litre tank.

 

[Aqua Tom]

Right. i have thined out the Vallis & pruned the Cabomba (replanted the cuttings).

The Crypts are mostly showing new growth & my new Anubis seems to be quite happy.

i treid some flouating plans but they where just blown all over the shop by the filter so i hoiked them out.

I have some different stem plants arriving soon as i seem to have good luck with those.

Anyhoo, here is latest pics & as you can see my Cardinals love their home

 

[waterdrop]

Looking good Tom. There is nothing wrong with bare patches. As with any landscape or aquascape you are trying to tell a story and like a picture is to a landscape, a small aquascape is to a large freshwater natural location.

Of course the opportuntities artistically are wide open from natural to unnatural but many of us really enjoy those "natural pictures" that best achieve the telling of a larger natural scene in a compact and powerful manner.

There are many elements to this, potentially. Just as great painters and architects use perspective and other techniques to help communicate something larger and appearing to have greater depth, the aquarist can try to do the same thing I think. Many in the landscaping world speculate that as apes that lived on the margins of forests and fields to find food, we humans respond especially well to "pathways" that show curving and beckoning directions we might wish we could walk down. Those also work really well if there is a contrast in height, the apparent pathway being low and the surrounding hardscape or planted material being of greater height, often in successive layers.

Color and light also help to tell the story and and placement and grouping of both hardscape materials and plants can be made more natural if they are never very evenly spaced out.

For inspiration I often look at the pictures in our planted tank section and also at the contest entries in the AGA contest, as many tanks in both these places have among the best aquascapes you'll find anywhere I think.

Enjoy! WD

 

[Skins]

Like WD said m8 "looking good"
All that hard work is now starting to pay off.

Keith.

 

[Aqua Tom]

Oh yea, repositioned the heater as I was having trouble getting a stable temp. Seems better now.