Riccia For My Tank

[fmervin]

Hi all,

I have an aquastart 500 (65 litre) tank with a sand substrate and I plan to landscape the tank with some nice plants. Good for the fishes and looks excellent I need some help and advice and I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction. I've read the pin-up on riccia and I quite like the look of it so here are my questions:

1. With riccia, I want to have the lovely carpet effect. Can I just place it on slate as mentioned in the pin-up and cover it with plant net? If I do this will it spill out onto my sand substrate and get rooted into the sand substrate? The reason I ask is when I want to trim it back down to size I plan on taking the slate out of the water, trimming it and popping it back again. I'd imagine that it might be quite a pain trying to fish out pices of riccia from the tank. If it will spill out into the sand can you please suggest something by which it can be contained in the areas I want it

2. The aquastart 500 comes with 2 x 11W PL lamps (whatever that means ) Will this be enough for the riccia?

3. How do I vacuum the substrate after I have achieved the carpet effect? I've heard that fish poo acts as fertilizer for the riccia. Does that mean I don't need to vacuum anymore? Just the weekly water change?

4. The pin-up mentions about fertilizer for the riccia, what kind of fertilizer should I use (if indeed I should be using fertilizer)

5. The transparent plastic cover over the lights has been covered with limescale thus reducing the lighting. I've tried scrubbing it however it won't come off. My wife suggested using cif which is quite strong as she uses it for the bathroom, but I'd imaging it would be quite toxic for the fishes (even if it is not in contact with the water). Is there any fish-friendly way of cleaning the cover so the lighting is optimum?

6. I plan to leave the lights on for 12 hours, is this enough? When I do switch off the lights there is no dim light (i.e. complete darkness). Is this ok? Although I must admit I loved the blue tinge in night photo in the pin-up. Any ideas how I can achieve this?

7. Lastly can you please suggest some other non-messy plant that requires minimal maintenance and will look good? I do have a bog wood so something that can be attached on top of that I did have fern earlier and it was a nightmare since bits would keep floating about and I read these are not good for the fishes.

Sorry I know these are a lot of questions, but I'm an absolute beginner And I don't want to get this wrong

BTW, I came across some plant net (on the us ebay site) which mentions the steps (quite similar to the ones mentioned in the pin-up). Will this kind of plant net do?

 

[aaronnorth]

1. With riccia, I want to have the lovely carpet effect. Can I just place it on slate as mentioned in the pin-up and cover it with plant net? If I do this will it spill out onto my sand substrate and get rooted into the sand substrate? The reason I ask is when I want to trim it back down to size I plan on taking the slate out of the water, trimming it and popping it back again. I'd imagine that it might be quite a pain trying to fish out pices of riccia from the tank. If it will spill out into the sand can you please suggest something by which it can be contained in the areas I want it

Riccia floats so it wont be a problem. I tied it down with fishing line rather than use a net as it covers it up quicker.

2. The aquastart 500 comes with 2 x 11W PL lamps (whatever that means rolleyes.gif) Will this be enough for the riccia?

Yes

3. How do I vacuum the substrate after I have achieved the carpet effect? I've heard that fish poo acts as fertilizer for the riccia. Does that mean I don't need to vacuum anymore? Just the weekly water change?

Hover the vacuum over the riccia, it will pick up bits of debris.

4. The pin-up mentions about fertilizer for the riccia, what kind of fertilizer should I use (if indeed I should be using fertilizer)

Tropica plant nutrition+ or seahcem flourish are the best 2 fertilisers.

5. The transparent plastic cover over the lights has been covered with limescale thus reducing the lighting. I've tried scrubbing it however it won't come off. My wife suggested using cif crazy.gif which is quite strong as she uses it for the bathroom, but I'd imaging it would be quite toxic for the fishes (even if it is not in contact with the water). Is there any fish-friendly way of cleaning the cover so the lighting is optimum?

Get some vinegar or a lemon. Any acidic product will get it off as limescale is alkaline

6. I plan to leave the lights on for 12 hours, is this enough? When I do switch off the lights there is no dim light (i.e. complete darkness). Is this ok? Although I must admit I loved the blue tinge in night photo in the pin-up. Any ideas how I can achieve this?

12hrs is to much IMO. 8-10hours would be better. You can buy blue LED's such as These

7. Lastly shifty.gif can you please suggest some other non-messy plant that requires minimal maintenance and will look good? I do have a bog wood so something that can be attached on top of that smile.gif I did have fern earlier and it was a nightmare since bits would keep floating about and I read these are not good for the fishes.

anubias sp
bolbitis sp
microsorum sp (java fern species)
mosses

All the above attach to wood/ rocks. Cryptocoryne are also a good choice.