Tell me where to stick my new plants! (behave... ;-) )

I went a bit mad and ordered some new plants for this tank. Would love some feedback on where you think I should put them!



Tank as of yesterday, new plants just ordered so haven't arrived yet, but are;
Alternanthera reineckii 'mini'
Weeping moss
ludwegia glandulosa
crytocoryne beckettii 'petchii'
cyperus helferi
lobelia cardinalis
hygrophilia 'siamensis 53B'

At the moment I'm thinking of planting the AR mini between the sessiliflora and the rotala on the left side, trailing it in front of the dragonstone, where it should get a good amount of light. I think the cyperus is a background plant and could go to the left of the the amazon sword at the back, but open to other ideas, especially as it looks very similar to vallis.

I'd like to put something between the end of the wood piece and the hydrocotyle 'Japan' on the right side, but as that side is fairly well shaded by the vallis and frogbit, it might need to one that copes okay with lower light like the crypt, although I'd like to use a reddish coloured plant there like the lobelia or ludwegia?

I can barely match a dozen fish to their Latin names so don’t expect much of a contribution from me with pictureless plants

Tell me where to stick my new plants! (behave... ;-) )

Title made me laugh!

Easiest way to find out what goes where best is to actually put the plants in the tank, don't plant them, just position them just so and stand back to see if it looks right.

Move them around until you are completely satisfied, and then plant them and see how they grow out.

Remember its your tank and you're the one who has to look at it every day, don't worry about us, we could happily give you advice where to put them all day long

I'm one of those folks who likes to have things just so otherwise it bothers me more and more over time until I actually move it!

Ch4rlie said:

Tell me where to stick my new plants! (behave... ;-) )

Title made me laugh!

Easiest way to find out what goes where best is to actually put the plants in the tank, don't plant them, just position them just so and stand back to see if it looks right.

Move them around until you are completely satisfied, and then plant them and see how they grow out.

Remember its your tank and you're the one who has to look at it every day, don't worry about us, we could happily give you advice where to put them all day long

I'm one of those folks who likes to have things just so otherwise it bothers me more and more over time until I actually move it!

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That's a good point, thank you. I've actually told people before to arrange them in the tank without planting until they're happy with the arrangement! Terrible at following my own advice.

I guess I was thinking that without @mbsqw1d mentioning the shading aspect, I might have stuck the AR mini on the right hand side where it wouldn't have got much light, so was thinking I might get more tips like that, especially since I've never had most of these plants.

Plus, when you read about how to plant the AR mini for example, it says to space the plants one and a half inches apart. Then you see gorgeous photos on Tropica's website like this;



And you know those plants aren't spaced out one and a half inches apart. Maybe you do that for the initial planting, but then you can thicken it out with trimmings later? It's weird. Learning to garden underwater is hard

I got lost for a bit there. It's amazing you guys have these plant and their names practically memorized!
My answer would be, "put the smaller one in front of the big one. put the greens anywhere and scatter the red ones"

goldfish_is_orange said:

I got lost for a bit there. It's amazing you guys have these plant and their names practically memorized!
My answer would be, "put the smaller one in front of the big one. put the greens anywhere and scatter the red ones"

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hah, memorize everything!

For me, nope, google, copy and paste are great tools

Ch4rlie said:

hah, memorize everything!

For me, nope, google, copy and paste are great tools

Click to expand...

Hmm.. maybe I'll try that next time I order a salad

AdoraBelle Dearheart said:

At the moment I'm thinking of planting the AR mini between the sessiliflora and the rotala on the left side, trailing it in front of the dragonstone, where it should get a good amount of light.

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Exactly what I was about to type!

AdoraBelle Dearheart said:

That's a good point, thank you. I've actually told people before to arrange them in the tank without planting until they're happy with the arrangement! Terrible at following my own advice.

I guess I was thinking that without @mbsqw1d mentioning the shading aspect, I might have stuck the AR mini on the right hand side where it wouldn't have got much light, so was thinking I might get more tips like that, especially since I've never had most of these plants.

Plus, when you read about how to plant the AR mini for example, it says to space the plants one and a half inches apart. Then you see gorgeous photos on Tropica's website like this;

View attachment 115964

And you know those plants aren't spaced out one and a half inches apart. Maybe you do that for the initial planting, but then you can thicken it out with trimmings later? It's weird. Learning to garden underwater is hard

Click to expand...

They often get away with bunching everything together as they'll have a posh high tech setup. Plus these tanks they show arent 'real life' as in that theyre often dismantled after a short while (i think?)

Ch4rlie said:

Easiest way to find out what goes where best is to actually put the plants in the tank, don't plant them, just position them just so and stand back to see if it looks right.

Click to expand...

This is great advice. Think of it like using a paint sample on a wall. Let it sit and stand back.

cyperus helferi needs good light too , so to the left of the sword, or back left corner. The 53b around the vallis

mbsqw1d said:

They often get away with bunching everything together as they'll have a posh high tech setup. Plus these tanks they show arent 'real life' as in that theyre often dismantled after a short while (i think?)

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This is very true, aquascapers like to show off their new tank scapes and very rarely will they leave tanks for even 6 months then they will do something else entirely with the tank aquascape.

Pretty common misconception that folks think these beautiful aquascapes last forever. But even to run that kind of scape for a few months takes an awful lot of hard work and dedication to keep things just perfect.

Easier to dismantle and do a new aquascape!

c.helferi
a.reineckii
l.glandulosa
crypt
53b

Be nice to dot the red plants around, but the left side of the tank is obviously going to be getting the most light so, for them to stay red at least, theyd need to be in the light, on the left..

It’s really hard to give advice where to place them, without actually being there. Try putting them in there just floating, and imagine what you want it to look like. Look around the forum, see other members tanks, they should give you inspiration!