A place 4 my questions & ponderings as I build a 34 Gallons (127L) tank

Might want to hold off buying more plants to let your plants will grow a bit more.

Then you can decide whether to add more plants as sometimes that works out well as having too many different plants can make it look kind of jumbled and more like a jungle rather than a planned natural layout.

But if you insist on buying more plants (very hard not to buy more plants!! I know!) you might want taller plant for mid to background area, I would recommend either a onion plant ‘Crinum calaistratum’ (one of my favourite plants) as it grows real nice long leaves that sorta waves in the flow, good for taller tanks. Easy to care for plant.


Or perhaps some Cryptocoryne Balansae, has wider shorter leaves, really lovely plant. And like most crypts, real easy to care for and appreciates root tabs.


The Tropica website pics does not do these plants any justice imho.

Btw I never had success with riccia fluitans, just died on me for whatever reasons, hope you have more success.

The Hygrophilia corymbosa & Echinodorus'Reni' should both grow to 15.75" so there's space for a taller plant but I'll take your advice and wait a while. I'm hoping to move some alternanthera reineckii red & water wisteria over from the other tank once I'm sure ich & worming issues sorted. I like the wavy grass of the cryptocoryne crispatula

I'll try to settle on layout within a few days of getting bonsai so they can really settle in. Then take lots of pics to look for growth

I think the more plant mass you can start off with the better. This helps to ward off algae issues and, well, IMO heavily planted tanks look good
Floating plants are also a big help in soaking up nitrogen and providing some shade for the plants requiring less light. You just might need to setup an airline ring to prevent them from moving around in the strong flow

AilyNC said:

The Hygrophilia corymbosa & Echinodorus'Reni' should both grow to 15.75" so there's space for a taller plant but I'll take your advice and wait a while. I'm hoping to move some alternanthera reineckii red & water wisteria over from the other tank once I'm sure ich & worming issues sorted. I like the wavy grass of the cryptocoryne crispatula

I'll try to settle on layout within a few days of getting bonsai so they can really settle in. Then take lots of pics to look for growth

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H.corymbosa grows quickly. When you trim the tops (encourages bushing out) plant what you cut off. You will end up with a lot more then you started with.

Yeah I'm quite disappointed with the floating plant so I think more floating would be nice. But I'll hold off a day or two so I can set the bonsai up, and that'll show me where the gaps are. I think I'm ok on mid ground plants but another tall back one and some foreground would be nice.

I have a hitchhiker. Will I kick him out? Out him in my 58L tank? Leave him alone?

The plant in the centre around the heater is corymbosa. You can make it go as bushy as you like (or not) by how you prune it. Its also what is in the back left of my signature

AilyNC said:

I have a hitchhiker. Will I kick him out? Out him in my 58L tank? Leave him alone?

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Entirely up to you whether you want to keep the snail in your tank or not.

I've always had snails in my tanks, always thought they are a natural addition and add a little extra life to my tanks. Also quite useful in helping a little bit with algae and cleaning the substrate surface.

Might lay eggs and soon you'll have more snails than you can count, especially if you feed too much food for livestock later.

So if you do not want loads of "pest" snails as many folks call them then simply chuck him/her out.

seangee said:

The plant in the centre around the heater is corymbosa. You can make it go as bushy as you like (or not) by how you prune it. Its also what is in the back left of my signature
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Wow it looks great! I definitely want the plants to hide the equipment

AilyNC said:

I have a hitchhiker. Will I kick him out? Out him in my 58L tank? Leave him alone?

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I vote keep him! Pretty sure that's a Malaysian Trumpet Snail (@seangee ? Is that right?)

If it is, they dig through the sand, keeping the sand stirred through, like an aquatic earth worm. Good for your plants, good for preventing anaerobic pockets from forming. I deliberately added some to my sand tank for that reason

Yeh got yourself an MTS for free

AdoraBelle Dearheart said:

I vote keep him! Pretty sure that's a Malaysian Trumpet Snail (@seangee ? Is that right?)

If it is, they dig through the sand, keeping the sand stirred through, like an aquatic earth worm. Good for your plants, good for preventing anaerobic pockets from forming. I deliberately added some to my sand tank for that reason

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I have them in most of my tanks, and will probably introduce some to the new tank as well.

AdoraBelle Dearheart said:

I vote keep him! Pretty sure that's a Malaysian Trumpet Snail (@seangee ? Is that right?)

If it is, they dig through the sand, keeping the sand stirred through, like an aquatic earth worm. Good for your plants, good for preventing anaerobic pockets from forming. I deliberately added some to my sand tank for that reason

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Yeah he's digging through the sand. I was thinking Elliot will love having a snail so I'll leave him.

The latest order was botched. So annoying that nobody called to let me know this before shipping it out. The bonsai arrived but with one Xmas moss instead of 2. They substituted Spiky moss & I'm really annoyed as I wanted the specific moss for the bonsai. Then I ordered Cryptocoryne Wendtii Green for grass effect around the tree. But instead they delivered Cryptocoryne Beckettii 'Petchii' which is a totally different plant.

The MTS has a nice shell! Well he's staying so

I too have had MTS in most if not all of my tanks before, very good for substrate.

Some folks consider them as 'pests' but imho, they're the opposite of pests as they do have their uses in our aquariums.