First Planted Tank hand holding required...!

well, tomorrow is going to be a mass pruning day, and I also have some foreground plants to add which will replace the cobbles...but I thought it might be fun to show you all how much a tank can grow in such a short space of time...

You've seen the first three before, and are roughly dated at Day 1...End of Week 1...End of Week 2...and finally End of Week 3.

So I think I've probably reached my first milestone...I've got to the point (with a huge debt of thanks to the good people of these boards!) where I can not only keep the plants alive, but provide them with conditions in which they seem to thrive...

...I now have to learn about the plants themselves...what goes where, how and when to prune, split and plant on...I guess it's a little bit like chucking a load of seeds into an open grow bag...you'll get a riot of colour, which won't be too bad at all to look at, but it won't be a patch on a properly designed garden! Thats where I am now...a mass of plants that are crying out to be cajoled into a properly designed aquascape!

Anyway...here you go!

Its a very good sign ND you should be pleased, the plant you have in the front right is Hygro Polysperma, a very nice plant IMO, but it grows to fast thats the only problem with it, i also had it in my main tank for a while but ive now relegated it to a smaller lower light tank and its doing much better (read that as less maintainence) but it is amazing the growth you can get with the faster growers if you give them ideal conditions.

What are you planning for the foreground, im currently experimenting with Riccia growing around rocks, its yet to take off but im sure it will its only in the tank a week.

I bought a bit of a collection really, the plan is to see what likes the tank and then go with it!

3 x (pack of 5) Glosso
3 x (Pack of 5) Dwarf four leaf clover
5 x Dwarf Sagittaria
3 x Micro Sagittaria
3 x Heteranthera Zosterfolia (not so much for carpetting, but thought it looked purty!)


I have in fact read that the micro sag needs to be held in place...anyone got any ideas?

wow, ND. Your tank has come a long way in 3 weeks. I think the starting off on the right foot...lights CO2 etc has really helped.

you ordered quite a few plants there. Do you have them already? Can;t wait to see pics.

your right about starting off properly, and it really is down to all you guys (n gals ) great advice!

I think I learnt another valuable lesson today...as you can see from the last lot of tank pics, the plants had gone absolutely crazy. Much of the tank had become so overgrown that there was actually little free space for the fish to swim around in! Much of this was down to a few of the 'feathery' plants, the cabomba types ones that had put on something like 12" new growth, but some of the stem plants had done their bit too...it really had become time to prune!

The plants I ordered from Greenline on Tuesday arrived as promised on Friday morning (well packaged as ever!). I took them all out of their packets and plonked them into a bucket, where they sat until this morning. The Glosso arrived in matted clumps, and I spent a good 30 minutes gently teasing them apart into little plantlets. I lais them all out on a sheet of damp newspaper. I did the same thing with the clover, which had arrived on runners, so actually got about 25-30 of each.

The dwarf sag was a little easier to cope with, and just needed a quick shake under water to get rid of any loose bits of leaf and other detritus.

So, I'm all set, plants laid out and ready to go. I figured that the best thing to do would be to make my weekly 50% water change, prune and then plant. So, I emptied half of the tank only to realise that the plants that had been floating pretty much upright in the tank, were now a huge mass of matted leaves

I peered down into the tank and didn't know where to start!!!!!!!! A bit too late to turn back...I slowly started to snip away at the most obvious offenders, and just kept going! I must have removed a decent half bucket worth. My problem was that with so much water out of the tank, I really didn't know whether what i had done was too much or too little! Too late now though!

As well as pruning, I decided to move some of the stems into a different position. The Hygro took a hard prune before being moved to the back of the tank...I think it will look much better here, and hopefully not impose itself so much on the tank.

At this point is was time to add the new plants...I treated myself to a set of tweezers, and can honestly say that I'm not sure how I would have coped with the Glosso without them! Each plantelt was positioned about 2-3cm aprt and I managed to cover a decent sized area to the front right hand side of the tank (this is the place that gets the most light). The clover was planted in a similar fashion, and hopefully, the two will run into each other. The dwarf saggs went in next and sit on the right hand side of the foreground (where the hygro used to live).

Stripping out the excess growth has allowed much more light down on to the bottom of the tank, and I'm hoping that these new plants and the 'baby tears' will really take off.

So, all planted up, it was time to fill the tank back up. What a difference! The tank looks as though it's just come back from a trip to the hairdressers I guess it will take a few days to fully recover, but it looks a lot better than it did!

As I was pruning, I chucked all of the cuttings into a bucket (which ended up half full). Once I had topped the tank back up, I went through all of the cuttings and discarded all of the rubbish bits. All of the decent stuff I trimmed, and removed an leaves from the bottom of the stem. I have left all of these in a bucket so that I can take another look at the tank tomorow and ad a few more bits if I decide I need to.

My lesson has been to trim the plants on a much more regular basis...I think little and often is probably the watch word. I imagine it is also easier to prune whilst the tank is still nearly full, as this will afford you a much better view of how things are coming along.

But for my first go, I'm quite pleased...the fish actually seem a bit happier with the extra room...I am going to work towards a fuller back and more open mid - foreground.

I can also see that I will spend a little while replacing things as I learn more about the plants I have in the tank, and what else is available. All part of the learning process I guess!

So, enough waffling...if you've read this far, you deserve a pic or two! Nothing too fancy, It was getting perilously close to my baby daughters bedtime, so I couldn't spend to long on things!

The Glosso plantlets...


The clover...


Pearling Clover


more on next post

the manky conker


the obligatory fishy pic...a juvenille Apisto Trifasciatum

Hi ND,
I meant to reply earlier but got dragged away from my PC. Have you got a full tank shot after the prune?

The manky conker looks lovely. It's amazing it's grown so fast.

I love the picture of the pearling clover. Nice shot.

I'm so tempted to get that aquascaping set. It is rather cool. It even has a little rake for the sand The scissors I'm using at the mo aren't the best *trying to convince myself of good reasons to buy one*. How much was the postage on it? Do you know? I might not bother buying the anubias now (have taken some small plants from 20 gallon), so I'll be technically £20 richer

No, the one thing I didn't get was a full shot...will try and get one tomorrow...I must admit the lily is really starting to come into it's own, the leaves are getting much bigger, and it is *slowly* growing upwards.

I must admit I'm really impressed with the quality of the tool kit...you never know what something like this is going to be like, and I prefer to buy tools once I've seen them in the flesh, but they are of a really nice quality, the finish is excellent, the blades on the scissors are nice and sharp ...yep, pleased as punch!

Postage was just shy of £3.00 I ordered them late afternoon Thursday and they arrived (very well packaged) on Saturday via Royal Mail.

The only thing I would like to get to complement them is a small pair of scissors...cutting the clover runners was a bit akward with 12" scissors

well here you go houndour, a full tank shot as requested! I'll try and talk you through the picture!

The vallis on the far left hand side of the tank came perilously close to bing pulled a week or so ago, it was looking very weak and pale...I took heart when I saw a runner snaking it's way across the tank, and since then, 2 new plants have sprung up...I've been impressed with it's pluckiness so have decided to leave it be for a while. I need something with a bit of height to balance things on the left, and this is a good start!

You may notice that I have removed the hygra from both the front left and right hand sides...it was growing so very quickly, that it was hitting the water level after days. I took cuttings and have planted them just to the left of centre (back of tank - a bit difficult to see in this picture) to hopefully start to gain some height (see above!) and depth in this part of the tank.

The water sprite (?) despite being a bit of a handfull, has such a pretty leaf that I am leaving it in place. A hard prune has improved things (it had cascaded right across to the front of the tank).

On the far right hand side is a Echinodorus (?) which has put on considerable height over the past week or so...this may end up in front of the diffusers at the next water change. This will have the added benefit of allowing more light down to the dwarf sag. Lot's of the swords are putting out runners and a couple of these may have to be removed to thin things out a little toward the back of the tank...I planted very densely at first, but can see that some plants might get stiffled with too much more growth!

I pulled a hige clump of cardamine lyrata out of position during sundays prune, but couldn't bear to leave it out completely, so have left a couple of cuttings to float freely...the red panchax I have like the little bit of cover it provides...plus it doesn't block out too much of the light.

The glooso and clover seem to be OK, I'm really looking forward to seeing how these come along. The baby tears (right hand side) seems to be doing a lot better in the brighter light after the hygra was moved too.


I have also been watching this one for a few days...something seemed to be going on, and today I noticed that it is a new leaf! I wasn't expecting it to propogate quite like this!

Fancy sending me a couple of Glosso plantlets if and when it becomes established? I'm considering replacing my Sagittaria platyphylla eventually.

Glad to see things progessing for you mate.

no problem George, I imagine it will take a couple of weeks to see anything like new growth, but as soon as I see some runners I'll send them across!

nodding_dino said:

no problem George, I imagine it will take a couple of weeks to see anything like new growth, but as soon as I see some runners I'll send them across!

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Nice one my friend. I need 'em for a while yet.

OK, thought it was time to bring this one back to the top of the pile and give you a brief update as to progress.

I have been keeping a spreadsheet to record test results and dosing patterns since I started following the EI method. I have noticed that slowly a patter is evolving, and although I can see myself testing (virtually) daily for another couple of weeks, I can finally see a time when I will be able to dose 'blind'.

The spot algae I was getting on the tank glasses has slowed considerably, and I am now able to (pretty much) reach the end of the weekly cycle without having to scrape it. I'm sure also that my little school of ottos are also doing a fine job...they never seem to stop in more than one place for more than a second or two!

The bogwood has been pulled...you just couldn't see it under the water sprite anyway, and this has allowed me some more room at the back of the tank. Therefore the hygro has been pushed to the back, where it is growing quite nicely...the water sprite was removed completely...pruned...the bottom section chucked and the fresh growth replanted back in position...it really doesn't take it long to get growing again! One thing that has suprised me is the density of the roots that these plants are putting out! Removing them is a bit of a tricky operation, especially as I don't want to disturb the glosso and clover as they begin to take hold!

I have removed the Echinodorus as it had gone crazy and was cutting out a lot of light...I may replace it with another once the glosso and clover had taken proper hold. talking of which...

The clover has suprised me with the speed at which it has sent out runners...I didn't expect this to 'carpet' but am fairly sure that with time this is exactly what it will do. The glosso, although not as prolific, is also coming along nicely...it too is sending out runners, and the plantlets that I didn't bed down properly had started to propogate above the substrate...at the last water change I took the opportunity to seperate and replant these too.

I am really looking forward to receiving the pressurised CO2 which will hopefully arrive on Saturday. This will really mean that the tank has all the equipment needed to thrive, so any problems then are pretty much my own doing. Aside from the benefits of not having to replace mixtures all the time, I am pleased that I will finally be able to provide a stable pH level for the fish. I'm sure they don't thanks me for the constant variation at the moment

I haven't really had a chance to take any pictures, but will try and get a couple of snaps of the weekend to share with you all!

Great stuff ND, id be interested in pictures of the clover when you get the camera out.