15g Asian Biotope-esque

[SuperColey1]

TetraComplete is in fact meant to go under your sand or gravel!!! so it doesn't matter how it looks. It is about the same price as Tropica but not as good. It is brown in colour and quite gritty. So you could get either Tropica or TetraComplete and then put some of your existing sand on top.

I had some Thai stricta in mine years ago when I first got into plants and while it does look nice, once it rooted it went mad and got very very big!!!

Blyxia is better as midground and can be prolific in the right conditions. Is really a high CO2 plant IMO

AC

 

[OohFeeshy]

Ordered some plants. I've gone for-

Cryptocoryne Wendtii- Potted
Cryptocoryne Becketii- Potted
Cryptocoryne Lucens- Potted
Hygrophilia Thai Stricta- 4 bunches
Hygrophillia Lacustris- 1 bunch

I nearly bought some Tropica crypts earlier, as P@H had some in, but for the price, size and variety it wasn't really worth it.

I'll try and procure some java fern and moss, either from off here or another shop- might swap some of the odd crypts I've got at the moment.

 

[OohFeeshy]

Woo, it's sunk. Plants have also been posted, so they should arrive soon. Anyway, proper photo #1, which isn't saying much.

Got a few diatoms, although nothing some cleaning can't get rid of. NB, background is off because the back was filthy and it looked horrible, it's clean now so I'll stick it back on soon. At the moment, I've got a few odd crypts I'll do something with, and a bit of vallis that will either go in the betta tank or be sev food.

 

[OohFeeshy]

Plants arrived on Thursday, pictures will arrive sometime leter when I can steal back the camera.

All good so far, the stricta seems to be rotting, although strangely it appears to be sending out roots from all over the stem? Is that usual? No crypt melt yet, fingers crossed, I might end up getting a few Tropica pots to help fill out the front a bit.

Edit- Ee-yar

Bit of a bombsite at the moment, it will look much better once the hygro has got going. I'm not entirely convinced about the lacustris, I'll either try it in another tank (tempted to set up a nano) or swap it for something more useful.

 

[stang1]

Great reading and looking forward to seeing the finished article!

 

[OohFeeshy]

Looks like the crypts are starting to go- bit of a bum since some of them were quite nice, but not a lot I can do about it apart from wait.

On the other hand- jeez! I mentioned the roots of the hygro starting to grow on Saturday, literally growing several cm per day. Haven't seen any upwards growth yet, hopefully that might start once it's rooted to it's satisfaction.

 

[OohFeeshy]

Urm... Deary me.

Having just had a look at the last photo I posted, the comment I was going to make about 'there's been some growth' has gone out the window, to be replaced with 'the thai stricta is taking over the world!!! aargh!!!'. I shall photography later.

Crypts are sort of 'mern', some have melted, some haven't, vaguely tempted to try a moss carpet or something similar to fill out the empty sand. Not sure whether any other plants would do well in the light levels.

Any ideas about relevant algae eaters/inverts? It seems like all the snails are African, and shrimp I'd be a bit worried about with the big betta and suchlike.

 

[SuperColey1]

'the thai stricta is taking over the world!!! aargh!!!'.

Told ya

AC

 

[OohFeeshy]

As you can see, pretty good growth going. I'll start pruning soon, try and get some outwards growth.

In the couple of minutes after I took the photo, I did a bit more playing around. You'll notice (or probably not) that there's no lacustris in the photo. I took it out the other day, chopped it up a bit and stuck it in my 1g pico-y thing. Well, it's pretty slow growing and I'm impatient, so I put it back in the 2ft in the gap on the left side of the tank. Doesn't look as bad as it did when it was taller, but I'll probably do more shifting. I trimmed a couple of stems off the stricta to put in the pico instead, as can be seen in the rather awful picture below.

It looks fairly bare,but give it a few days and there will be a mass of roots and probably new leaves too.

Future plans for both tanks are carpets of some sort, probably java moss in the 2ft and a flattened moss ball in the pico. I'll see if I can find a nice branchy twig for it too.

 

[OohFeeshy]

Sooo... For the past few weeks, I've pretty much left it to do it's own thing, let it settle in, etc. Well, today was the time for no more Mr. Nice Guy.

Took out all the hygro, sorted it into sizes, got rid of any dead leaves. Shufted a few crypts around, replanted the hygro. Why? Well, originally it was in a big clumpish bit at the back (see earlier pictures). All very nice, but I want a bit more of a spread-out background, so that's what I did. Here is the current result-

[I offer my ap-i-lo-gies for the incredibly poority, in my defense I was taking it with one hand, the other was holding a temporary extra filter out of the water]

Not as dense as before, that should fill out soon though.

As to what to do next. The sand at the front ideally needs filling out a bit. Crypts don't really offer that. So, they will possibly be moved back a bit (to behind the main horizontal branch and along the space next to it), and the space at the front filled with a carpet. Java moss is the obvious choice, being fairly hardy/easy to get hold of/more relevant to tank 'theme', however we shall see. I might have to wait until the end of the month- being impatient I want a fairly large amount, and I don't have a mahoosive amount of cash.

 

[aaronnorth]

i think the java moss would look good on the tips of the wood.

 

[OohFeeshy]

Mhm, I was going to do that originally, but I think it would make the top look a bit 'busy'. The focus is (sort of) the contrast of the wood against the green background, if you put moss on the wood you would lose that. I might have a go after the carpet is done, but the main issue at the moment is getting rid of the awful looking empty bit at the front.

 

[nosoup4you]

I'm really liking the change Feesh...I may get some Stricta for my 20 gallon.

 

[OohFeeshy]

My moss order arrived on Thursday. Quality? Mhmhm.... I ordered some Lemna trisulcula, which was fine, and the 'standard mossy mix pack' which is meant to have a mix of six moss-ish things they have in stock. None of the species were labelled, which was a bit annoying, and although some of them were fine, a couple I really wasn't impressed with. One, I think, had been grown emersed, and literally ripped out of the soil- there were bits of grass in it and a couple of nematodes or something at the base. Another only had a couple of strands of moss in it, the rest being duckweed and hair algae. Well, I did the best I could with them, and just dumped most of it at the front of the tank to see what happens.

The rest of the plants look pretty good. The crypts are really starting to take off- I moved a couple earlier and they had massive white roots, a few are starting to grow plantlets. The only problem with the stricta is that it looks like something is eating them. I think it's the gold barbs, but I'll keep an eye on them and see if it carries on. Gave the tallest couple a trim earlier, replanted the top. I noticed some had even started growing new plants on runner-like bits at the base.

In a bit I'll do some photographying and give a bit more of info on the moss situation. There's some interesting experimentation going on too...

 

[OohFeeshy]

Still looking fairly messy, but the aim is to sort that out later on. Well, that's my excuse.

So, if you look to the front, there are 6 different species/'projects' going on.

Starting on the far right, there's a slate with the nicest out of the mosses I got. Not sure on the species, could be something like peacock.

Next to that there's the flowerpot. This is a bit of a bodge job, with the slightly manky emmersed moss. I just chucked it on there to see whether it will grow, if it does then I'll do something more attractive with it.

Then, lodged in the fork of the wood, is one of the packs that I wasn't really sure what to do with. I *think* it's the one that was algaefied- I salvaged what I could, just to wait and see now.

Below that there's another slate with I have no idea what on. Looks a bit like pipecleaners. Does seem to be greener already so hopefully it will end up being nice.

Next to that, my two projects. Firstly, there's three stones with terrestrial 'garden' moss tied to them. The one at the front is the oldest, and it looks to be doing rather well- nice and green, seems to have grown. The other two are still looking a bit lost but should follow suite. This is quite interesting as it gives a cheap and easy option for growing moss, finding it rather than splashing out for something that was most likely grown emmersed anyway.

Finally, on the rock with the white 'cross' on it, another terrestrial moss that should be really pretty if it works. Taking inspiration from so-called 'star moss', it's an attempt to grow what I believe is pillow moss submersed. This is the sort of stuff that grows on roofs, taken straight from the garden and netted onto a stone, dirt and all because the strands are so tiny you'd never be able to keep them together otherwise.

This is just another case of 'leave everything and come back in a few weeks'. So, updates then probably.