Baby tears: tearing my hair out

[Lynnzer]

How does this plant need to be used in a substrate. Does it need glueing onto small pebbles then sunk into substrate, or what? I get so much of it floating haplessly around

 

[itiwhetu]

Baby Tears are one of the more challenging plants. If you have gravel as a base, just let it root in that base medium. If you have sand that could be a problem.

 

[Lynnzer]

Baby Tears are one of the more challenging plants. If you have gravel as a base, just let it root in that base medium. If you have sand that could be a problem.

Done it. I have sand. I glued the base of clumps onto the tile fragments you find in garden centres. Then just pressed them into the sand.
Here's hoping -------

 

[Lynnzer]

And here's the finished project. All plants now placed and water still to add.

 

[JuliaAndFish co.]

And here's the finished project. All plants now placed and water still to add.View attachment 158319

Oh my god so beautiful I wish my tank was like that! What fish are you adding?

 

[WhistlingBadger]

That's a very cool little tank! Look into the dry start method for baby tears; I think that's how the pros get it going. You put in just enough water to keep the plants growing, but you don't fill it until everything's rooted in.

 

[Lynnzer]

Oh my god so beautiful I wish my tank was like that! What fish are you adding?

It's up and running.
https://m.twitch.tv/thebridesmother
I put around 15 green neon tetras in it along with a pair of scarlett badis and a single santa maria endler. There were 4 endlers but they "escaped" and jumped out.
The Badis tend to hang about under the centre lower anubia where I made a little tunnel between the roots. These are yet another fantastic nano fish that don't get much press although they can't be easily kept in more than a pair per small tank. They really love feeding time when I drop around 30 small whiteworm down in front of their cave.
Right now I have 3 filters running. I picked up excessive ammonia, nitrate and nitrite readings so I had to put a sponge filter in with the Oase internal. That didn't help much so I bought a new external and have that running since Friday. It needs to pick up sufficient bacteria before I can take the other filters out.
There's a spawning mopmin the tank too as some of the tetra looked veyry "sexy" and ready to mate. Why this species isn't as widely known as neon or cardinal teras is beyond me. They are fantastic. So bright although the green doesn't seem to come through unless I have curtains open and the sunshine hits them sideways on.

 

[Lynnzer]

That's a very cool little tank! Look into the dry start method for baby tears; I think that's how the pros get it going. You put in just enough water to keep the plants growing, but you don't fill it until everything's rooted in.

I sort of did that. I put some aqua soil into a tray and dropped seed onto it with enough water to just cover the soil but the seed all floated around so I did it again by placing a section of kitchen roll over the soil and seeds and they were put onto the cross section of my large tank to ensure they had the necessary heat. The sprouts poked through the towel and away we went.... It took a good time before they sprouted though and growth was slow, but they did and I have them mostly planted in tanks now. However, I'm not so sure they really are baby tears as they have grown massively with larger leaves. They are at the front of the tank here.

 

[itiwhetu]

That looks more like a Hygrophila to me

 

[itiwhetu]

The Bacopa species have small round tough leaves.

 

[Lynnzer]

I got them from fleeabay as just unnamed seeds but described as something I associated with babat tears. Anyway they are fine and do the job at present. I may replace them at some stage depending on how they spread.

 

[itiwhetu]

I got them from fleeabay as just unnamed seeds but described as something I associated with babat tears. Anyway they are fine and do the job at present. I may replace them at some stage depending on how they spread.

If you like them, then just enjoy. That is the most important part of this hobby.

 

[Lynnzer]

If you like them, then just enjoy. That is the most important part of this hobby.

Oh, I like them but if they grow sufficiently to block the front of the tank I'll move them somewhere else and maybe plant some dwarf hairgrass instead

 

[Lynnzer]

That looks more like a Hygrophila to me

The growth on those plants is like a house on fire. They are growing a couple of inches a week right now.
Can you identify them better now?. Here they are again, at least until I turn the livestream off.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Dwarf sag, maybe? Whatever they are, they look great! Fast-growing carpet plants are kind of like the holy grail in this hobby!