Badger's Sumatran Rice Paddy

[eatyourpeas]

Got the substrate and water circulation system in; planted the rice seeds. Will get a bit of water in tonight so the rice can start germinating. Rest of the plants should be here this week; once I get the mosses and java ferns glued to the substrate, I'll fill 'er up and start cycling.

No pics yet. Had to take a computer break this weekend. Stay tuned...

You could do a stop motion chronicle of the germinating rice

 

[WhistlingBadger]

You could do a stop motion chronicle of the germinating rice

It would actually be really cool to do one of these videos of a tank developing over the years.

2017, One year in 2 minutes, garden timelapse - YouTube

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Attempting to program the light on Mrs. Badger's phone. Prayers appreciated...

 

[eatyourpeas]

Attempting to program the light on Mrs. Badger's phone. Prayers appreciated...

?

 

[WhistlingBadger]

I think (with a bit of divine assistance, perhaps) I got it figured out. Not exactly rocket surgery, but no child's play, either. I have, I think, a half hour pinkish sunrise fading into bright day for five hours, dark-ish stormy looking stuff for four hours starting at noon, then bright sun from 4 until about 9. Then a nice sunset fading out to dark.

At least, I think that's what is going to happen! ha ha I'll let you know in an hour. Plants should be in tomorrow; heater and thermometer thursday. Can't wait to get some plants in this thing and finish filling it up. Then I'll get to work on my invert refugium...

 

[WhistlingBadger]

I got the email that plants have been delivered! They're going in tonight. Pics to follow, unless I space out again. It happens.

 

[eatyourpeas]

Ohh, the suspense! ?

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Murphy's Law of Adhesives: Any given adhesive will have a slightly greater affinity for your skin than for the intended target. This is doubly true when the object to be glued is messy, disgusting, or otherwise difficult to work with.

Also: GoJo pumice soap is pretty good at removing super glue and java moss from fingertips.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Planted!

 

[eatyourpeas]

Looking very sweet!

 

[LordHappy]

Happy day,

So I stumbled on this area of the forums and wanted to comment on the app noted below. I found a few videos from Bentley Pascoe on YT, who did an in-depth review of various lighting settings (

) that Fluval has. A video he released last year for the 3.0 Nano had a full 10-point setting to simulate dawn-to-dusk lighting. I replaced my Onf Nano with the Fluval and, perhaps because I have no real understanding of lighting technologies, I absolutely cannot tell the difference in plant performance. I did notice a difference in my wife, however. She no longer grumbles that the light comes on blindingly bright all at once. So for all of you with bedroom tanks and spouses, this might solve that bit of grumbling. Presuming that the Aquasky comes with the same app, you might want to check out his videos. Here's the screenshot I used for my tank.

Also, one of the other pics in this thread had the bricks. Its a cool look. Perhaps it was because I used a crappy old bricks (more coarse grain) or the 6.0ph water or something else, but back when I was vacuuming gravel prodigiously, I found that the bricks decayed and I'd see the red sand drifting up the lift tube. It may not matter for what you're describing, but it was something I wanted to point out. I wouldn't hesitate to use bricks again, regardless.

They're awesome, the fluval range that is, i have the Plant 3.0 rather than the aquasky but pretty much the same thing except for a few different coloured LEDs.
Its probably overkill for my needs, yes you can fully program each set of LEDs to come on/go off and they can ramp up/down in-between.
You may have seen these images knocking about, as I say, my setup is quite straightforward compared to what you could do, but as i have plants i try and keep things consistent
View attachment 125371

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Hi, @LordHappy . The Aquasky does have some nice, customizable settings. I now have a nice, red-purple dawn fading in at 6:30; Blazing tropical sunrise at 7; A daily thunderstorm from around 12 to 1, followed by dark clouds. The sun comes out at 4 and blazes again until sunset at 9. The red fades out around 9:30. I wish the fades were a little more gradual, but still it is a very nice affect. I doubt it will have any effect on the plants. They just want a certain amount of a certain type of light, certain nutrients, and certain microbes that seem to help them out; they have no appreciation for artistic nuances OR marital harmony. Philistines.

Anyway. I got the final plant--paddy herb, Limnophila aromatica--today and got it planted. It's really pretty, and I'm interested in culinary uses for the trimmings. All of my plants seem to have arrived without freezing! In Wyoming. In January! Amazing. I am very impressed with Buceplant.com, folks. The clover herb is a little leggy but in good shape; the mosses and crypts were fantastic, and much bigger portions than I was expecting. Great prices, too!

I'm planning to buy a 5g and stock it with inverts. It will be a source of live food, but also an interesting aquarium in its own right, I hope. I once planted a South American tank, mostly with ebay plants, and let it sit for six weeks before I added fish. The thing was absolutely swarming with seed shrimp, water fleas, assorted worms, and what not. So very cool. It didn't last long once I added the angelfish and lemon tetras, but still. The Badgerling and I have wanted to do something like that again. I think I'm going to start out with daphnia, scuds, seed shrimp, and blackworms, seed it with spirinella and lots of light for green water. Maybe add critters from the local waters once they open up. If I ever get baby bettas, I should be able to just plop them right in there to grow up, fat and happy.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

We discovered that a very healthy population of copepods/cyclops popped up in this tank over the weekend. That bodes well for the introduction of wild-caught fish! As soon as it warms up enough to order some. Probably April.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

A few frustrations. A month in, and the rice hasn't sprouted. The clover fern showed some great growth early on, but then it just stopped, and it looks rather stunted. The crypts aren't doing anything, either. They melted a little bit, then just sort of stopped. Maybe the soil in my yard has something bad in it. If things don't pick up in a week or two, I might take out the substrate and start over.

On the good side, the crystalwort and mosses are looking pretty good, and this paddy herb has been lush and growing from day one.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

A few frustrations. A month in, and the rice hasn't sprouted. The clover fern showed some great growth early on, but then it just stopped, and it looks rather stunted. The crypts aren't doing anything, either. They melted a little bit, then just sort of stopped. Maybe the soil in my yard has something bad in it. If things don't pick up in a week or two, I might take out the substrate and start over.

On the good side, the crystalwort and mosses are looking pretty good, and this paddy herb has been lush and growing from day one.

Ah, that’s a bummer.

Where did you get the soil from? (Specifically in your yard?)