Monochrome5's Planted Cube

[lljdma06]

Ordering plants today.... WOOOOOOOOOH!

Do you want the moss and Pelia?

llj

 

[Monochrome5]

Ordering plants today.... WOOOOOOOOOH!

Do you want the moss and Pelia?

llj

Absolutely! I'll post the full list of ordered plants here in a minute. Need to finalize my choices first.

 

[lljdma06]

Ordering plants today.... WOOOOOOOOOH!

Do you want the moss and Pelia?

llj

Absolutely! I'll post the full list of ordered plants here in a minute. Need to finalize my choices first.

So I'll post some pelia and moss for you tomorrow then. I just wanted to make sure.

 

[Monochrome5]

OK I'm having serious issues ordering. 99% of the plants on my list aren't at Liveaquaria or aquariumplants.com. Maybe spelling errors?I'm trying common names as well...

Also, what the heck is the difference between "normal" and "potted"?? Which should I be ordering? And how many of each plant? AAAAAAAHHHH MY HEAD'S GOING TO EXPLODEEEEEEE!

Boom.

PS: I was able to find these:

Hemianthus micranthemoides
Alternanthera reineckii
Echinodorus tennelus
Egeria najas
Bacopa monnieri

 

[lljdma06]

For myriophylum look under

M. pinnatum or M. simulan

Aquariumplants.com will not sell hygrophila polysperma - noxious weed

Marimo balls are sold as moss balls under specialty plants

I couldn't find Barclaya, odd they usually carry it.

llj

 

[lljdma06]

Barclaya's on ebay... Aquaticmagic is the seller. I've purchased moss from them. They are in Singapore so the plant may arrive as a bulb. No leaves. Don't freak, if the bulb is healthy should sprout.

http/cgi.ebay.com/Barclaya-Red-Live-Aquarium-Plant-Java-Tank-Fish-Fern-/250523800265?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a5461d2c9

I am fabulous...

 

[Monochrome5]

That doesn't help with "regular vs potted vs mat". What am I supposed to get?

 

[ian]

personally, i'd get potted as they have a better root structure and they are normally more mature than the 'normal'. The 'normal' is usually just a few stems wrapped in a lead weight.

 

[Monochrome5]

personally, i'd get potted as they have a better root structure and they are normally more mature than the 'normal'. The 'normal' is usually just a few stems wrapped in a lead weight.

Awesome. Thanks for helping with all of my noob questions

 

[Monochrome5]

Order is DONE!!!! SO EXCITED!!!!!

Here's my list (Note the LACK of moss ball... I'm going to get that at the LFS for $3 hehe).

Baby Tears (Hemianthus micranthemoides) x2
Telanthera Rosefolia (Alternanthera reineckii) x2
Narrow Leaf Chain Sword (10 plants per order)
Anacharis Narrow Leaf (Egeria najas) x2
Moneywort (Bacopa monnieri) x2
Myrio, Filigree (Myriophyllum simulan) x1
Cryptocoryne, Wendtii, Red (Cryptocoryne wendtii) x1 I know this isn't a typical Dutch plant and wasn't on our list, but it looked so neat I had to get one

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Sounds like a nice start to me.

 

[lljdma06]

C. wendtii red is cool for Dutch, good replacement for Barclaya. Similar look.

Package is in the mail. Estimated delivery... Thursday.

 

[Monochrome5]

So my plants came in today... I ordered from aquariumplants.com and I'm not very happy. First off, I got different amounts of plants than what I ordered. Second, they came all stuck together in one giant brick. I'm a plant noob! How the hell am I supposed to know what is what if it's all tangled up? Here's what it looked like:

See? That's bull#105###. Also, I ordered a few of my plants POTTED! Do you see any pots in there? NO! They crossed off (with a pen) the "potted" part of the order form and wrote in "exposed root". Here's the thing - the potted plants cost about two dollars more! Did they change my price? Of course not. That's got to be illegal somehow. To top it off, I got random amounts of each plant. Here's the breakdown:


Baby Tears (Hemianthus micranthemoides) Ordered 2 Received 2
Telanthera Rosefolia (Alternanthera reineckii) Ordered 2 Received 2
Narrow Leaf Chain Sword (10 plants per order) Ordered 10 Received 6
Anacharis Narrow Leaf (Egeria najas) Ordered 2 Received 2 (Side note - I may be confusing this with Myrio)
Myrio, Filigree (Myriophyllum simulan) x1 Ordered 1 Received none (Side note - I may be confusing this with Egeria najas. Either way, I only received two "fuzy" plants)
Cryptocoryne, Wendtii, Red (Cryptocoryne wendtii) Ordered 1 Received 1 (Side note - Every leaf has holes and brown patches - hopefully it makes it)
Moneywort (Bacopa monnieri) x2 Ordered 2 POTTED, Received 4 Loose (Side note - This stuff was horrible. I decided not to use any of it and gave it to the LFS in exchange for my fish, which are on order. Because of the packing every piece was bent like a big J and wouldn't fit properly in my tank. Plus I could see no roots to speak of (despite the "bare root" label and it was determined to float away)

Despite all of that, I think I have a very nice little tank scape going. I know hardscapes are basically non-existent in Dutch, but oh well. This piece of wood was just too freaking cool. So without further ado, my planted Dutch Jungle!

PS - Sorry the shot is a bit cloudy. I literally finished planting this thing not 10 minutes ago.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

I like it, I'm a huge fan of dutch scapes and when this fills in will look even better, love the wood and I'm impressed, esp with it being your first.

 

[lljdma06]

So my plants came in today... I ordered from aquariumplants.com and I'm not very happy.

Shame, I haven't ordered from them in a very long time. I thought they their recent merger with Aquabotonic would yield better plants.

First off, I got different amounts of plants than what I ordered.

This seems to be typical now. I dislike this practice, if you don't have the plant just come out and say so. I'm certainly savvy enough to know the difference too.

Second, they came all stuck together in one giant brick. I'm a plant noob! How the hell am I supposed to know what is what if it's all tangled up? Here's what it looked like:

May I ask what shipping you opted for? If priority, then you actually got pretty good plants in decent condition. I find in the Summer for large orders like that, I must order next day.

See? That's bull#105###. Also, I ordered a few of my plants POTTED! Do you see any pots in there? NO! They crossed off (with a pen) the "potted" part of the order form and wrote in "exposed root". Here's the thing - the potted plants cost about two dollars more! Did they change my price? Of course not. That's got to be illegal somehow.

That is dishonest as you cannot confirm if it was indeed in a pot or not. If I saw the root structures I could tell you as potted plants have different root structures than those sold as bunches.


To top it off, I got random amounts of each plant. Here's the breakdown:


Baby Tears (Hemianthus micranthemoides) Ordered 2 Received 2 - ok
Telanthera Rosefolia (Alternanthera reineckii) Ordered 2 Received 2 - watch this plant in the beginning, may undergo a conversion from emmersed to submerged growth.
Narrow Leaf Chain Sword (10 plants per order) Ordered 10 Received 6 - you also definitely have emmersed growth, there will be leaf die-off, so watch for this and remove dying leaves. Submerged growth will soon replace it and the plants will bounce back.
Anacharis Narrow Leaf (Egeria najas) Ordered 2 Received 2 (Side note - I may be confusing this with Myrio) - without seeing the plant, I would imagine you may.
Myrio, Filigree (Myriophyllum simulan) x1 Ordered 1 Received none (Side note - I may be confusing this with Egeria najas. Either way, I only received two "fuzy" plants) - you'll have to see the growth over time. I'll be able to tell the difference for you once the plants settle in.I've kept both
Cryptocoryne, Wendtii, Red (Cryptocoryne wendtii) Ordered 1 Received 1 (Side note - Every leaf has holes and brown patches - hopefully it makes it) - It is also probably going from emmersed to submerge growth or melting from the heat. Should bounce back.
Moneywort (Bacopa monnieri) x2 Ordered 2 POTTED, Received 4 Loose (Side note - This stuff was horrible. I decided not to use any of it and gave it to the LFS in exchange for my fish, which are on order. Because of the packing every piece was bent like a big J and wouldn't fit properly in my tank. Plus I could see no roots to speak of (despite the "bare root" label and it was determined to float away) - you could have cut these to fit to your tank. I trim stems all the time. You don't need root to plant stems effectively. Oh well, you learn.

This tank looks great! Give it time, start pumping in that CO2. For a couple of weeks, you're going to have to do frequent waterchanges on this tank. The leaf conversion will produce ammonia spikes (won't register on a test kit, small spikes). This can trigger algae. Keeping the tank clean will prevent a lot of the early onset algae. You didn't fair as poorly as you think. I've receive MUCH worse. This article from PARC by Jimbooo is a really good guide on pruning and plant maintenance.

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/211715-pruning/

llj