Substrate And Plant Suggestions

[OohFeeshy]

Sort of cross posted from Journals since the number of replies is somewhere between zero and zero.

Summary- upgrading 2ft to 30" tank in a week or so. Similar to old setup but with shiny new lighting and stuff. Still South East Asian biotope-ish.

Question 1- Substrate. Probs main issue. At the minute I've got sand, a mix of normal and black. Doesn't look terribly natural. I don't want/need anything too fancy or expensive. I was thinking pond soil mixed with some sand- comments or other suggestions?

Question 2- Plants. To quote- "The queries mainly regard background. I want something 'soft' and er... weedy? I'd previously thought of Hygrophillia lacustris, but when I was having a look earlier Plants Alive do Blyxa japonica and aubertii. These seem to look the part more, but I haven't kept them before and don't know how well they would do, or even which species is better."

I've decided to scrap the lacustris altogether, I don't really like the look after all. So Blyxa it possibly is. Aubertii is bigger, I think, and possibly a better size therefore. Iunno. Oh, er, lighting is 48W of T5.

 

[Truck]

Regarding the substrate, I would use a centimeter of Clay cat litter and then cover with sand, It works really well with my plants, and because the clay has a high CEC it will become more nutritious over time with regular fertilization.

As for the soft background plant, have you tried other species of Hygrophillia? Or other plants such as Pogosteemon stelata? It's quite a nice plant, with a slight purple touch if it gets enough light and Nutrients.

 

[OohFeeshy]

Cat litter- messy and not very 'asian swamp' looking. And regular fertilization isn't really going to happen either.

Hygro doesn't really look the part, plus there's a few other potential problems with it like overgrowing and blocking out the light.

Edit- here's my 'hepful diagram' again so's you can see what I'm on about

 

[waterdrop]

Well I'm not really experienced or creative enough to have any suggestions but just wanted to say that I've enjoyed looking and reading and of course you can't help but get better if you keep at it, right? I think I had seen your pic of the wood against the black background long ago but not in the water. I've got a big ole heavy piece of bogwood that is still making tea in its plastic pot in the basement after 2 months of occasional dousings with boiling water!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Nick16]

fertilisation is a doodle. 3 or 4 mls from a bottle daily and thats it. takes 2 secs

blyxa auberti is bigger have you looked at cyperus helferi?

 

[OohFeeshy]

Ah indeed, but seeing as I'm at Uni and therefore away for 4/5 weeks at a time... The mother can just about cope with putting in food.

Cyperus helferi, that's quite nice, looks a bit more tricky/demanding than Blyxa though?