gjcarew

The title of silliest little plant in my tank is this tiny Nymphaea minuta. It's about an inch tall and has been around that size for many months. This is one of the babies from when the bigger Nymphaea minuta flowered a while ago. No idea why it refuses to get any bigger, but I love it and I'm keeping it

I think it would be good as a curtain plant

I sold $130+ of plants out of here today, I've been putting off trimming. Most of that was from selling significant amounts of buce and and half the bolbitis. I think I want the Limnophila sp. Wavy to come down between the buce and the crypt nurii, it currently is just not green enough in that area. Plus, too many of my groups are just "blobs", I want them to have defined shapes and directions. One of the more common things I get asked is how I keep my tiger lotus compact. Well this is after trimming it down pretty significantly since it was getting too tall: Unfortunately it was still too tall. You see how there is a big gap between the lowest leaves and the substrate? Well a lotus will always grow leaves higher than the highest existing leaf in my experience, they just keep growing upwards until they are no longer shaded out. So unfortunately I needed to cut it back even more. Yeah, it looks stupid now, but that's the price you pay for a compact lotus. Luckily I only have to trim it back this far every few months, then it's just a matter of trimming any particularly tall leaves.

Nice! Is that myrio roraima? I think it was cropped out of the photo so I missed it. That's a good orange plant. Golden myrio is great too, and a little less aggressive. Sessiflora is a bit of a weed, but 53b is great for dutch tanks. Nice slow, even growth. I've never grown rotala orange juice but I find regular rotundifolia often turns a nice orange.

A little early to be throwing in the towel, isn't it?! Plants are looking healthy, that's half the battle. I think replacing one of the reds with either a bright yellow or orange plant could be nice, like didiplis diandra or ammania pedicellata. I like that you have lots of different "shapes" in your planting. It really leads the eye around the scape. Can't wait to see it grown in more!

I really like this crypt nurii "luminous green", so I wanted to feature it more. It's less brown then the crypt jacobsenii, which I thought was maybe clashing with all the other reds. I also had to replant the lobelia cardinalis street, which is just something that has to be done every once in a while. It doesn't take long to recover. Finally, I got some myriophyllum Guyana to act as a taller midground plant. All the midground was a similar height so I want to break it up a little

Adding some recent photos...

Most test strips can test for chlorine, and the API master test kit

Because it's darker it definitely needs a prominent place in the background to be noticeable.

The best way to find out would be to test your R/O water. The molly could have been weakened by the low water hardness (they need hard water). Honey gouramis always seem fragile to me, I've had multiple that didn't last more than a few weeks. Maybe there is a contaminant, maybe it's just weak fish undergoing a stressful event (like a cold water change). It's admirable that you care enough to figure things out, but sometimes it's just a mystery. Try not to beat yourself up about it!

It's almost certainly not the easy green. Did you check chlorine levels? Any chance of contamination with cleaning products, like maybe in a bucket you used to transfer water? What is ammonia at? That would tell you if the cycle crashed.

Did a little trimming session this weekend. Before I start I usually spend 15-20 minutes just looking at the tank and imagining what I want it to look like. I also usually take some photos to critique the layout. These were my observations this time: - Limnophila sp. Wavy needs more density - The rotala macrandra "green" has some unruly horizontal growth - The group of lilies has migrated off the 1/3 line too much and needs to be moved - The Hygrophila angustifolia is lost behind and among the surrounding plants - The lobelia cardinalis street needs smoother lines, and terminates abruptly - The ludwigia repens is too big to be a focal point - The bolbitis is growing too far forward and needs trimming back, plus is just a little boring and dark - The group of crypts looks smashed against the front glass And here is my attempt to fix these problems: I tried to focus on creating space between groupings so they don't seem cramped. Most have a good 2-3" of elbow room at the substrate level, but in looking at this photo I wish I had gone even further. I need to start growing out moss walls soon. They are a P.I.T.A. but they are pretty undeniably cool looking. The fishies are all looking stunning. I know I need to get rid of some as I'm a bit overstocked but I just really enjoy all of them!

Hygrophila polysperma is on the USDA noxious weed list; it's illegal to sell hence why you'll only find hobbyists selling it. If you do decide to grow it, be careful with your trimmings

I don't have any plecos, but I have cories, SAE, and otos and haven't had trouble keeping them in place. Might as well just try it out and see what happens. Worst case scenario you could tie them to some mesh, then bury the mesh

Sorry, @Patrick_G got them all Just the roots

This was from TC, and that entire bunch is only about half of what I had (after ~2 years). I'm selling the other half this week. Buce does so much better when it's planted in the substrate!

Yeah it was in rough shape when I sent it to you. Really doesn't do well in low tech, which is where I had it. I'm glad you kept it alive, pretty sure I lost all the rhizomes I had. I need to get a low-iron aquarium, and probably clean out my filter. That's stunning!

Trying a new foreground layout to highlight this Eriocaulon malaytoor. It's a very pretty plant but with how delicate it is it's very easy to miss against other green plants.

It was exhausting! All in all it was like 6 hours over three days, including all the replanting, substrate cleaning, water change, etc. It's much more manageable to stay on top of it and only have to trim a little each week

Before and after. I've been traveling a lot so haven't had time to trim. It's crazy how much happier the fish look when they have some room to swim. I'm also trying out Limnophila sp. Wavy and Hygrophila odora for the back left, since the Hygrophila difformis kept bolting to the surface and looking all messy.

Wonderful! Java fern sp. India. I don't think it's sold commercially. It's like a normal java fern but much smaller. It only works in high tech tanks for me, it just slowly dies in low tech. Luckily it can grow back from pretty much a bare rhizome. It takes division very well if you decide to make more!

Do you just prefer a dark substrate?

Well if you want it to look short and sickly for months, you could try uprooting it. In all seriousness that tends to happen in lower light. High light makes crypts lay wide and flat

I almost took it out, it melted way back after moving it. Glad I held off!

I added some ammania pedicellata to the right side. We will have to see how it does without aquasoil. I know in general it's a finicky one. I think I'm going to get rid of the limnophila aromatica next. It just isn't distinctive enough. Maybe I'll replace it with something like anubias barteri, I need something with broad leaves and dark green color there I think. Or I could go full on fruit stand and try alternanthera reinickii or something.