gjcarew

Did some more rearranging. I think I need to get rid of some more species, maybe the crypt Jacobsenii 😭 It just doesn't like the high light, and grows too flat. With lower light it was fantastic. The groups also need more separation. It feels too crowded right now IMO.

Did a bit of trimming today, I'll need to do a water change tomorrow. Overall still fairly pleased with the layout, though it needs refinement

September 10th

I just got notice that the AGA 2023 contest is open for entries, I'm officially shook. I started a new job two weeks ago and haven't touched the plants in ages. The deadline is coming up quickly! Side project: My mom's small pond out front. After first planting my own pond with carnivores in this style, these Ikebana-inspired arrangements are definitely my new favorite way to plant.

Mine grew 3 inches high. It's a super variable plant.

The hygrophila serpyllum has absolutely taken over in the 3 or so weeks since I planted it. I'm gonna trim it back and see how it handles it, but may go back to lobelia cardinalis if it continues to grow this fast. This is probably a 2-day trim/WC job since it's pretty late already but I'll update when it's done

1 plant, the moss would be the plant

Looks like it, just shorter than I usually see it

Vallisneria spiralis, Ludwigia repens 'Rubin', Hygrophila difformis (water wisteria) and Eriocaulon malaytoor. I like the contrast in this corner of the tank right now.

Hairgrass tends to do better when you comb it with a fork, like Ariel from The Little Mermaid

It will be interesting to see how the plants respond! Does it look brighter?

It's a group of plants that rises up from the foreground and disappears behind another group of plants.

Did a bit of rearranging to get the rough shape of the Dutch street put in. I also picked up some limnophila hippuridoides to fill in the gap between the rotala macrandra and the hygrophila difformis. If I remember correctly it can be a fairly aggressive grower, so we whether I can keep it at an appropriate length. I'm not planting it yet since I want it to get about 10 inches tall first, so it won't be shaded by all the surrounding plants.

Yeah I think it's alternanthera reineckii 'Lilacina'. Probably not the best for a terrarium since it's going to want saturated soil to do well.

I don't know if you got a smaller size pea gravel but it's usually a bit too big to plant into. If you're going to aquarium co-op they sell gravel there that is a perfect size, and relatively cheap. Or honestly any fine aquarium gravel from a big box store will work as well.

I was kinda braindead when writing this. You're right

Gonna be great. Good luck whittling down the number of plants from 42 -> 24! I see you got rid of the big log, I thought you were keeping it? The java fern is sp. India. I hope it comes through for you, it's a great plant. Eventually, I would suggest mounting all your epiphytes on the back wall. If you can find it, I also recommend trying out eleocharis montevidensis instead of eleocharis vivipara. It doesn't grow the adventitious plantlets on the ends of its leaves so it's a lot easier to maintain.

I've seen a video where Cory sews it on with acrylic yarn. I wouldn't recommend a dry start, in this case you don't really want it to form a uniform mat or it might inhibit flow through the mattenfilter. Sewing chunks of moss on seems like a better choice.

I think a Hamburg Mattenfilter covered in moss would be cool to hide the back wall and equipment

It's one of my favorites, but I've noticed the same thing. Some plants are fine with having their stems planted, but that is not one of them. Usually it has fairly prolific roots, so you just have to make sure that the roots are what's anchoring it.

Oh baby, here are some of my green foreground and midground favorites: Lobelia cardinalis Pogostemon erectus Pogostemon helferi Myriophyllum 'Guyana Mini' Monte carlo Dwarf baby tears Marsilea hirsuta (currently trying crenata, we'll see how that goes) Blyxa japonica Eriocaulon Vietnam Eriocaulo lineare (super pretty, but I haven't tried growing it yet) Hygrophila serpyllum moss on wood/rocks Crypt wendtii "green" Glossostigma elatinoides Hemianthus glomeratus Limnophila aromatic "mini" Helianthus angustifolius (vesuvius sword) Staurogyne repens Bacopa monnieri Nymphaea zenkeri "green" Nymphaea micrantha Hottonia palustris Hydrocotyle tripartite Lindernia rotundifolia (I like the variegated one) Ranunculus inundatus

Like you have trouble finding green midground/foreground plants or red ones?

According to Bart Laurens, about 60-70% of plants should be shades of green and the rest can be colorful. Joe Harvey often has 50% or more of his tank non-green plants, but he also balances it extremely well- as in he's not putting red plants next to red (or pink) plants, but they might touch a yellow plant. In this case, where the yellow Myriphyllum matogrossense "golden" touches the crypt jacobsenii, I think it works because there is strong contrast between the two. In general, I think it's the bright red plants that really draw the eye that are most important to be used in moderation. This tank currently has too many species (damn you GSAS auction!). It is in its infancy in terms of composition. Luckily there are still months before I have to have something photo ready. The Bluetooth controllers with the Chihiros lights are definitely a drawback. It's ridiculous that Bluetooth isn't built in. Especially for predominantly green tanks, high color temp white lights are really all you need. I have a 10,000 kelvin ADA Solar 1 that I want to get out for an iwagumi scape one of these days. It really makes the greens pop. There are a lot of drawbacks to T5's but the tests I've seen haven't shown them losing significant par after 2+ years.

The Ludwigia definitely needs to be a bit bigger, but I just got it. I need to grow it out some more. I have also considered adding some tall plants like Ludwigia Pantanal in the back row to fill up some more space. Or potentially put some branches covered with subwassertang somewhere just to break up the size of some of the background groups. I appreciate the suggestions, it's always nice to get a second opinion

Already scheming for how I want to rearrange with the new plants. For context, here is tonight's full tank shot: So what I'm thinking is to move the golden myrio to between the two background groups, and put in a street with the hygrophila serpyllum that disappears behind the crypts. In this plan I would get rid of the few lobelia cardinalis on the right hand side. The didiplis diandra (if I can grow it) will eventually for a big orange group on the back right for some color on that side. I may also move the eleocharis to the middle of the street - it's a very classic Dutch look and would lend some grassy verticality to that area. Here is a very rough mock up: