gjcarew Posted January 28, 2023 Author Share Posted January 28, 2023 On 1/27/2023 at 11:52 PM, nabokovfan87 said: Ever considered doing a video showing your tanks and process with Bentley? The plants on the left look like a mix of a few species? Is that the case or are my eyes just messing with me? I'm not opposed to it, I don't know Bentley super well though. There are quite a few 'fishtube famous' people in GSAS, but I've never really found myself wanting to make videos. That is all water wisteria. It's actually kind of interesting if you're a plant nerd. For some amount of time (between two weeks and a month) in December, this tank had no CO2. The water wisteria grew very thin, yellow-green leaves in that time. Since getting CO2 back, it has started growing leaves in the emersed form, or at least closer to it. My guess is that the increased environmental CO2 let the plant to think it had broken the water surface and was now emersed. So now you have the old, thin growth and the thicker growth in the same bush. Bart Laurens suggested this could be due low light, but that doesn't make sense to me since you have different growth forms right next to each other. Pic of emersed water wisteria for reference Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mmiller2001 Posted January 28, 2023 Share Posted January 28, 2023 On 1/28/2023 at 12:22 PM, gjcarew said: I'm not opposed to it, I don't know Bentley super well though. There are quite a few 'fishtube famous' people in GSAS, but I've never really found myself wanting to make videos. That is all water wisteria. It's actually kind of interesting if you're a plant nerd. For some amount of time (between two weeks and a month) in December, this tank had no CO2. The water wisteria grew very thin, yellow-green leaves in that time. Since getting CO2 back, it has started growing leaves in the emersed form, or at least closer to it. My guess is that the increased environmental CO2 let the plant to think it had broken the water surface and was now emersed. So now you have the old, thin growth and the thicker growth in the same bush. Bart Laurens suggested this could be due low light, but that doesn't make sense to me since you have different growth forms right next to each other. Pic of emersed water wisteria for reference How fast does it grow? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gjcarew Posted January 28, 2023 Author Share Posted January 28, 2023 On 1/28/2023 at 11:29 AM, Mmiller2001 said: How fast does it grow? Moderately fast with CO2, and at a very manageable rate without. It takes trimming well once you have a thick bush because it's hard to see the cut stems among all the dense, textured leaves. Overall it's not a hard plant to keep. I cut it back every two weeks or so. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted January 29, 2023 Share Posted January 29, 2023 On 1/28/2023 at 11:22 AM, gjcarew said: I'm not opposed to it, I don't know Bentley super well though. There are quite a few 'fishtube famous' people in GSAS, but I've never really found myself wanting to make videos. It might be an opportunity. He has his email or maybe in future things occur where it makes sense. He is also on this forum. 🙂 I have emailed him a few times and he's genuinely a nice person and very easy to talk fish with. Maybe that is encouragement enough next time considering you both have a joy of nice plants in the tank! On 1/28/2023 at 11:22 AM, gjcarew said: That is all water wisteria. It's actually kind of interesting if you're a plant nerd. For some amount of time (between two weeks and a month) in December, this tank had no CO2. The water wisteria grew very thin, yellow-green leaves in that time. Since getting CO2 back, it has started growing leaves in the emersed form, or at least closer to it. My guess is that the increased environmental CO2 let the plant to think it had broken the water surface and was now emersed. So now you have the old, thin growth and the thicker growth in the same bush. Bart Laurens suggested this could be due low light, but that doesn't make sense to me since you have different growth forms right next to each other. Very interesting... Something OnlyGenus would be able to explain to me in detail as to why, but that's crazy interesting. I do believe this happens with other plants based on like power. I thought at first it was one plant with a handful of other ones that got mixed in randomly. Sometimes you plant X and Y and expect one to grow larger, but the other takes a hold. (ok, well us beginners do! 😂 ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mmiller2001 Posted January 29, 2023 Share Posted January 29, 2023 Plant stress can cause weird things to happen. This occurs in terrestrial plants too. I've seen female plants push out stamen to reproduce during high stress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gjcarew Posted January 29, 2023 Author Share Posted January 29, 2023 On 1/29/2023 at 6:18 AM, Mmiller2001 said: Plant stress can cause weird things to happen. This occurs in terrestrial plants too. I've seen female plants push out stamen to reproduce during high stress. I'm convinced this stress response is why the nymphaea minuta flowered earlier in January. I hope it doesn't die but it isn't looking great 😞 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mmiller2001 Posted January 29, 2023 Share Posted January 29, 2023 You have it in the 75? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gjcarew Posted January 29, 2023 Author Share Posted January 29, 2023 On 1/5/2023 at 11:48 AM, gjcarew said: @Mmiller2001 Yeah, it's this one. I suspect it's gone to seed because the leaves are not doing well right now 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anewbie Posted January 29, 2023 Share Posted January 29, 2023 So i need to stress my plants to get them to bloom? Also (i know off topic so please pardon me) but how do you get mermaid weed to turn red - it grows really fast but isn't that red in my aquarium. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gjcarew Posted January 29, 2023 Author Share Posted January 29, 2023 On 1/29/2023 at 12:55 PM, anewbie said: So i need to stress my plants to get them to bloom? Also (i know off topic so please pardon me) but how do you get mermaid weed to turn red - it grows really fast but isn't that red in my aquarium. As long as you don't mind them dying shortly after blooming and setting seed, that is a way of getting them to flower. I haven't grown mermaid weed in a long time, and I never got it to more than a pale orange. Strong light usually does it, though. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gjcarew Posted February 4, 2023 Author Share Posted February 4, 2023 I've got the GSAS home show coming tomorrow. Unfortunately quite a few plants never recovered from the lack of CO2 over the holidays, so I ended up doing some rather severe replanting and trimming last week and the tank consequently is not in "competition" form. The remarkable thing about NBAT competition (Dutch society of aquarists) is that it is all conducted in person. You don't have the luxury of choosing exactly when you take the perfect photo, rather you need to know how to make sure your tank is at its peak on a certain day. It's a fun challenge, and one I did not rise to this year. Regardless, I think this has a lot of Dutch elements, which is what I ultimately hoped to represent to my fellow members of GSAS. 5 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odd Duck Posted February 4, 2023 Share Posted February 4, 2023 Tank looks great even if not quite competition ready. That seems like a staggering challenge to peak at just exactly the right time. Wow! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gjcarew Posted February 21, 2023 Author Share Posted February 21, 2023 Update after 2 weeks away! The good: Most plants did well and got some good growth in. The bad: The buce and blyxa japonica are still struggling with algae. Honestly the blyxa has never done great and probably needs to go. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 (edited) I apologize if this was answered already. I didn't see it in the OP. What are the substrate layers you're using? Edited February 21, 2023 by nabokovfan87 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mmiller2001 Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 On 2/20/2023 at 10:36 PM, gjcarew said: Update after 2 weeks away! The good: Most plants did well and got some good growth in. The bad: The buce and blyxa japonica are still struggling with algae. Honestly the blyxa has never done great and probably needs to go. I couldn't get it to grow either. I want to try it again though. Such a beauty. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gjcarew Posted February 21, 2023 Author Share Posted February 21, 2023 On 2/20/2023 at 10:05 PM, nabokovfan87 said: I apologize if this was answered already. I didn't see it in the OP. What are the substrate layers you're using? A mix of Caribsea Peace River gravel, aquasoil, and Monterey sand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 On 2/21/2023 at 10:43 AM, gjcarew said: A mix of Caribsea Peace River gravel, aquasoil, and Monterey sand Very cool. Thanks. I was wondering if maybe that plant just needed some root tab love. The algae and stuff on it isn't helping, but maybe that will perk it up as a last ditched effort? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anewbie Posted February 22, 2023 Share Posted February 22, 2023 On 2/21/2023 at 12:43 PM, gjcarew said: A mix of Caribsea Peace River gravel, aquasoil, and Monterey sand Curious is monterey sand a product or did you go to Monterey and collect some sand 😉 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gjcarew Posted February 24, 2023 Author Share Posted February 24, 2023 On 2/22/2023 at 12:37 PM, anewbie said: Curious is monterey sand a product or did you go to Monterey and collect some sand 😉 Fun fact, Cemex is the company that makes Monterey Sand, and they had the last functional coastal sand mine in the United States in Marina, CA. The government found that it was causing massive erosion in South Monterey Bay, so they got shut down in 2020. They now have to restore the habitat by the end of 2023. I may have one of the last bags of Monterey Sand in existence. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anewbie Posted February 25, 2023 Share Posted February 25, 2023 Well i certainly will not be buying a bag of monterey sand as someone took the last bag 😉 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gjcarew Posted February 26, 2023 Author Share Posted February 26, 2023 Been doing some rearranging. I think I need the lobelia cardinalis back for more leaf shape contrast. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gjcarew Posted March 12, 2023 Author Share Posted March 12, 2023 Mid-trim photo. There are a lot of things I like here, and quite a few things that still need work. One big one is to figure out how I'm gonna make a buce wall. I also need something else for the back right area. Gonna try to pick up some tiger val for the left side on Tuesday. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted March 12, 2023 Share Posted March 12, 2023 The longer leaved plant in the back gives the tank nice movement. I think that's my favorite part. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gjcarew Posted March 12, 2023 Author Share Posted March 12, 2023 Hygrophila 'Angustifolia'. I saw it in @Mmiller2001's tank and had to get some. So much less dramatic and IMO more attractive than the 53b 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mmiller2001 Posted March 12, 2023 Share Posted March 12, 2023 On 3/12/2023 at 12:00 AM, gjcarew said: Hygrophila 'Angustifolia'. I saw it in @Mmiller2001's tank and had to get some. So much less dramatic and IMO more attractive than the 53b Seller's mistake that actually went in my favor! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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