Pepere Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 Or at least I have heard it said…. without question my tank was overgrown. The Jungle Val and Dwarf Sag were taking over. some of the stem plants were breaking the surface… I have had dwarf water lettuce and Salvinia floating plants and hornwort since before CO2 installation. I pulled a lot out. all of the floating plants for now. They are in quarantine tanks in the cellar I just am not sure if I want it in display tanks or not. I am going to try it without for a while… Hornwort is down stairs too. Lots of dwatf sag babies floating in the quarantine tanks for the time being too. Reddis stem plants cut down and trimmed and replanted, and the rooty stemp plants that were behind moved to the left corner of the tank. They will grow up in time. yep, looks sparse to my eye too right now but the stem plants have been growing about 3-4 inches every week.. I dialed down the red light and increased the blue as an experiment to see if it causes denser growth that doesnt shoot up as quick. once the bubble on the equipment and plants absorb things will look better and a couple weeks of growth… 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PineSong Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 Sometimes it just feels good to attack the chaos! Your plants look great and it’ll be interesting to see how the blue light changes things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pepere Posted March 25 Author Share Posted March 25 I have the prior lighting program saved. Nothing ventured nothing gained. In any event, it is an experiment to try to learn something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kendall’s Aquarium Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 I’ve learned the same, less is more. I’ve tried to go by that in all of my planted tanks and only put a couple of the same types of plants in each tank. Like crypts and jungle Val in one, looks fantastic and easy maintenance to spend more time enjoying and raising fish vs trying to get an entire tank of different plants to be happy and flourish Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockfisher Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 @Pepereiveidh I could have that chaos. I have never been able to push past the need to trimming. I love both photos of your tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miska Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 I'm a huge fan of the wild look, but both are gorgeous! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted March 26 Share Posted March 26 On 3/25/2023 at 10:09 AM, Pepere said: yep, looks sparse to my eye too right now but the stem plants have been growing about 3-4 inches every week.. I'd be happy to have more than one plant growing! I'm hoping I can turn things around in the new tank. On this photo.... On 3/25/2023 at 10:09 AM, Pepere said: What is your intent with the taller grasses? Trying to cover the whole back wall or have them just in two patches? I assume you're trying to cover up the equipment a little bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lennie Posted March 26 Share Posted March 26 Be careful with anubias being under the light after removing lots of overgrown plants and and floating plants. I removed a ton at the same time as well as floating plants and boom, my beautiful anubias of a year got covered in algae 😭 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pepere Posted March 26 Author Share Posted March 26 On 3/26/2023 at 2:52 AM, nabokovfan87 said: What is your intent with the taller grasses? Trying to cover the whole back wall or have them just in two patches? Honestly there is no intent other than learning at the moment. This was my first tank and when I set it up I was overwhelmed with plant choices. I had 29 gallons of tank an I didnt have any idea of where to start. I went to an online plant retailer that had a package deal of plants. No listing of what you would get. I received the Jungle Val and dwarf sag, and set a clump on either side near the back…. No rhyme or reason other than having set near the back…. The two tiger lotuses bulbs were included, assorted unnamed stem plants, It was a start. I bought the anubias later as well as the scarlet temple, s repens, and floating plants. There is also pink flamingo crypt that I am working to nurse to health… Long term, I plan on getting a 75 gallon in the next year or so after renovating the parlor. I plan on going big with driftwood in that tank aiming for a bold impressive aquascape and tear this tank down at the time to use these plants in the new scape. Once that is done I plan on redoing this tank also with more driftwood and more of a unified plan. I am studying George farmer scapes right now in order to plan things out more. In the meantime, thistank is learning to make plants thrive and keep algae at bay. When I set up the 75, I am thinking of a sump to hide most of the equipment in there, heaters, filtration, co2 etc. I am thinking diy undergravel filter half piped to overflow into sump, half air driven so that in event of power outage, simple air pump can keep tank with biofiltration…. Sump will have fluidized k1 that can also be kept viable with air pump… On 3/26/2023 at 3:10 AM, Lennie said: Be careful with anubias being under the light after removing lots of overgrown plants and and floating plants. That has been a concern. On left front the Tiger lotus still shades it some as the light in near the back of the tank and the cover hinge provides some shading as well. The floating plants are alive and well ready to be redeployed as needed. The tanks growth had really exploded in the past weeks time. I have been having to add ferts every other day and trim back heavily each week. The biggest thing I removed from the tank was the val and dwarf sag baby plants that were taking over, and the floating plants. The stem plants were mostly cut down to about 1/3rd height, and some stem removed from the tops and the tops replanted among prior bases. By and large most of the mass is still there and I suspect those will be 2-3 inches higher next weekend. I can also dial back light period and intensity. I would pull loads of floating plants and hornwort every week and it would be a dense mat by Saturday again…. As such even the back of the tank directly under the lights would be significantly shaded by the weekend. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pepere Posted March 27 Author Share Posted March 27 I ended up putting a few shade items on top of my folding cover to shade the anubias a bit… 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pepere Posted April 2 Author Share Posted April 2 I thought it interesting to see the 1 week progression of the tank showing a week of new growth after heavily trimming the tank. last week after trimming heavily. One week later. A few stem plant tops in the middle had grown to within an inch of the hob bottom and were cut back and replanted to build density and the tiger lotus on left had some leaves removed to allow the stem plants on the left to be less shaded and show a bit. The scarlet temple on the right were trimmed and the tops replanted to even the height and increase density there. I am anxious to see the growth next week. As a bonus, here is my 20 high I used the same theory on pulling out some stem plants in the front to showcase the PinkFlamingo, Scarlet Temple and Hygrophila Corymbosa Compacta. I am hoping the Hygrophila starts coloring up now that it is growing nicely 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lennie Posted April 2 Share Posted April 2 I have never seen that Hygrophila plant before. It looks very nice!! Def added to my list for future plants. I liked the green tone, leaf structure and how compact it looks. Deserves it’s name Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pepere Posted April 2 Author Share Posted April 2 On 4/2/2023 at 8:33 AM, Lennie said: I have never seen that Hygrophila plant before. It looks very nice!! I would like to move it more to the front of the tank, but it is fairly well rooted and I dont want to disrupt it. I think I am actually going to pull the Scarlet Temple and move it to the other 29 gallon tank. As it is here it gets lost visually compared to the Pink Flamingo. I also hesitate to move it given this is the first tank it started perking up in, likely because it is closer to the light with the substrate elevation… I am thinking of getting some S. Repens to place in the foreground and keep cropped down a bit… 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pepere Posted April 9 Author Share Posted April 9 overgrown… After cleaning out. 1 week of growth after trimming. 2 weeks of growth after trimming. I also trimmed my scarlet Temple and replanted to make a bigger patch. Looking forward to seeing that grow back. Thinking of getting some Staurogyne Repens for patches in the foreground. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PineSong Posted April 9 Share Posted April 9 Looking really nice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pepere Posted May 28 Author Share Posted May 28 The Dwarf Sag is unrelenting in its spread and reproduction as is the ludwigia repens. I plucked dwarf sag back to the back of the tank and replanted to the right rear and the right side, then replanted ludwigia repens in a dense patch in the midground, center left.. the Scarlet Temple is thriving and will be trimmed down in a few more weeks. ad my Pink Flamingo Crypt is finally showing signs of more active new growth. This tank has always been my problem tank so far as Algae goes. I dont think I have ever seen it as free of Algae as it is today. Maybe it is coincidence, but the reduction in the past week coinciding with change of filtration to canister and spraybar is hard to ignore. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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