Top 3 Favorite plants

[nabokovfan87]

On 7/7/2023 at 12:32 PM, Dork Fish said:

@nabokovfan87 Yeah those look incredible. I wish he had a 'full tank shot' of the first one though LOL 🙂

He does a lot of follow ups. The first one is a series on Green Aqua. There's a lot of shots of it!

On 7/7/2023 at 12:32 PM, Dork Fish said:

Might try it out just to see,

Exactly! See how close or what you can make. As Filipe says, don't plan, see what the pieces want to do.

[Lennie]

You can do what you have your mind as an island on one corner and keep the rest fine sand. Should be more cost saving.

Or

Better option might be is going for cheaper rocks, and plants that propagate themself over time. 

I personally LOVE this setup:

 

simple, natural looking and you will only need a few plants. Also majority of the substrate is basically sand, rocks are cheaper than many other options. All I can imagine to be that costy is the wood piece.

I was gonna do something similar but I usually have shallow tanks so It wouldn't look good for me. 

 

[Dork Fish]

@Lennie Yeah I think that I might try an island. I have 40lbs of blue seiryu stone, 3 (12-18") ghost wood branches, 36lbs of bio-stratum and 80lbs of torpedo beach sand. Should be able to come up with something.

Just have to finish figuring out the plants LOL

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

The way to cheapen it up is to use bags of lava rocks to bank up the scape and then put your aquasoil and hard scape over the top. MD always does this beautifully. Speaking of Aquascape - I’d utilize the rocks for rhizome plants - all the anubias species shown would be great. I do find the ones with the color variation - golden, pinto, jade - do a lot better with co2 since this is pretty much what they were bred for. When there’s a leaf variation or size variation it doesn’t matter co2 or not I find with Anubias. 
 

I think that you should think about short term, medium term and long term with this scape. I’d not unload all the high needs plants in the first wave of planting. The harder or medium plants benefit from a mature tank with stable parameters whereas there are some plants that thrive in those volatile conditions- water wisteria, pogostemon stellatus, and having some floaters on hand for when things get weird and eventually you can move beyond their use. George Farmer did a podcast before the release of his book a few years ago and when I’m feeling uncertain before starting a scape I go to those recordings if still available I’d give them a whirl. There’s a middle ground obviously you’ve mentioned above Val nana which is excellent as is Bacopa. George’s video with Ty Streetman recently was great for some species that meet some of your needs. It’s on Ty’s Biotopia channel. 

Several of us for the last few years have been big fans of Aponogetons such as bolivianus, crispus, ulvaceus are great plants that when planted in a highly nutrient rich substrate grow large and are beautiful- textures and colors really exceptional plants great for background and wider and textured leaves. I currently have crispus purple it’s a baby but it is slowly chugging along with CO2 and dirted tank. 

Madagascar lace, I’ve got a fondness for this plant having it in both my 45 and 60 g displays. Any fish that likes to bask and school, neocaridina love the leaf structure, and they have done well in soft water and hard water for me. 
 

Nymphaea and Nymphoides are 2 species I keep turning to. Nymphae got a micranthra recently and have gardneriana as well as the more commonly stellata. These are bulletproof and gorgeous plants that add a lot to a scape. And when trained properly can fill volumes with color and shape. 

[Dork Fish]

@Beardedbillygoat1975 Wow this is great information, thank you! 🙂

I hope to get CO2 going in the future but, I have spent all my budget on everything else after deciding to go with an Fluval FX4 and spray bar LOL

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

It’s a process. It took me a decade before I committed to CO2 so take your time. It’s a hobby so get it up and running get some plants in, try things and fail then try again. It’ll be fun but challenges ahead! 

[Dork Fish]

@Pepere I have seen your tanks, you have some nice plants in there. Which are your favorites?

[Ninjoma]

My top three in no particular order:

1. Tiger lotus

Very easy to care for, giant, beautiful and spreads like crazy. My favorite midground plant. 

2. Buce green wavy. 

I like rhizome plants a lot for covering wood and rocks. I think buce is my favorite because it is short and seems hardier than anubias which can suffer from rhizome rot. Green wavy is a nice color and texture that can work in most setups. 

3. Ludwigia rubin. 

Stem plants are nice for filling out backgrounds. I like ludwigia rubin because it is easy to care for, is large and can have a nice range of different colors from green to bronze to red depending on the amount of lighting. It feels like a great jack of all trades

[Mmiller2001]

My current favorites are,

Alternanthera Rosanervig mini

Hygrophila Corymbosa Stricta 

Blyxa Japonica 

[Dork Fish]

@Ninjoma Very nice tank 🙂

@Pepere See, I think you already have some nice red in there 🙂

[anewbie]

Three plants i like that have grown well include 

a) various vals (jungle/italia/sprial)

b) various crypts - esp nurii rosen/jacobi rosen/pink jacobii/silver something or other/and esp the cordata var siamensis (not very common plant) not to mention the stunning red and tiger spiralis

c) various Echinodorus esp the purple aflame, parviflorus (an extremely nice plant) and (my favorite by far) Iguazu (have several of these).

-

honorable mention to myriopyllum roraima and rotal blood red sg

 

[mynameisnobody]

1- Val

2- tiger Lotus

3- anubias

4- pothos

5- dwarf sag 

[Dutchaj]

2 favorites in my current tank:

 

1. Aponogeton crispus

2. Crypt spiralis 

 

it’s a 25” tall tank and you can see the Aponogeton is easily 30” tall, it sends out flower stems weekly and keeps pushing good growth.

 

I planted the C spiralis and Val to see which I liked better for the tall background “thicket” look, no contest in my tank with the crypt.

 

it’s low tech with weekly easy green dosing.

[Dork Fish]

@mynameisnobody I also like Val 🙂

@Dutchaj That is a nice tank 🙂

[Odd Duck]

As much as it makes me a little crazy with its slow growth, I do love my tiny Crypt. parva.

I have a love / hate with the Crypt. ‘Pink Panther’ (same photo notably minus the pink crypts but still has the reverted green one 🤦🏻‍♀️).  The Pink version of Pink Panther couldn’t handle 3 full days without light trying to clear a smidge of hair algae.  The green version has regrown, the pink ones have not.  I don’t have high light or CO2 on this tiny 2 G tank.

Third is 3 way tie between: 1. Crypt. pontederiifolia for being a nice bright green, versatile workhorse in the tank - background in small or short tanks, mid-ground to foreground in taller tanks (left front in pic - ignore the cory eggs).  2. Anubias nana ‘Golden’ for being a reliable and sturdy bright spot.   And 3. Is a new one to become a favorite - a Java fern variety - Leptochilus pteropus ‘Needle Leaf’ for how well it’s done in my little 3 G shrimp tank (pic is growth from rather spindly initially to just 3 months later).

 

[Dork Fish]

@Odd Duck I only recently learned about "Anubias nana ‘Golden’" from everyone on the forum, very cool looking plant 🙂

[Dork Fish]

Is CO2 needed to make reds pop?

[Lennie]

On 7/11/2023 at 12:30 AM, Dork Fish said:

Is CO2 needed to make reds pop?

For easy reds, aquasoil and good light works. They don't look extremely deep red, but more paler/ orangeish but still red. However ofcourse co2 will make them look better overall and will give you more red options to try.

https://www.2hraquarist.com/en-mk/blogs/freshwater-aquarium-plants-guide/best-red-plants

I personally wouldn't go for rotala one tho. 

[JChristophersAdventures]

If you've ever visited the Tropica website (just for fun, as they sell to stores, not individuals) then you know it is impossible for me to pick 3. However, as it applies to my new tank project I am working on, I do have a top 3... Pogostemon Stellatus Octopus, Brazilian Pennywort and Java Fern... yes, I know it doesn't get more "common" than these, but they are some of the workhorses in the hobby... low light, excellent growing, low maintenance... you know the list. Plus they feed from the water column (at least they do when not planted in substrate). This is going to be a lower maintenance, no CO2 setup and interestingly enough... no plants in the substrate... only floaters with Java fern and mosses attached to the hardscape... super easy to vacuum with the Python! Yaaaaah!

 

[Mmiller2001]

On 7/10/2023 at 3:30 PM, Dork Fish said:

Is CO2 needed to make reds pop?

Yes

[Dork Fish]

Good to know, I was thinking about which mid-ground red plant would work best in a non-CO2 tank 🙂