2 feet tank with Tom Barr's Method

[joydiv]

HI
Read about the setting up without water first to enhance/ hasten plant growth. Decidied to give it a try.
This is after about a month



Comments welcome.

Will be topping up water after CNY.

[zoombee]

any pictures of your initial setup? it would be useful to do a before and after comparison. Your water level seems to be higher than adviced by him, as I have read him mentioning that the water level should be soil level and not above that. I could be wrong

I am considering to apply his method to my new tank as well and would be interested what type of plants will work well emersed.

[joydiv]

Sorry I do not have any picture of the prior setup. To give you an idea of plant growth, I started with half a pot of hair grass, 2 pots of crypt, one pot of E tenellus, 1 pot of Jap hairgrass and 1 pot of MM. The Growth of E tenellus was really fast. With in 2 weeks, it covered most of the foreground.
I prefer having some water above soil so I do not need to worry about the soil drying up.
Good luck.

[hebi]

its even worse if you have a layer of water above the soil as that will mean invitation for algae because no plants to compete with it for growth, so either fill it all the way or just at soil level. if you worry about the soil drying, why not use a foil-wrap to cover it?

[joydiv]

So far there has been no algae issues with the water. I do prefer with a small amt of water, Previously, plant growth has not been good until I added the water.

The plants out compete the algae here cos, the nutrients is taken via the roots and there is no CO 2 issue.

Do give it a try.

[Thirteen]

the hairgrass seems to be doing well too. Any dosing during the one month? Keep us posted of the observations when you add water ya?

[tcy81]

do you spray water on the emersed leaves ?
won't the leaves dry up ?

[joydiv]

The aquarium is covered so there is no danger of the leaves drying out. The humidity is high enough. But at the initial stage for the first 3 to 4 days, I did spray the leaves twice a day.

For the base, I am using normal fert, those slow release sticks for house plants. So far no issue.

Did put in some HC to try for fun, only a slow amt but they were over run by the hairgrass.

Will update after topping up with water.

[torque6]

i did my jap HG emmersed version as well for fear of them being uprooted, they seem to be growing well but most of them were turning brown with new young shoots sprouting up at the same time.

[joydiv]

The older leaves are probably immersed ones and will die. The new leaves will grow stronger. If possible, keep the soil wet with a small layer of water and leave it in full morning sun, in no time, they will grow to cover the entire pot.

[torque6]

i 'm moved them to submersed form now, been 2 weeks already , old leaves dying but new and green ones coming right up, so its a good sign.

joydiv,

are you using the normal HG or the jap variant ? Ive read some where the Japanese type are super low at startup , but grows very wild after it becomes establish.

[joydiv]

I have both variant, I prefer the Jap ones, once establish they spread like fire.
Hope urs will grow lush..they do prefer CO2 when submersed.