My hexagon tank

[juggler]

Nice blend of colours. With open space for the schooling fish.
I espec ially like the MM growing like a bush. Cheers!

[benetay]

KF i think you're refering to the HM rather then the MM. His tank is one of the best so far well orgarnise and groom. Maybe the foreground should be covered up slightly more but maintaining the open space for the fish to school.

Alfa: maybe you should consider adding alittle more C.wentii i'm sure it will steal the focal point away. If you need drop me a pm or sms will harvast from my 6ft to pass to u.

[richy]

Hi Alfa

Well done! Very nice setup indeed.
Just curious, when you said that your plants are in plastic containers, are you referring to those that they sell the plants in at the LFS? Do you remove the wool that normally wrap round the roots?

Thanks in advance for sharing.

[bclee]

Very nice setup indeed.

How did you keep your A. ulvaceus so small?

I used to have one and the leaves keep growing and growing. The leaves are up to 60cm long. They drape over the surface of my tank and shade the rest of the plants. Finally, I took it out of my tank.

BC

[benetay]

richy i think he is refering to container meaning he took off the potted plants and plant it into plastic desert container when it comes to rescaping he will remove the container which contains the plant.

This kind of planting method is done widely with taiwan or the german which they lay tubs before adding gravel.

I think he does alot of maintaence to keep the plants in its' robust state which time is often constraining us to do so.

Alfa we will like to hear more from you!

[jacian]

Alfa, good work there. Nice and neat, the plants are very healthy too. You should consider sending the pic for competition too.

btw, isn't HM = MM??

[benetay]

Opps overlook sorry. [:] Hm = mm in which the last mucranthemoides initial.

[ryan]

nice tank!
btw whats the plant in the first pic on the extreme left?
does teo have it?

[Alfa Low]

Hi everyone, my planting method is similar to Dupla "Creative" which i use the plastic container(those hawker center one, but it is the short type)to hold base fert and gravel.

I realized that the maintenance of strong rooted plant such Cryptocoryne sp, Echinodorus sp, Aponegeton sp and Nymphae sp etc will also be easier with the method as we always encounter base-fert leaking when we uproot the plant. With plastic container, we can just simply take out the whole thing without disturbing the base-fert.

However, we have to ensure the plastic container we use is shallow(About 5cm, with 1cm base fert and 4 cm gravel) so as to prevent the substrate from turning black and stink.

That is also the reason why i can keep A.ulvaceus small as the plastic container limit the root growth of A.ulvaceus, furthermore i cut the big leaves almost every week.(Just treat it like Bonsai and you will get the same result) .Besides that please try to find A.ulvaceus with small tuber to prevent oversized specimen.

Jacian,
I am still considering whether i should take part in the contest as i still find some obvious defects in my tank (esp the Riccia has not fully grown yet[] ). Perhaps i will borrow the digicam from my friend again when everything has ready. By the way, i still have many things to learn from you guys.

The plant at the left is Blyxa Japonica which i bought it from Teo.

Benetay,
Thanks for your offer but i just give away a bag of C.wendtii recently as i also cultivate some aquatic plants outdoor .

[benny]

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On 11/8/2002 1:39:01 PM

Thanks for your offer but i just give away a bag of C.wendtii recently as i also cultivate some aquatic plants outdoor .

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Alfa has a mini plant farm!!!

Thanks for the Cryptocoryne Wendtii. Unfortunately, they are melting in my tank. Slowly, but surely. Sad...

[Alfa Low]

Benny,
You are welcome. Normally C.wendtii need to take sometime to settle down, so don't worry. Btw, avoid major water parameters changes (such as large proportions of wc, pH adjustment, changes in light intensity and spectrum etc)to prevent "C. disease" (melting).

Just my 0.02 worth.

[benetay]

Once cryptos get use to your tank parameters it'll be okay. I've done major water change like 80% and the crypto doesn't seem to be affected at all. Read up one of the website saying about crypto states that leaving the crypto untouch in a particular spot over years will show their true colours. It takes time for them to grow.

I believe having crytos that are already in the submerse form easier in the tank rather then the emerse form. I've got crytos from Teo too and they slowly turn into the submerse form. Given away some of them after they have change into the submerse form.

So far i guess the result is quite good only those who have taken my cryptos can tell us more about it.

Alfa i like the way you plant your plants just like RVA planting their crpytos in pots very nice. =)

[bclee]

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On 11/8/2002 1:39:01 PM

...

That is also the reason why i can keep A.ulvaceus small as the plastic container limit the root growth of A.ulvaceus, furthermore i cut the big leaves almost every week.(Just treat it like Bonsai and you will get the same result) .Besides that please try to find A.ulvaceus with small tuber to prevent oversized specimen.

...
----------------

I see. I will try it with my E. Ozelot to prevent it from growing too big.

Anything else to take note if I use pots?

BC

[bclee]

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On 11/8/2002 5:25:51 PM

I see. I will try it with my E. Ozelot to prevent it from growing too big.

Anything else to take note if I use pots?

BC
----------------

One more questions, will the roots of the plant "choke" itself and die by totally filling up the pot?

BC

[Alfa Low]

Benetay,
You can also try it at home. Btw Budak also cultivate some aquatic plants emerge in his kitchen.

Bclee,
When you find the root growing out from the gravel, it's time to separate the specimens. In fact, i left one pot of my C.wendtii untouch for almost one year (even the root growing out from gravel), the plant still doing well.

[tawauboy]

any idea why the c. wendtii root grows out from the gravel?
my c. wendtii does the same thing too.

[hoppinghippo]

Bene: your cryptos are doing fine! but like no new leaves tho, but the current leaves started to perk up after 1 or 2 days of planting and looks ok till now, I think cuz I don't have base fert so not much growth.

[stw78]

Nice setup...

[benetay]

Cryptos are base fert suckers i guess if you want more growth you can add in root monster to boost their growth for those amanzon plants i'll insert a few E15 into the substrade and you can see growth too. Expensive thou.