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Japanese Hairgrass lawn is nice... how about more Nana?
I decided to try my hand at a planted apisto tank instead of a breeding setup, so i got a 1ft cube to try it out =)
Tank Specs
Size: 30cm x 30cm x 30cm
Lighting: 18W PL (1 bulb)
Filtration: Eden 501 with carbon taken out and peat put in
CO2: None (using Seachem Flourish Excel as a carbon supplement)
Fertilization: Wondergro Macro+ and Micro+ using Tom Barr's EI for low tech tanks method (1/3 usual EI dosage)
Substrate: Gex dark green packaging
Flora: Here's where I need your help =)
Fauna: Apistogramma agassizii "Tefe" wild (1 pair)
Oto (zebra or normal depending on stock availability) (1-2)
Marbled hatchetfish (3)
Sparkling gourami (6)
On to the pictures!
here's the substrate with the bogwood i got from NA:
With nice granite rocks put in:
Anubias nana "petit" tied onto the wood:
do you think i should tie moss to the ends of the high branches to break the edges or is the curved branchy effect nice?
i intend to have a japanese hairgrass lawn, and am still thinking of what to use for the midground and background...perhaps Didiplis diandra or Ludwigia arcuata? I have both in other tanks now and i can use trimmings to start a bush at the back right corner.
all comments and suggestions would be appreciated as this is very much a work in progress =)
Japanese Hairgrass lawn is nice... how about more Nana?
in my haste and stupidity, i forgot to boil the wood before tying the nana petit on =( now i'm stuck with wood that i have to weigh down using rocks....how long do i have to submerge them before they won't float anymore?
(P.S. Gex soil rocks...30 seconds after filling water and it's almost clear)
I'm using the same soil for my new 1ft cube tooOriginally Posted by illumnae
depending on your luck (or lack of)
for those kinds of wood, it could be anything from 2 days to 2 months
i once soaked my bogwood in boiling water inside a pail daily for more than a week straight before it finally fully submerged
haha good news is that i see bubbles emerging from the bogwood. i guess that means air is being pushed out?
anyone can help me decide on mid and background plants? =)
IMO, the rocks should be closer to the bog wood.. and get 1 or 2 rock to surrond the wood as well..
as for plants... background E.tenellus or blxya japonica will be good.. foreground can try Chendol plant or APP..
Oh yeah... Blyxa Japonica is nice
yup. haha i had bubbles emerging from mine daily for like more than a week when it was under soaking , regardless of whether it was being under boiling water or normal tap water
hope it works for you and it gets submerged quickly
i don't suggest stem plants due to the need to frequently trim
might disturb the pair a little too often for comfort
haha hopefully it stays under soon...i need to get the tank set up fast
Good point about the stem plants...i guess maybe i'll use Crypt. x willisi for the midground near the wood and blyxa or Crypt. wendtii as a background?
For your layout now, I feel that simply 2-3 more bunches of nana "petite" on the bogwood with a lawn of japanese hairgrass will look super solid. In this way, the nice rocks and bogwood will become the focus of the tank :-) Just my two cents' worth :-)
Is this the tank for your old project which I seen that time?
haha thanks for the feedback alan =) i'm hoping for some more plants to act as hiding places in case the male apisto is too aggressive, hence my desire for mid-background plants...but i'll definitely take your views into consideration =)
nope this tank is a completely new project. the one you saw before was a 25 cm cube which now houses a pair of wild bettas. you can do a search for my 25 cm cube journal to see how it ws progressing
personally i'll take the cryptshaha hopefully it stays under soon...i need to get the tank set up fast
Good point about the stem plants...i guess maybe i'll use Crypt. x willisi for the midground near the wood and blyxa or Crypt. wendtii as a background?
i think they look nicer!
ok now to find crypt x willisi =)
ya i forgot to add that i also agree on having more bunches of nana petites
may be you might want to add some numbers of smaller rocks, either bare or tied with some (spiky/xmas?) moss around the bottom branches of the bogwood
helps to break up the shape a little so that the bogwood looks like it stretches up from the ground naturally
right now the bottom sawn off branches makes the bw look like it sits on the gravel a little unnaturally
i thought of the same thing =) but i thought that the jap hairgrass in the final scape will cover the sawn off bits and make the transition less harsh...i didn't want moss messing up the grass as that's what happened in my other scape...moss grew too long and bits got mixed in teh grass and looked like hair algae!
i bought some US fissiden to tie onto the wood and add some contrast to the nanas, so it'll be fissiden higher up and nana petites below, what do you think about that? =) if more nana petites are still recommended i'll try to drop by NA tomorrow to get more
No harm adding 2 more pots of Nanas Petite
update:
I tied some fissiden on the bogwood, but i'm now starting to think i didn't tie enough as the bogwood still looks slightly bare. it's too late to change now though.
I also moved the scape around abit and added 2 more rocks in to weigh th bogwood down. these 2 rocks now feature into my scaoe as well so i won't have to mess around with it in future, and the bogwood can take as long as it wants to fully sink!
plants i ended up getting: downoi around the base of the bogwood to hide the part where the wood meets the soil (hope they survive), japanese hairgrass as a foreground and the back right corner has a bunch of Crypt. wendtiis (don't know what typeas Chan from NA couldn't tell me). I'm intending to get 1 small red tiger lotus at the back left corner to complete the scape - hope they will grow to 20ish cm without huge leaves...i'll try to train them
pictures tomorrow =)
Argh! All these descriptions and no pix? QUICK!!!
sorry acclimitizing fish to put in there now, so no pics still =) i've stolen a small red tiger lotus plant from my 4x2x2 high tech set up, snipped off the larger leaves and planted it in...hope it grows!
Some objective feedback on Gex soil (despite me being a rabid supporter of them!):
the dark green packaging (= ADA powder) is not as good on clarity as the light green packaging (= normal size). i guess that's to be expected since grain size is alot smaller and thus there would be more suspended particles, but i'm still disappointed with it given that i have been extolling the virtues of Gex soil's clarity...i guess it only holds true for Gex large grainbut of course my standards are high. i get clear water 1 day after planting...it's just i'm so used to <1 hour clarity that this leaves a sour taste in my mouth
that being said, i will now go to the virtues of the dark green packaging: it is an absolute JOY to plant in this soil. unlike the large grain, i have no need to manouveur my tweezers around and release slowly to be able to insert plants into the soil. this one is just grab, stab, release and move on to the next bunch. the small granules really hold the plant down very well and even when planting hairgrass, not a single strand escaped up.
ok that's it for now...pictures to come soon, i promise!
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