"Dutch something or the other" 120 Gal

[mincedmeat]

Still 3 Rainbows in there, cannot catch them easily.

I should get them in the day or two, I wait till night, then feed, then turn on the lights to blind them, then net them out.

Good strategy on netting the fishes. I usually have a hard time trying to get fishes out of my planted tank

[Plantbrain]

The Ludwigia inclinata on the Left is coming along nicely.
Another 2 weeks and it'll be where I want.

New E hydropiper in the front should be a nicer alternative to HC. Just planted, so it'll be a another 2weeks or so before I see how it does in the tank at 26C.

I could also go with "mini" Erio cinereum in that same spot also. Hopefully the mini will stay small if I do decide to go back to Erios anytime soon.

The downoi spot you can see now what I had in mind. Those are the scraggy runts of the batch that like last time, ended up nice and fat and worth 80$ for the group after 2 months of growth.

I might add the Bacopa lanigera where the Downoi is now, that's the idea anyways, the contrast between the Bacopa and the Ludwigia Red and the orangy inclinata is a very nice effect. I may end up placing the Bacopa in the rear some where off to the far Left also if I decide on the Downoi.
On the far Right, I'll allow the Starougyne "purple" to grow out some and then make a small patch of it to separate from the Tonina lotus blossom, the colors are a bit similar, so this will add some division between them.

I also have some Mini Pellia I need to see if I can add to help divide things between the groups, or I might add that to the wood somewhere. The Mini Pellia would also make an effective barrier between the 3 foreground weeds that tend to be bright green. Or dark green fingers of it tied to small short branches protruding into the bright green E triandra and E hydropiper.

Still waiting for the Bacopa lanigera to arrive, few folks have done scapes with it.

I'll raise the Bolbitus up so it wraps around the back of the wood a bit more, due to the timing on the trim, it looks bare, but as the Myrio matogrossense grows outward......it fills this space in pretty fast, in 1-2 weeks, it'll be packed and in need of a trim again.

[limz_777]

26 C is the normal temp in your set-up ?

what sort of temp range you get throughout the year ?

[Plantbrain]

The Bacopa lanigera will straighten up and become larger and whitish.

Just redid and moved some things, so it's cloudy.

[Plantbrain]

26 C is the normal temp in your set-up ?

what sort of temp range you get throughout the year ?

Some tanks are 31C, others are 25-26C. Does not matter much really.

[Plantbrain]

Nice new growth is coming in faster than I anticipated.

A little over 3 weeks worth of growth from the E triandra, not bad.

[chi_cha_ron]

whhooaa!! awesome set up!

[dc88]

WOW!

Glad to see the Master sharing his work after all these years Tom you are still ROCKING !!!

I think this is going to set a new trend. ADA style please step aside....

[shockedz]

any update on this?

[Plantbrain]

UG is starting to take and fill in. I'll likely Fissidens the wood next to the Ludwigia sphaerocarpa(incorrect:L. pilosa) on the Right side to add some more contrast there.




Prior to hacking today:





I likely will fill in the L. tornado in the rear more.
I have some R vietnam in the Right corner that's growing fast and will contrast with the R wallichii.
I plan on having a pretty good sized bunch/patch of L senegalensis and in about 1-2 more weeks, it'll be a massive sight.
The L. sphaerocarpa(old incorrect pilosa) is a fast grower and does very well, better behaved for some reason that in the past. Easy for me to propagate.
S. belem is a decent plant in the rear. Might try something else other than it however.

The Rotala "sunset" is now in the 180 Gal and I'll keep it in the back ground. It does very well and can grow and branch all it wants in there.




Need to add some more fish.

[Plantbrain]

Well, starting to get a little more organized at this point in time...........
Fix the corners and the rest is just trim and wait for the weeds to grow.











I will likely try some Rotala macrandra or some type similar in this hole in the corner.
In the opposite corner, I'll whack the Rotala wallichii and remove it. Then allow the Rotala " vietnam" to fill in.

The UG is still filling in and rooting well, it tends to grow up, then a bit ratty, needs a little trimming etc, then it starts to make a nice dense rug after wards, check back in 3-4 weeks and it should be nice and dense.
Many seem to think it's not doing well at this stage, but a little patience rewards well.

[14litre]

Thanks for sharing.

I just came across this thread and it's amazing & inspiring to see this tank from

to this:

How did you managed to keep each type of plants in its own line/formation?

[gid]

Wowwwwww...this is really nice and different from what I have seen so far.

But with some many stem plants, wouldnt there come a point when you need to trim all at one shot? How will you deal with the bareness then? This is always something I struggled with. Stem plants are too high maintenance; I'm not pro enough to handle the grooming needed.

[Plantbrain]

This is post trimmed, I left for 2 weeks and came back and hacked it.
They do not all grow at the same rates. So some are trimmed each week, some once a month, some once every 2-3 months etc.

[VSGenesis]

Wo!! the Guru on planted is back!!

Fell in love with the tank months months ago. Awesome colours but I believe the trimming can be a pain right? Looking forward to the "reward"

[Plantbrain]

Close up of the UG. You can see some older original leaves covered in algae buried in there, but all the newer growth is clean. This was without the aid of algae eaters that pick off such algae, eg a horde of Amano shrimp.
Every so often I'll run a high light tank without any significant algae eaters to see. I'll be adding a horde tomorrow, but it's nice to see what happens even without them.





The Couch view is a nice spot to look at the tank. I replanted some of the UG closest to you. I hacked the pantanal and the Tonina, but really hacked and spread out of the Ludwigia senegalensis. This next cycle will grow and fill in a pretty large space full of that, and I moved the Syn belem to the rear corner.
This pictures illustrates the main piece of wood pretty well.

Someone said like a T rex or a squid.



Close up of the mucky mulm corner. This is where all the filth will end up.





The right side again: once this grows out 1-2 cycles, I'll be reasonably happy with it.





The left side? Well, I need to try a few more things still.





I'm not entirely happy with the color of the Ludwigia sphaerocarpa. I need a nice shade of red, but this is not it. I can move this plant to the middle rear or the left corner so there's a home for it.
But I'd like a different contrast around that UG to balance the other reds which are stronger. As is, the color combo is very weak on the left side vs the right.

The rear left corn needs some work to make the plants I desire and the color and textures to come together.
I'm not willing to forgo the Buce's and put them elsewhere, they need to stay in this shaded region as understory plants.
I also still want to see them some also.

I will need to find a suitable piece of twisty wood to put back there to elevate them and then plant a bright red larger leaf or green thick bunch plant back in there.
I also have some Mini pellia that needs a home and the darker color against the UG will look good in the corner.
I also need to add some more ADA soil to fluff up the downoi and make replanting easier in a few of the rows.

[hiisoka]

what a beautiful mix of colours and textures!!!
very different from the "natural" type scapes that i love
but fantastic in its own way. Very inspiring!

[Plantbrain]

UG is starting to finally fill it and lay flatter. Many people kept pestering me with questions as to why it looked yellow etc.
I stated once it fills in dense, it's top greener leaves will flop over as it becomes a denser and denser mat.

Most never even get their UG this dense. And it's not yet done.
I do not trim it down to get it to stay short like this, it does this on its own. I'll trim errant runners, but that's about it and very very minor.

Other plants are coming along well enough. Be another month or two perhaps before it's in full bloom.
I'll add some more Fissidens to the branches here and there as it grows out also, some of the plants in the Rear Left corner need to grow in more.
I may also tie some Mini pellia to a few branches in the rear.

[globali]

Looks grate.

[BFG]

Plantbrain, have you ever thought of adding some sort of water movement device?