# Aquatic Jungle



## Kogre (26 Feb 2014)

Hi all.

A few years ago George Farmer posted a guide on setting up an underwater jungle aquarium (which can be seen here).  His setup was a high tech setup that I absolutely loved.  I liked the layout, the textures and the colours, and I plan on replicating his effort to a bigger scale in a tank approximately 730-ish litres with one major caveat; I want to do it low tech.

The main thing I need help with is the plant list.  Can anyone tell me whether there would be issues with growing any of the below plants in a low tech setup?

Microsorum pteropus
Bolbitis heudelotii
Vallisneria americana gigantea
Crinum natans
Crinum calimistratum
Aponogeton boivinianus
Aponogeton crispus ‘Red’
Echinodorus ‘Ozelot’
Echinodorus ‘Rubin’
Echinodorus quadricostatus
Sagittaria subulata
Hygrophila pinnatifida
Anubias barteri var. barteri
Limnobium laevigatum

If there are likely to be issues with any of the above plants in a low tech setup, can you recommend other large leafed plants with similar colouring that would thrive in such conditions?

Some of the plants are supposed to be rooted to wood which I would have like to have recreated, but as I'm going for sand-capped potting soil substrate with hardly any water column dosing imagine the plants would suffer.  Could I stick root tabs between the wood and the roots to keep the plants fed, or would nutrients begin to leach into the water column and potentially harm the fish?

Would using potting soil be reason not to use rocks in the hardscape?  I want to avoid making anaerobic pockets without having rocks sat directly on the glass.  Maybe use foam or polystyrene on the glass, lay the rocks out then fill with soil and then cap?

The lighting I'm looking to use are four of the TMC 1500nd tiles which would sit at 32-33" above the bottom of the tank (the tank is 30" high) with low intensity from the outset that I'll eventually begin to scale up until I start seeing negative effects on the plants.  I plan on making use of a siesta period too for an increased viewing time in the evenings and CO2 accumulation.

Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers.

H


----------



## BigTom (26 Feb 2014)

Those plants should all be fine. I wouldn't worry about the epiphytes, they're quite slow growing and should get all they need from the water column (half the plants in my low tech soil tank were previously fans and suchlike and did fine). 

You may want to consider occasional fert dosing if floating/epiphytic plants show show any signs of nutrient deficiency (search on here for Darrels 'duckweed index'). 

I  also wouldn't worry about placing rocks on sand really, it's never been an issue for me in more than 4 years of soil tanks. You could mix some washed grit into the soil base to improve oxygenation.


----------



## Tim Harrison (26 Feb 2014)

What Tom said...but everyone's tank conditions are different so you can only suck it and see. There is a wealth of info on this forum to help you, not least Tom's Bucket O' Mud, linked above, and Alastair's various offerings, the latest of which is  this 1300 litre chocolate lake | UK Aquatic Plant Society. Darrel (dw1305), one of our resident experts, has much to offer on the subject too. And if you haven't already done so check out the Tutorials section for more on the bare bones of how to get started.


----------



## Kogre (26 Feb 2014)

Thank you, *BigTom*.  Your Bucket O' Mud is great inspiration and I've just started to follow your exploits.  I'll read through the thread tonight.

Cheers, *Troi*.  I've read a couple of tutorials (one of which was written by yourself) and loads of articles in order to better prepare for this challenge.


----------

