# My emersed project



## Brian Murphy

I've been waiting a few months to buy a new optiwhite tank since breaking down my 36" tank full of kribs, but since I've been started paying off my future wedding each month, the extra cash isn't easy to get hold off.  So I've decided to set up my 36" to grow emersed plants and see what happens, and while doing this I decided to set up a small 18" clearseal tank I also had lying around. 
I've set up the the 18" first without a heat matt and I am monitoring the temperature which after 3 hours with light on is sitting at 21c.  I've used water from my main fish tank.

Plants ordered so far are 

Tropica Alternanthera reineckii 'Mini' and Tropica Staurogyne repens both are 1-2-GROW! (Aquaessentials)

Ludwigia Arcuata (in vitro) and Utricularia Graminifolia (in vitro) (Ebay Seller Underwatergarden)


36" x 12" Tank
Lighting - Allponds 39w luminare
Substrate - ADA Amazonia
35" x 11" Heat Matt (ordered)

18" x 10" Tank
Lighting - 15w Arcadia controller
Substrate - ADA Amazonia

Here are a few pics of the initial set up before adding water, heat mats or plants. Will add more later.


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## Brian Murphy

I now have my first plants in a couple of days now, still have to get some wood and rocks into it as I'm gonna try some moss or riccia mixed with the yogurt aswell.  Just wanted to get started so planted them with little thought to a final scape and maybe flooding at some point.  Will wait until I have everything before doing my scape and moving things about.

So the plant list is as follows ....

Front Left - Staurogyne Repens
Middle Left & Front Right - Alternanthera reineckii 'mini'
Centre - Utricularia graminifolia
Back Left & Back Right - Ludwigia Arcuata
Back Centre - Rotala Indica (doing badly in my 5ft, so moved it here to see how it faired)


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## Alastair

Looking forward to seeing how this turns out mate. Are you keeping the top of the tank covered or leaving it open

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk 2


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## sa80mark

Very interesting.  Are they tropica 1 - 2 grow if so how many pots of Alternanthera reineckii did you use


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## Antoni

Looking interesting! I will definetely keep an eye on this one.
I would drain the water down to the substrate surface, as the plants in the foreground, which are in the water, will start melting...


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## Brian Murphy

sa80mark said:


> Very interesting. Are they tropica 1 - 2 grow if so how many pots of Alternanthera reineckii did you use


 
The Staurogyne and Alternanthera are Tropica 1-2 grow and the Utricularia graminifolia and Ludwigia Arcuata are similar (in vitro) from a Ebay seller but look the biz! You get loads of plantlets from 1 pot so thats all I ordered, it says on the tub 6-8 small sections but I got probably double that 



Antoni said:


> Looking interesting! I will definetely keep an eye on this one.
> I would drain the water down to the substrate surface, as the plants in the foreground, which are in the water, will start melting...


 
I was wondering about doing that as it will mean the water level at the back going down and maybe drying out quicker and the plants at the back suffering. The substrate is on its natural slope that is recommended.


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## foxfish

You need to keep the humidity up, the back wont dry out - nothing will dry out!
Lower the water level, seal the top & heat the tank to just over the ambient room temp to cause condensation inside the tank.


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## Antoni

If you keep the tank covered and the substrate saturated,  but nit covered in water, it should be ok. Because of the capillary effect the substrate will be damp at all levels. Hope this helps.


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## Brian Murphy

I've removed the excess water and as you say it should stay damp. I've cling film over it and the temperature is sitting around 26c during the day and I mist it twice a day with EI dosed and Co2 enriched water from my main tank. Any tips on how much light and heat from the mat I should be giving it?


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## foxfish

Yes, exactly like I said ... just above ambient room temp.
You can give lots of light for 12 hours a day or more if you get the humidity nice & high.

I grow mine outside or in the conservatory with natural  light & that is obviously very bright compared to artificial light & we have 17 hours of sunlight at the moment....


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## Brian Murphy

foxfish said:


> Yes, exactly like I said ... just above ambient room temp.
> You can give lots of light for 12 hours a day or more if you get the humidity nice & high.
> 
> I grow mine outside or in the conservatory with natural light & that is obviously very bright compared to artificial light & we have 17 hours of sunlight at the moment....


 
I had my smaller tank outside and it reached 45c lol


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## foxfish

Well you don't want to put the tank in full direct sun for all 17 hours this one is under a tree


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## Brian Murphy

Some of my plants seem to be dying off, turning brown .... any ideas?


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## Brian Murphy

It seems to be my Ludwigia Arcuata and Utricularia Graminifolia that are withering away ..... heres some pics


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## tim

Looks like they have been quite wet mate, maybe submersed without co2 has made them melt ? Try removing melted parts and leave the roots keep moist and you may get new growth.


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## dw1305

Hi all,
One of the problems with tissue cultured plants is the weaning period, but that looks like "fertiliser burn", this happens where there are a lot of salts are in solution in a small volume of water.

I think the problem is probably the ADA Amazonia, all the salts (fertiliser) it contained are now in solution in a very small volume of water. Plants will have different tolerances to high salt levels, but even resistant plants with very soft tissue (like "in vitro" plants) will burn as water is removed from the cells via osmosis. _Utricularia graminifolia_ definitely comes from low conductivity/low fertility habitats, and _Ludwigia arcuata_ may as well.

Ammonium NH4+ is a common cause of leaf burn, but K+ ions etc can also have this effect.

If you have a conductivity meter you could see what the conductivity of the water is, my suspicion would be that it will be on the milliSiemens scale (several thousand microS).

cheers Darrel


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## Andy Thurston

Stop using ei mix for misting theres plenty ferts in substrate and co2 in the air. mist it once a day, if that (the plants will give you humidity you need)unless the higher parts are drying out and it still looks a little bit too wet in places imo


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## Brian Murphy

Damn! I was thinking it might be to do with the ADA Substrate ..... nowt I can do then apart from stopping the ei mix misting. Any ideas as to what might do well in this high nutrient type environment?  Staurogynes seem ok and the Alternanthera seem ok but havent seen any big growth or anything, just gonna keep any eye on them.  Afraid to move them into my main tank as the kribs will munch them.  Time to clear the main tank out soon anyway.  Got loads of landscape rocks today for scaping


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## terry82517

I'm 2 weeks into my first dry start with HC Cuba and hair grass, things seem fine and no adverse affects with Amazonia (so far).
I have read a few times not to use EI water due to burning tho.
What temp do u have inside tank?


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## foxfish

I have grown dozens of emersed set up with Amazonia including the one pictured.
I never mist, just keep up the humidity, I hardy ever remove the lid or film as this just seems to interfere with the humidity levels & seems unnecessary!


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## Brian Murphy

terry82517 said:


> I'm 2 weeks into my first dry start with HC Cuba and hair grass, things seem fine and no adverse affects with Amazonia (so far).
> I have read a few times not to use EI water due to burning tho.
> What temp do u have inside tank?


 
I'll stop with the EI water but I have removed the Alternanthera and Arcuata to my main tank and just have the staurogyne in there now, might try some HC and hairgrass next


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## Brian Murphy

Thought I would update this a month on ....
I removed some staurogynes from my main tank that had basically died off to stalks and thought I'd see if they would come back to life and they seem to be recovering.  Also rescued some Hydrocotyle verticillata and it seems to be producing new leaves aswell.  Got a few mosses and other rescued plants in the tank aswell and will see how they recover.

Staurogynes a month on 



Hydrocotyle verticillata


Recovering staurogynes


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## Team Steve

whats your plan once things are fully grown? i've just started a small one to see how good growth I can get, then maybe move them back into the tank.


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## Brian Murphy

Not as yet, I am wanting a new optiwhite tank but with a wedding to pay off every month its not easy having the spare £200 for it.  I just couldn't wait to start a DSM, so will probably move everything over to the new tank and continue the DSM but with the mosses and yogurt mix going on hardscape and a proper layout and design. Just not sure as to when I can afford the new tank and new filter that will give me x10.  I just keep trying to pick up at least one thing each month.  Also got a juwel rio 400 on the go and wanting to rescape that with a decent substrate that will also cost me overt £100.  Ah ... come on lottery numbers!


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## Brian Murphy

Just a wee update on things .... hit and miss with some plants but the Staurogyne repens have done really well and I'm ready to trim them anyday now.  Here are a few pics of the staurogynes before trimming ................

1-2 Grow Staurogynes


Rescued Staurogynes form my 5ft tank


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## Palm Tree

Looking good, if you feel you have too much Staurogyne I’d happily swap for some different Hygrophila varieties, Hedyotis salzmannii, Hydrocotyle tripartia and a couple of other miscellaneous stems that I have got growing emersed to add to your collection.


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## Brian Murphy

Palm Tree said:


> Looking good, if you feel you have too much Staurogyne I’d happily swap for some different Hygrophila varieties, Hedyotis salzmannii, Hydrocotyle tripartia and a couple of other miscellaneous stems that I have got growing emersed to add to your collection.


 
I might do at some stage but not until after the first trim and they settle in just in case it all goes horribly wrong. Thanks for the offer


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## Brian Murphy

So today I finally decided to 'paint' on the moss/yogurt mix using Fissidens and java moss mixed with 100ml of tank water and a good blob (teaspoon) of yogurt.

First I chopped up the moss with a razor blade


The Yogurt I used containing L. acidophilus 



Approx. teaspoon blob of yogurt mixed with 100ml tank water



Tried mixing with hand-held blender but it stopped working on me (she's gonna kill me lol) so had to take the moss out and chop finer by hand


Then I painted on the mixture to my redwood.  This isn't scaped as yet, just wanted to get it all growing.


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## Brian Murphy

I done my first trim today of the staurogynes and I replanted the tops to fill out the substrate and I'm starting to get some ideas as to what scape I'm going to go with when I fill the tank.  I will be adding some rocks to the scape and moving the redmoor into place from where it is now so any ideas are welcome. Here are the latest pics.


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## Erythrocyte

Looking really nice 

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## Ben Hooper

Can I see a close up of the moss on the redwood?


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## Brian Murphy

Ben Hooper said:


> Can I see a close up of the moss on the redwood?


 
I'll try and get a decent pic over the next couple of days when I'm rescaping and before flooding


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## sa80mark

Hi murf 

How did you find the Alternanthera reineckii 'Mini' ? Im wanting to try some emersed any tips or anything you noticed about it ?


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## Brian Murphy

sa80mark said:


> Hi murf
> 
> How did you find the Alternanthera ineckii 'Mini' ? Im wanting to try some emersed any tips or anything you noticed about it ?


 
The 1-2 Grow! stuff when first planted seemed to be affected by soil burn I think as some leaves started to die off so I moved them to my main tank and they died there anyway as it isn't maintained properly as a planted tank anymore. I did however replant a couple of back into the emersed set up and they seem to be doing great again. So I would say that I should have just left them alone as they where probably just adjusting to new surroundings, go for it anyway and maybe you will have better luck than me. Other factors that could affect growth is substrate type and light strength. The 1-2 Grow! stuff is great though, got more ordered for tomorrow


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