# My first - "3 of life" :)



## zozo (10 Oct 2015)

Finaly! A journal..  hope you like it.

how did it all started? it all began with purchasing a eledged Pygmae Nymphaea via ebay. I kept in the house for a while in a bowl of water. I didn't realy suite this lovely plant and after 25 years out of the hobby i decieded to step in again and to build an aquarium around this Nymphaea. And wanted to give here a proper stage to shine and put here as focal point in the spotlight. No idea how it would turn out in a small 60x30x30cm tank and don't have not yet very much scaping experience.

So i found me some suitable mopani at the lfs and found me some rocks in the forest and started building on her a stage. I found a piece of green slate of witch it's color intrigued me very much. But soon i found out didn't have enough of it, because i needed rocks to secure the wood. So i needed to find me some rocks that fitted to wood structure and go with the green slate. Actualy this was harder then i thought and came home with some light colored riverstone in the right shapes. and it turned out to be this.

Lily's stage 









So far so good, the wood stood stable and that was my goal. at this time i didn't realy see the stones not fitting eachother, but it was all i had.. So i went on with the planting for the dry start.





While working on that i was missing something, the whole scape was to flat, so of again to the lfs digging in the wood boxes. And found my heights so far...

Here i did put lily for the first time on her stage to see how it fits.. Slowly my invisioning started to get shape.




Mean while i needed to work on my filtration and heating and get my Co2 gear up and running. Now i'm not particular an LFS fan. I'm rather responsible for my own disasters than put my faight in Eheim and followers.

So time enough to find and build me a customized system for my own..

A Sunsun Prefilter canister 2.5 liter with a DC 12 volt waterpump 600l/h to be regulated.
(never mind the little gray one, that's another story)




Here it is regulated, the voltmeter is my speedometer..  The switches bellow are lights and Heater.



For the Co2 i went on with the famous FE setup.




Installed the PH controler which i found for a lauch at a garage sale and did put the probe inline.
since i liked my tank clean of any electrical equipment, builded my own inline heating you see hanging below the pH controler.



The one in the link is already replaced with a new build in 120 watts the 80 watts went to someone else in the family.

Mean while added some more plants to the tank and filled it up and made a test run.




Time to work on the lightfixture which is to be found here, but in time already changed again and again.
At the time i'm building me a even stronger hanging lite fixture with an added full spectrum unit also from acrylic..  Almost done but still waiting on some ordered parts.

All is running on 12 volt with the use of a 450 Watt ATX power supply which you see hanging in the cabinet above the filter. It's running since april like a charm without any issues. I keep an close eye to it and do not for see any issues in the near future. I'm confident i builded a better quality then available in the LFS. 

but after some time those off whit rocks started to bug me and other experienced scaper also pointed them out as very distracting. I covered them up with wood and smaller piieces of green slate. Some plants didn't realy make it all the way as expeccted and i replaced them. Like i made a mess of my HC carpet which became monte carlo by now. It's still in there but not as carpet. 

Anyway, finaly after 5 moths changing and adding and some algae battles it turned out become this.









So i find my title 

1- Lily on stage
2- in front of her fuly packed and emersed growing tree




3- next to here floating Wabi Kusa


 

*3 of life 
*
Further specifications are:

plantlist by now (but still expanding):

Eleocharis acicularis 'Mini'
Hemianthus callitrichoides Cuba
Micranthemum sp. Monte Carlo
Anubias Nana Petit
Riccardia chamedryfolia- Mini Pelia
Vesicularia dubyana Santa Claus ?
Taxiphyllum 'Flame'
Fissidens fontanus
Utricularia graminifolia
Rotala Mexicana Goias
Bucephalandra Sekadua
Pogostemon helferi
Bolbitis heudelotii
Rotala (?)
Bolbitis heteroclita difformis
Bolbitis sp. 'Buea' (Didymoglossum erosum)
Pygmea Nymphea Rosennymphe Bonsai
Lilaepsis Brasiliensis
Staurogyne repens
Leptodictyum riparium
Potamogeton gayi
Rotala Indica 'Bonsai'
echinodorus dschungelstar nr 2 kleiner bär
Lomariopsis Lineata
Zosterfolia heternata
few unknown moss sp.
Anagallis tenella (bog pimpernell)
Peperomia Rosa
peperomia Rotundifolia
salvinia
duckweed

Substrate:
Akadama
Colombo

Hardware:
Green slate
Mopani

Parameters
pH6.4
kH5-6
Gh6
Temp 25c

Lifestock
7 Corydoras pygmeas
5 Otocinclus V. 
11 Hyphessobrycon amandae
5 Amano Shrimp

It all still needs a few months to go.. So enough to keep it continued and you updated with more pics in more detail.

I hope you liked my kickoff so far, it's a start.. Can't say i haven't tried.

Do you have any feedback, recomendations, critique, questions.. Anything and all?
Don't hesitate to shoot..  I'm glad to hear it all.. 

Thanks..

(Pfew now that's of my chest.. )


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## EnderUK (10 Oct 2015)

Chaos, I love it.


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## parotet (10 Oct 2015)

Love it Marcel... And I feel very jealous seeing how skilled you are with electronics. All you have is DIY!

What's your experience with Anagalis tenellus? I collected mne in a wetland but it didn't adapted to submerged conditions, it only did well in emersed setups and in my pond.

The kind of tank you have needs a lot of patience but after some time they are marvelous: beautiful, simple, low maintenance, great water conditions... What more can you ask for?

Jordi


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## Greenfinger2 (10 Oct 2015)

Hi Marcel,Nice scape wonderful plant health   I simply love the emersed growth


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## zozo (10 Oct 2015)

Thanks Ed, Roy, EnderUk and Jordi..  preciate you like it.. 

@EnderUK..  Chaos! Indeed, the best word to discribe.. It was on my mind as title as well..

@Jordi.. Low maintenance not realy, i work daily on it to keep it in shape, not all plants grow equaly fast and or in the shape i like.. i'm daily sciccoring it like a bonsai tree. And have many small cavities, crack and holes to inspect and clean out. It's packet with a lot for the little  42 liters of water it has. Planning to swap some things that don't work out as expected. Still having some minor staghorn issues lurking around the corner, this youll see when i go realy close up. I'm afraid i never totaly get rid of it. when i comes to that i actualy don't like the quality of the new camera i got. Now i see every darn hair that doesn't belong..  But indeed this one takes a lot of patience, it's a challange, a jump in the deep after such a long time. Still strugling to get the potamogeton gayi and UG astablishing, but slowly getting there.

Anagalis tenellus, wonderfull little plant, found it by change at the LFS.. Got it also submersed in my little low tech test tank, doing ok, bit leggy, think because of the low light, but propagating. Maybe it's temperatur sensitive submersed, this tank is around 20-21c. Got it growing in 2 W-K's and there it grows realy good and gets lots of tiny branches. You're lucky to have found it in nature, we have it on the red list and hard to find. There is no more room left or else i would try it in the High tech tank. But have no idea where i should put it. So i did put it emersed.



Greenfinger2 said:


> I simply love the emersed growth


Comming from our W-K master himself, this is a great compliment.. Thank you!!


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## Martin in Holland (11 Oct 2015)

The back light does wonders for this tank.


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## zozo (11 Oct 2015)

Indeed Martin  I'm still playing with that, to see what i can get out of it.. this is 2 lights, a warm white from above and a colored from below.



The possibilities are almost endless

from the early morning honey dew




to the late evening crimson sky




And everything in between.. 

Still waiting to receive the order.. Next is trying color from above and color from below, also for moon light replication at night. If it after testing looks promesing with the simple controlers build in color schemes, than i want to automate it with a multichannel programable controler to fine tune the colors softer so it be less in your face like this.


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## zozo (11 Oct 2015)

Thanks Guys for the likes..  here are a few more shots..

One of Buce with its impressive rootsystem creeping down, next to Lily smack dab in the midlle. Next to buce you see 2 very (very) small leaves of a mini bolbitis. I just did put a little rizom under the buce's root. The idea was great in my mind having a small fern there. But i didn't know in reality this fern is so slow. I guess if doesn't get it motor runnung soon, my scape probably will have old tank syndrome before it reaches a respectable size.  It took 5 months to grow this tiny bit of leaves. Hopfully it starts to grow faster somewhere in the near future.




The submersed part of that (not realy) floating piece of driftwood. In the left corner there is still some room left. I'm waiting to get my hands on a few cuttings of some Java fern mini petit to put there. This piece of wood is fully packed with UG, in a way it loves to be up there and grows like crazy. I use trimmings of this UG and try to get it astablished submersed in the substrate. This is slowly taking shape, but a difficult plant down on the bottom for sure. Also the Rotala mexicana goyas grows on this wood, thought it would be grown emersed by now after months. But no go it just refuses to do this, it keeps itself below the water surface. Hard headed little bugger and a difficult plant at the top. 




Here you see what i mean with the downside of a better camera.  You see all, also what you dont want to see. You see? With the naked eye you nearly don't. So it's cleaning and taking a photo  and cleaning and tacking a photo  it never ends. So for now you have to do with this dirty pic.  Sorry... Fortunately the dirt is dead, but still looks nasty.


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## Edvet (11 Oct 2015)

Al looking very healthy, grats!


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## Greenfinger2 (11 Oct 2015)

Hi Marcel, Fab photos  I know what you mean take a photo and it shows every little thing  Even thought you look at the scape there is always something your eyes miss 

So So Slow mini bolbitis  It takes forever. Love the buce 

Great plant health


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## zozo (11 Oct 2015)

Thanks Ed, if i can keep t up like this it's finaly getting somewhere.  It was quite a strugle to get it this far. I hope i can keep my plant list complete, till now all still is in there. 

Hi Roy, thank you..  Maybe we need some goggles.. 



I have no idea why that Mini B. eventualy dies all old leaves off on me in my water all the time and than still comes back. It does it in both tanks.. Im not going to buy new one again. Maybe it needs some established roots first. The one on the pic is from a piece of rizome with some roots without any leaves. I hope it keeps going..  We'll see.
i got 5 or 6 of them in there and they all died off during transition and come back like this..


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## zozo (16 Oct 2015)

Little update  extended my plantlist again, still had some spots i wasnt happy with.. Thanks to Greenfinger2 i am now..
Added Crypt Parva in front of the driftwood with the bolbitis. And a crypt Alibaba brown  in the somewhat shaded corner behind the UG.
The UG i;m still strugling with to get it going its addapting very slowly.. If i ever get it going, but im not yet about to give it up.




And finaly found my long sought-after Java Fern Mini Needle. Took a long time to find it..  And found it by chance when i went looking for something else. Happy i kept that spot open for it all this time..
What goes around comes around.. 








Im still not done yet .. There is one more tiny little beauty on my whishlist i definitely want in there.. Already found it and got it waitin, i know now where i want it, but not yet figured out how i'm going to fix it.. 

Oh scrapped the Little Star from my list.. This plant realy wasnt happy in my tank. I took it out.


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## zozo (16 Oct 2015)

It's with this little Daimond in the rough i'll think to finish with adding plants.  Finaly got my collection complete together now..

On this pic you probably think what the hell is he talking about.. 


 

Its this Bucephalandra motleyana Mini Catherine  i guess it will take many months to spread and carpet over the rock.. But once it wil do that i think it will be a very stunning and special rock. It was just to expensive to buy a bunch, so i need to have patience..


 

This size is about as big as it gets, so it realy needs to propagate and spread..


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## zozo (18 Oct 2015)

Took some pic seen trough the side panels of my tank..  I like to share.. Something i elaborated on long before, in my very first Hello from the Netherlands introduction post. That this tank actualy came to live with an idea i have on my mind for something different i like to do in the future. Building a small dimension scape viewable from all sides.
And because i was out of the hobby for so long with very little scaping experience i wasnt convident enough with my idea to begin with.. So as a learning curve and pratice i tried to integrate this idea a little into this scape.. That's why the tank stands free on a table away from the wall and kept 3 sides in view.. My hardscape is more placed in the midground and kept it away from the side panels more or less with the 1/3 rule in consideration from every view side. This to achieve the goal that the tank/scape can be watched from multiple sides. usualy this is done with rather large tanks, but i want to do it in nano style.

Also my plantlist is generaly choosen to get to know them and how they could do in this plan for the future. Still i have a few plants in there not fitting  this idea in the placement they are in now. Still i wanted them to try as well.

Anyway these are the side views.. And from what i see now i kinda think i worked out pretty well, actualy im i bit sorry this tank is only 30 cm deep 10 cm more to slope the substrate back down to the other side woul have been realy close to the final idea i have.  but i had only this standard size to work with.

Right side panel view




Left side panel view.. 




another right side view just because the embers are posing so nicely.. 




If you like to share some thoughts on this idea you're very welcom..  I realy  like to know..


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## zozo (20 Apr 2016)

It has been a while, lots has changed, but updates comming soon  Gona wait for these babys to come out, took some time.. But almost there..


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## Greenfinger2 (20 Apr 2016)

Hi Marcel, Cool


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## zozo (20 Apr 2016)

Hi Roy, thanks, indeed.. And Exciting too..  Few hours later..  they go fast once broken open. Have 14 knots total.. And i have no idea how long such a flower lives and if it's wait for the rest.. But there are more to come, would be awsome to get all 14 flowers opened..  Need a tank glass cleanup anyway before i start shooting. 

Nice curly flower..


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## Greenfinger2 (20 Apr 2016)

Hi Marcel, Wow Exquisite flower


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## Tim Harrison (20 Apr 2016)

Looking great all round Marcel...and as for the flower exactly what Roy said - exquisite


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## zozo (20 Apr 2016)

Thanks guys..  I hope to show you a few more flowers and how the rest of the tank developed in a few days.. Well developed might be the wrong word..  Had some set backs which still show and swaped some plants that didn't realy worked out with what i wanted for them in this setup. The new ones are still aclimatizing.. But everything still in there for a year now did realy well so far. This tank is a perpetuum experiment instead of a real planned scape.  Stepped away from the low flow concept, as hard headed as i am, i tried for a year, but it's running on the edge all the time in high tech.The  Rhizoclonium kicked my butt hard.. Can be done, but to intensive on the maintenance.


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## alto (20 Apr 2016)

Extraordinary (as expected!) 


(I refuse to even consider your DIY talents )


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## Nelson (20 Apr 2016)

Great tank Marcel .


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## zozo (20 Apr 2016)

Tanks guys.


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## Martin in Holland (21 Apr 2016)

I remember the time that fish tanks were closed and no plants should grow above the water, times have changed and this is a great example of why it should have done this earlier.


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## zozo (21 Apr 2016)

Hi Martin, yes it is rather funny how trends devolve and evolve back. If you search for old 18 and 19 century aquarium drawings and lithography you actualy find only open top setups with emersed growth, more paludarium than aquarium. Probably was just normal and the only option to get light in there. Since the artificial light era aquariums had to be closed for some reason, probably a trend set thing to achieve things previously impossible having submersed growth only. An active group of trend setters deviding the hobby into terrarium paludarium, vivarium and  aquarium and spreading a certain phylosophy how it should be setup. All the aquarium books i grabed from the library as a kid i indeed do not remember 1 showing open top setups.. And never showed an aquarium plant in it emersed form.. As a kid the information that i actualy was dealing with swamp plants rather growing emersed never came to me..  Tho i had one cold water open top myself in the garden back in the early 70's. But still doing this tropical didn't occure to me..

It might be internet and the eas of spreading information, showing people other options and possibilities.. I guess Amaono probably did open top with emersed growth when we still where in dipers. As for me back then i had to get the idea to buy expensive magazines to be confronted with other trends, which i never did because as a kid i rather did spend my pocket-money on my tanks than on magazines. So i didn't buy them didn't read them, only had a brother in law who also had a tank, for the rest there was nobody else to share ideas with. Now internet is the magazine spreading new ideas via social media. 

For me it was internet and it's forums like UKAPS bringing me back to the hobby after 25 years and build some like this. Never would have gotten the idea without it i guess and still was stuck in the old fashion thinking of tank with a lid i still knew from the old days which i was rather done with.


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## zozo (27 Apr 2016)

Wel this afternoon i was playing around with the camera and trying some video editing..  Well it is far from the best video ever, but it's a start.. And since the tank is a bit of a recovering from a major algae outbreak and did i destroy rather a bit to much carpet which still needs to grow back.. So i still have some time to work on my camera techniques for the next update.. Anyway let me bother you with my first 5.30 minute tour the force around my tank. Next one will be better with more lush substrate growth and shot in the evening. 


Here are some stills that go with it..


 

Kleiner Bähr is taking me for a ride, it seems to be spars with opening here flowers, she opens only one at the time which lives about 2 days and then she opens the other. So a picture with a stem full of flowers seems to be out of the question. But they still are beautiful..


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## Greenfinger2 (27 Apr 2016)

Hi Marcel,  Stunning


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## zozo (27 Apr 2016)

Thanks Neil and Roy..


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## BexHaystack (27 Apr 2016)

Seriously impressive


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## Berlioz (27 Apr 2016)

Fantastic, Marcel!


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## zozo (28 Apr 2016)

Thanks guys..


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## zozo (30 Apr 2016)




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## Greenfinger2 (30 Apr 2016)

Hi Marcel, Wow Wow simply Exquisite flowers


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## Nelson (30 Apr 2016)

Beautiful .


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## Martin in Holland (3 May 2016)

Another great picture


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## Richard H (3 May 2016)

Really enjoyed reading through your journal. Wish I had your DIY or aquascaping skills. The LED light fixture looks brilliant.


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## Andy D (3 May 2016)

Looks great!


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## zozo (3 May 2016)

Well thanks a lot all, realy great you're enjoying it..  Keeps me goin..


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## zozo (13 May 2016)

Kleiner Bähr keeps comming..  Has a new plantlet on the flower stack..




And still flowering..




And made a second flower stack as well.. Where does it end..




Also something new comming up.. But not yet..


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## Lindy (13 May 2016)

Stunning slice of life.


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## Nelson (13 May 2016)

Great emersed growth .What are the new flower spikes from ?.


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## zozo (13 May 2016)

Thanks Lindy and Neil.. 



Nelson said:


> What are the new flower spikes from ?.


Rotala Indica..  It's going to be purple..


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## zozo (22 May 2016)

Just freaking a bit with my camera, with shutter and diafragma.. Well conclusion i definitively need extra light.. It's work in progress..  But might as well just show the results so far. That's the best i could get out of it with the light available at the time..

D11 - 10/13 - iso 400

Anyway the new echinodurus flower stalk was the trigger to try..







And the little rooting new plantlet on the old flower stalk..




And this is with daylight available, in the evening i can't get this without extra artificial lights, even with daylight i get to short..


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## Eduard18 (22 May 2016)

Beautiful emerse growth! My Echinodorus Reni used to send flowers stalks above the water level, but never leaves; good job ! 

Envoyé de mon SM-G935F en utilisant Tapatalk


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## zozo (22 May 2016)

Thanks Roy 


Eduard18 said:


> Beautiful emerse growth! My Echinodorus Reni used to send flowers stalks above the water level, but never leaves; good job !



Thank you for the compliment, actualy it aint so hard to make them do that.. Just shade them and feed them with extra roottabs, it will be forced to grow towards the light in this case emersed. As you see it comes up behind the rest of the emersed growth. Which hangs as a canopy over the echinodorus. But i guess it can do without being shaded as well.. Feed it heavily and then it'l grow large and first it'l stick out some submersed leavetips, don't trim these away and when they start to dry out just let them be.. The plant is triggered that way to shoot out emersed leaves which are different as you see less sword like and more oval on a very long stem. Then it'l stop making submersed leaves and shoot only long stems up which leaf only unfold once fully emersed. By that time you can cut off all submersed left overs wich have dried out tips anyway. I have 2 of them placed next to eachother, i try the other to go back to fully submersed again. So i will have both forms together.

The submersed part of the tank is heavily trimmed and reconstructed lately, unfortunately with slow growers. Takes a while before al is grown back.  Then i'll take some pics..


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## Matt Havens (22 May 2016)

Looks amazing!



Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk


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## zozo (22 May 2016)

Thank you Matt..


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## GHNelson (23 May 2016)

Don't know how I missed this journal definitely must need these.......
.

.....great work, lovely pictures...and great DIY too boot!
Excellent stuff Marcel!
hoggie


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## zozo (23 May 2016)

Thanks for the likes guys.. And thank you very much for the nice reply Hoggie..


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## zozo (11 Jun 2016)

Echinodorus kleiner bähr is going mental and reached an impressive 70cm by now. And i have the idea it's not about to stop, right in the middle you see a smaller leaf, that's a new young one not fully develloped and already about the same height as the biggest. I can't keep up with it, i was hanging the lights bit higher every week, but now i have to stop doing that or else i wont get enough anymore for the tank. It's already getting pretty dark in there with all the shading from the emersed growth.. That's why i swapt all the rotala's out an dreplaced it with some crypts.. But it's getting difficult to take pictures from the submersed part. Have no light left for that. At least not with the tank lights..




Also that kleiner bähr baby is growing like crazy and got a second one comming. I have no idea what to do with them for the future, eventualy they will become to big to stay there, i guess they go on the window sil..







There's a little pink spider decided it to be it's home. You see it as a little pink dot on the second leaf from the left. First time ever i've seen a pink spider..




Even the snails come out and like to explore the emersed growth.


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## Nelson (11 Jun 2016)

Fantastic emersed growth .It does look quite dark in the tank.


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## zozo (11 Jun 2016)

Nelson said:


> It does look quite dark in the tank.



Thanks Neil..  For HD photography it is realy dark in there, nearly impossible without additional light, which i unfortunately do not have at the moment. But the hair grass carpet is still booming, so for that and viewing it in real time it still is sufficient.. The only plants not cooping with it were the rotala's. had to take 'm out, except the Mexicana goyas, this one dissapeared by itself.. Pitty actualy kinda liked that one the most, still have very litlle in there, but i'm afraid it's not going to make it.


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## Chris Jackson (12 Jun 2016)

Beautiful! The syringe is a nice touch as well, adds a bit of intrigue...


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## zozo (12 Jun 2016)

Thanks Chris..


Chris Jackson said:


> The syringe is a nice touch as well, adds a bit of intrigue...


Couldn't live without it..


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## Marius_20 (12 Jun 2016)

Wow. You have an amazing tank zozo. I like your emersed plants. They will move to your room in the future


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## zozo (12 Jun 2016)

Thank you Marius, They certainly will, probably sooner than expected.. I took kleiner bähr baby out today and i was just on time, it almost rooted into the substrate from the top of the tank. Darn that thing is growing!  Or maybe just trim off the long roots and put it back on top for a while..  Dunno yet.. Have to look at it for i while and scratch..





Here also some Rotala Indaca fllowers.. Notice in the back the Aeschynomene fluitans closed it leaves because of me fiddling around there on the echinodorus.


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## Mannic05 (13 Jun 2016)

Love this tank, great to see your diy skills. Do you also have an topic where you build your LED lighting.


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## zozo (13 Jun 2016)

Thanks everybody for the likes..



Mannic05 said:


> Do you also have an topic where you build your LED lighting.



And thank you Mannic05, unfortunately i never documented this build. But it actualy is relatively straight forward and all is screwed together. from acrylic, alloy smd led strip, led strip U profile, with a saw, drill and a M3 and M4 tap.. It hangs at the ceiling with a standard AquaMedic Aquafit 2 cable set. In this topic i placed some detailed pictures of it.


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## Mannic05 (13 Jun 2016)

Thanks Marcel, where do you buy your led strips.


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## rebel (14 Jun 2016)

Marcel, this is an epic tank but it really requires a DIY Kessil type of light to highlight areas of it. Time for you to get into action..... [ I am going to copy..  ]


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## zozo (14 Jun 2016)

Mannic05 said:


> Thanks Marcel, where do you buy your led strips.



I searched internet for the best specs i could find at the time and always go for China wholesale suppliers. These lights came from AliExpress.. They do free shipping and the strips are actualy rather cheap. I get 1 meter strip for the price i would pay for the shipping cost billed in my own country which is € 7 for any small package not fitting the letterbox. Which is rather a rip off IMHO.. I do not know about other countries and import fee and vat. But here we have a margin of € 22 anything lower will not be billed  because the paperwork is more expensive than profit, probably. So i always order in small batches not higher than € 22..  It's an automated process every package is scanned as a single order  so if i have to spend € 90 and i can spread it over 4 packages i would be stuppid not doing that at a 21% tax rate. That's the tip i can give with it, find out if there's an import fee margin and play with  the rules to ypur advantage..


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## zozo (14 Jun 2016)

rebel said:


> Marcel, this is an epic tank but it really requires a DIY Kessil type of light to highlight areas of it. Time for you to get into action..... [ I am going to copy..  ]



Thank you rebel, yes i agree this tank would need spotlights. I integrated this idea into my later low tech tank. And also this works pretty good. This build is yet not realy finnished i still need to build an automated control for the lights. For every single spot, but since every spot is AC 220 volt this is not realy difficult but rather expensive. I would need 5 x DC controled AC dimmer wich again are on a multi channel DC controller. I can build such a dimmer for € 23 a piece, the multi channel controller is about the same price. So that would € 125 only for the dimming part. I rather not spend so much for it. Might just take the leds spots apart and see if i can run it on low power controllers instead.. Still researching the possibilities. So for the time i'm controlling it manual, but spot lights are indeed the way to go and give much more possibilities and also for ambient night lighting it is an awsome effect..


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## zozo (11 Jul 2016)

Little bear is unstopable and keeps throwing flowers around.. 3th flower stack already.. 








The young plantlets on the flower stacks end also grow steadely.. 





Actualy a bit to steadely, i did cut one away, it was rooting into the tanks substrate with 20 + cm long thick roots and pulling itself under i had to pull it up every few days.
So i took it out and since it completely developed emersed, i try to keep it growing on in a south american jungle terrascape in the livingroom.  See how it holds on.



Also this plantlet is already bussy making flowers.. Unbelievable fertile plant it is..

Flower stack 1




and flower stack 2





Now i was also growing a single stem of Pogo stellatus broadleaf, which was dying in my low tech. Didn't want to trash it and removed to the high tech in higher light.
The way it developed i saw it probably has the same potential as the echinodorus, a very sturdy stem capable of supporting it from submersed to emersed. And it's already over the top filling up the spot where the echinodorus plantlet stood.. Looking at it's crown leaves not drying out within a week, it takes it well and probably is going to transition, maybe with emersed site shoots.. Still a bit to soon to say, but it's definitely looking promising. Some Pogo flowers above an open top would be top notch.. They are awfully beautifull..  Lets go for it!!




Whish me luck..  Thanks


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## AnhBui (11 Jul 2016)

Beautiful. I start feeling jealously   ah and good luck


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## zozo (11 Jul 2016)

Thank you @AnhBui.. 

For the ones curious about what happened to Kleiner - Kleiner Bähr.. It moved here where i still had a free spot to share.. Next to some other plants from the same natural region. Literaly they are all from and in the same boath...   I realy hope it takes the change and survives the move, it stands in peat soil now... I had bad luck before repotting plants and not surviving the transplant shock.. I might feed it with some tank water it originated in to get it to addapt easier.









But this is actualy something for the emersed section and if it ever gets a hold and grows healthy i might update it there..


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## Tim Harrison (11 Jul 2016)

I've somehow missed the updates on this...fantastic journal


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## zozo (11 Jul 2016)

Thanks Tim!  Comming from you means a lot to me..


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## Greenfinger2 (11 Jul 2016)

Hi Marcel, Great plants and photos mate


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## zozo (11 Jul 2016)

Thank you Roy..


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## Nelson (11 Jul 2016)

Awesome emersed growth .


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## zozo (11 Jul 2016)

Thanks Neil..  It indeed improved OK.. 

October last year.. With mainly some ricia and UG, the rest is still tiny.. Ricua and UG are probably outcompeted, at least not realy to see anymore, got to dig realy deep to find some of it back.


 

Today.. Note the anubias nana petite, still petite as can be, they grow faster submersed.


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## zozo (23 Jul 2016)

Little update on the pogo erectus broadleaf, as expected with only seeing it developing a rather thick stem, that it would be able to support itself above a tank planted 20 cm deep.. At first it needed a little help to erect above the surface and now 12 days later it's still healthy and even grew a few centimeters. This plant is extremely hardy and takes the transition like a champ, it came back with emersed growth rather quick.. As far as i can tell it's a perfect candidate for open top tanks with emersed growth, its a survivor.


 
Tho it imediately started shedding all its submersed leaves, it's the erect stem in the back, nothing there anymore.
Unfortenately i only got room for 1 specimen, but could look stunning if with a bush and keeping a part submersed as well




Sorry for the dirty outlet..  Now lets wait if it ever will flower..


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## PARAGUAY (23 Jul 2016)

Forgiven for the dirty outlet .Looking great this tank


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## Nelson (23 Jul 2016)

Great stuff .Flowers look beautiful,so hopefully that's coming .


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## zozo (23 Jul 2016)

Thanks Paraguay, it's more i can't forgive myself..  Looks awfull, but still to lazy sometimes..

I hope too Neil, thanks.. I've seen them flowers in Wabi Kusa, so it's not impossible.. I just do not know the (light?) requirements for it. In WK it's something to play with above a tank i rather stuck and can play that much with light.. It's wait and see if it will as is..  We are half way already..


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## Daveslaney (23 Jul 2016)

Fantasic tank and journal. Real credit to your skills and knowledge


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## zozo (23 Jul 2016)

Daveslaney said:


> Fantasic tank and journal. Real credit to your skills and knowledge



Thank you Dave..  Skills and knowledge, well a lot goes from the heart without realy knowing, call it gut feeling gathered over the years and love for plants. Also a lot are just coïncidental succeses of which i realy didn't know where it would go when i implemented the idea. And i tried quite a few.. Also had few failures ofcourse, can't show them because they are not there anymore. But all in all, it's still a huge gain.. Experimenting and learning was the whole idea behind this tank, start with the plants rather than the scaping. I love to let mother nature just go her own way and see with what scape she comes up with, then you only have to provide some bones, the dressing is up to her. This is what i do in the garden and it seems it can pay off in an aquarium as well. This is a more is more concept i  wanted to know if it can work... 

So the credit actualy goes to mama nature, i'm just a simple clerk giving her some suggestions and a helping hand.. 

And thanks evrybody els for the likes.. 

Did some rearanging today which made me look where i didn't look for quite some time.. I had to laugh..


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## Jack Reilly (24 Jul 2016)

Wow, this tank makes me wish i could shrink myself and dive in and explore.


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## zozo (7 Aug 2016)

Unfortunately my laptop with photo editing software crashed it's hdd, need to repair it. So for now  i'm stuck for some time without it on anothe rnotebook.
But yesterday left the lights on to take some pics from the submersed part.. Because pics see more than i do.. And now i see the tank needs a heavy trim, but i still do not realy know where to start..




Those black and ember tetras do realy well together.. Since i added the blacks the embers are less shy and more outgoing. The school together and embers copy the blacks bold behaivor..




The emersed Pogostemon stellatus is doing OK, not yet flower time, also in the WK they are without.. 


 

And i definitely need a pair of glasses, i just have problems to admit to that.. The Buce m. catherine mini is growing realy wel.. And with the naked eye it looks rather clean to me.. And then it show this on th picture..  


 

I should take pics more often, or indeed maybe buy some spectacles.. 

What i also notice, the hairgrass, it stopped growing upwards and now is forming dense cushions with entangled leaves holding eachother down forcing to grow horizontaly. It's like it doesn't only need a trim, but also need to pull out of the substrate to thin the carpet out.. It's suffacating itself..


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## Nelson (7 Aug 2016)

Proper jungle .


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## zozo (7 Aug 2016)

Yes it took a while, like that potamogoton gayi, it had troubles for months and not doing much but melting.. And then all of a sudden it explodes and goes mental.. Since it is propperly rooted it pops up everywhere.


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## zozo (7 Aug 2016)

Here is how it looks at a lazy sunday afternoon... I guess this also is part and why not journal that a bit too.. Looking at a scape from another perspective.. 


 

Started thining out the Hairgrass, jeses Chr.. that stuff is driving me nuts.. It forms massive dense clumps of roots in the substrate, if you start pulling it there is no end to it. This is what i all pulled out and still i have areas needing some more pulling.. This is more painstakin than my girlfriend pulling her eye brows. For now i stopped disturbing and do the rest nex week.. Need to clean this mess all up and plant some back.. But over all it still lots of areas looking way to dens. 


 
Well i guess i'm going to have a hair grass carpet in my low tech too. Not going to trash this...

Here some shots from above in an drained tank.. The buce sekadua, almost ready to pop the surface, this plant grew realy fast the last 2 months.. I must be doing something it likes..




Can you imagine this was a small anubias petite plantlet with maybe 6 leaves a year ago?? 


 

A nice skirt of HC at the vertical driftwood.. 


 

At the back of this wood is also a little buce the same as the big one, but its competely overgrown and doesn't realy get a chance to grow. But wait, it's finaly fighting back after a year. Here you see it's still curled leave poping out. 



All growing on a 25 cm piece of driftwood. So dense i do not know where to start to trim it.. Well should i? Till now i only pulled out yellow leaves.  That Java Mini needle is also exploding lately, also needs a trim.. Its funny to see those slow growers, explode now and then.
Periodicaly grow fast then slow down again.. Gathering energy for the next run??


 

Here is the emersed anubias petite also took a year dormancy, but finaly starting to like it..  BTW.. Find the snail eggs.. Do you see them?? They also lay there eggs emersed. Smart little buggers.. There also is some hairgrass popping out..




Well that's it for now, tank is filled again, need to do some puzzling on the hairgrass and clean that up...


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## Nelson (7 Aug 2016)

Great pics .
The buce sekadua leaves look big .


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## zozo (7 Aug 2016)

Nelson said:


> The buce sekadua leaves look big


Yes, but it's planted 10cm bellow the surface right in front of the outlet, where it constantly pounded by the flow.. The leaves are about floating at the surface now.
It strugled for a while and melting a bit, bbut the last few months it realy exploded, propagated few new plantlets from the rizhome and grows one leave after the other.

I guess it's the High flow and lots of light, + co2 and ferts ofcourse.. The small one at the back of the wood, gets much less light and no flow, it still tiny, just now since shortly it popped out a leave out of the bush and is there since April last year..  Both are same age..


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## Nelson (7 Aug 2016)

I've read Buce like high flow.
Unfortunately mine are low light,low flow and no Co2


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## zozo (7 Aug 2016)

Same as my bolbitis heudelotii, same story  placed relatively close to the surface in this high tech tank it grows like mad 20 cm leaves one after another have to keep trimming it and in the low tech, at the substrate level a rhizome with one tiny leaf grew only 2 leaves 4cm tall in 8 months.


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## zozo (31 Aug 2016)

Pogostemon stellatus is doing realy good and getting bigger than i expected, this plant needs a little help by giving it some support to break the surface.. But as you can see it holds on like a champion and very willing to grow above a small aquarium.. If it ever will flower, it is possible, seen it in Wabi's, just do not know the requirments for that, so if it does in this condition i'm holding it. We'll see.




Here a size reference, it stands about 15cm above the water level. With its roots 25cm deeper in the tanks substrate and some hanging in the water column (can't say aerial roots, how's that called actualy for aquatic plants??. The stem made a nice curl like a pig tail if it was straight it would have at least 10cm more height.




Did some heavy trimming on the Bog pimpernel and this si now making place for the Mazus reptans hanging over the side of the tank now. It has the same grow characteristics a nice low creeper, just a little bigger leave, a bit shaped like an oak leaf. Also cut off some plantlets from the Echinodorus flower stacks, but still got 2 left.
I think Kleiner Bähr is about done flowering, but far from done with getting bigger




On the rights side stump also trimmed a lot of bog pimpernel and HC off. Kinda felt sorry to cut it all away, i distroyed more than planned. But found a nice surpice, the little Buce in a rather nice condition. It was completely covered for over a year by the HC haven't seen it since. It didn't grow much in size but stayed healthy and even propagated some new very small plantlets on it's rhizom.. Remarkable tough plants almost in the dark for a year and still alive and kickin. Also deep down on that vertical driftwood bellow the Buce i found new growth from the Bolbitis sp. Buea (Didymoglossum erosum) i also planted dover a year ago, tought it died off long ago. It's to small and to far hidden away to get on picture. Will be another nice surprice by the time this tank is done and i'll break it down. Who know's what i find back.  But this little fern is still there and planted it last year april..


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## zozo (7 Sep 2016)

Planted some Mazus reptans in the emersed bush to see what it will bring.. 


 

Funny little creeping plant, likes to grow very good and easily brings lovely flowers indoors.




This plants is actualy originates from the Himalayan mountains.. Since it requires rather wett conditions i suspect it is found marginal growing close to mountain streams and lakes. It even has very good submersed potentials as it doesn't mind to do that into the pond..


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## zozo (16 Sep 2016)

Here we go again..  Must be getting boring, but not for Kleiner Bähr she doing the Polonaise .. It keeps on goin, second generation flower, this one is from a plantlet on the old flowerstack. I wonder if this flowerstack also makes a plantlet and that one a flowerstack again..  


 



 

Mean while pogostemon stellatus is growing bigger and bigger reaching a 60  cm total height now, i had to hang the lights up again and it's also making new side shoots..
Will it ever flower?? As far as i could find out others reported it flowering at 10 to 11 hours light. So that's point blank what i have all the time, but yet doesn't show any signs of it.. 


 
This one doesn't mind, these are getting also bigger every day.. Went from 3 fingers to 4..


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## Doubu (16 Sep 2016)

Wow... It looks beautiful. May I ask what is the plant on the right side? And is the carpeting-like plant on the left side marsilea?


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## zozo (16 Sep 2016)

Doubu said:


> Wow... It looks beautiful. May I ask what is the plant on the right side? And is the carpeting-like plant on the left side marsilea?


Thank you..  There is a lot going on above this tank.. So it's a bit guessing for me which plant you are excactly refering to..

I guess the right side you refer to the little creeper on the wood with the little round leaves? That's bog pimpernel (Annagalis tenella)
Left side carpetting? I guess you refer to the Mazus reptans  which also makes that lila flower or maybe also the bog pimpernel they are both growing there and showing clearly in that pic.. Non of both Actualy resamble marsilea, but it the chaos of leaves i can imagine you don't have a clue what you're looking at if you don't know them. 

I hope i guessed right, if not you have to point them a bit more specific..


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## Doubu (16 Sep 2016)

zozo said:


> Thank you..  There is a lot going on above this tank.. So it's a bit guessing for me which plant you are excactly refering to..
> 
> I guess the right side you refer to the little creeper on the wood with the little round leaves? That's bog pimpernel (Annagalis tenella)
> Left side carpetting? I guess you refer to the Mazus reptans  which also makes that lila flower or maybe also the bog pimpernel they are both growing there and showing clearly in that pic.. Non of both Actualy resamble marsilea, but it the chaos of leaves i can imagine you don't have a clue what you're looking at if you don't know them.
> ...



Thank you! Going to google those now...


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## Tim Harrison (16 Sep 2016)

Looking fantastic Marcel
Somehow I keep missing this...even though I'm supposedly watching it


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## Nelson (16 Sep 2016)

Stunning,as always .


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## zozo (16 Sep 2016)

Tim Harrison said:


> Looking fantastic Marcel
> Somehow I keep missing this...even though I'm supposedly watching it



I have that too, not getting alerts to topics i follow.. Guess that's a server hickup, hence that server has to swallow some traffic, it's the busiest forum i've ever seen. So never mind.. You found it anyway..  Thanks for the liking it.. 

You too Neil thanks and everybody else ofcourse.


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## Greenfinger2 (18 Sep 2016)

Hi Marcel,Just Catching up mate   Wonderful journal An Amazing Scape stunning plants and flowers.


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## Manisha (18 Sep 2016)

Looking really good...as always!


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## zozo (4 Oct 2016)

Little update on the Pogostemon Stellatus, also a plant realy surprising me and exceeding my expectations completely.. Never thought it would grow into this from a submersed form planted into the substrate of the aquarium at a 25 cm depth.

The tip is a bit burned because it grew against the lights and wasn't stopping, and kept growing towards and pushing itself into the light fixture i could't guide it away from it. Obviously a plant never can or will grow beyond it's lightsource..




I couldn't go any higher with it without compromising the tank to much, so i had to install an extra light above the main tank light fixture to make grow beyond the main light source it has.. Now it has a an extra 25 cm of clearance again and an extra light to enjoy.. 




What i also find most remarkable there is a new plant comming all the way up from the substrate and it grew a stem with a crown only without any submersed form leaves and this crown reached the surface by now and is about to pop.




This plant reacts the same as the Echinodorus did next to it. It stops making submersed form leaves once it is emersed, even new young leaves developing submersed and with this pogostemon even new stems are already in emersed form.. It realy has a leafles stem all the way from the substrate up with only this crown of leaves at the surface never even didn't notice it beeing there till it was already where it is now and there it is growing some meat and strength to come out. A week ago this crown of leaves was twice as small. So the mother root does not grow both forms at the same time once it is emersed..


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## Berlioz (5 Oct 2016)

Wow, this has gone bonkers since I last saw it. Looking great, Marcel. Love the echinodorus flower and the pup.


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## Halley (5 Oct 2016)

Love this style of aquarium - wish I knew how to do it myself.  Do you spray the plants with water to keep them moist?


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## zozo (5 Oct 2016)

Berlioz said:


> Love the echinodorus flower and the pup.


Thanks..  Already did cut 2 little plants off and planted them in pots.. Still 2 left on the mother and a 3th is comming. If this goes on i do not where to go with them.



Halley said:


> Do you spray the plants with water to keep them moist?


Thank you..  No actualy i do very little spraying on the emersed part. The Echinodurus i've seen growing in a pot on the window sil. This plant can take it very good only leaves which are several months old slowly dry out. But the older it gets the beter it takes. The Pogostemon also takes it very good and doesn't mind.. Tho the tank evaporates a litre of water a day, it seems to be moist ebough for them..


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## SeanOB (6 Oct 2016)

I love your aquarium Zozo! I think it's perfect, like a cross section of a tropical pond  
keep the updates coming


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## zozo (4 Nov 2016)

Omg..  Here we go again a sequel of "I think i'm in love"
http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/i-think-i-am-in-love.37099/

And this year it is 2


 

Flower buds of the Nymphaea Rosenymphe Bonsai.. Actualy never thought it would get it to flower again since i upped the flow in the tank.. And it didn't till, now.. What i find most remarkable that the first flower last year also came in november.. Now this little lily got me thinking, why again in november?? Is there something in the daylight making it trigger to flower? It recieves little daylight since the tank is in a room with several windows, tho no direct light but still and the tank lights are unchanged in periode. Strange wouldn't expect daylight having effect, but coinsidence it flowers in the same month? I noticed last year daylight having effect on the flower, because it closes at night and the flower started to close at daylight dusk despite the tanklights still 100%..

All this makes me think there must be something in the daylight the plant reacts to and something artificial lights does not have.. Or is it carcadian rythme?? It al makes no sence to me, outdoors they flower in the summer in door in the winter?.

Anyway exciting times ahead.. If all goes as planned i might be able to show 2 lily flowers within 10 days.. 

Besides the lily the little Buce mini Caterine Mot. also desided to join the party and is making a flower bud at the same time.


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## zozo (21 Dec 2016)

Did some WC and cleaning to day and thought it might be time for some updates.  I changed a bit and took out all the carpet hair grass and Monte carlo. I kinda didn't like it anymore and this tank is so cramped up it was a pain in the but to maintain it. Tank to small or to large hands, anyway it's out and i like it a lot beter. 




Also the HC that was growing emersed on the wood in the right back corner is taken away. It now reveals the little Buce that was overgrowen by the hc for more than a year. It is the same age and kind as the large buce in the middle..




Remarkable it survived for so long completely hidden and overgrown and it grew a fat little rizhome and just few little leaves.




The echinodurus is unstoppable, it keeps sheding old and growing new leaves and keeps happily flowering in the same rate. Also a remarkable hardy and vertile plant.


 

The pogostemon stellatus is going completely mental and growing a bit out of proportion, never expected it to grow so large.




But whats intersting is the new growth it is forming at it's base at the water surface. Here you see some new emersed and bellow it still some submersed growth. The submersed growth is not from the mother stem, this is rooted into the substrate. Whats already emersed i going to trim in time to get a better proportioned denser shrub above the tank..




This tank is about to near it second year.  And changed a lot over this time.. It actualy changed enough to try to keep it running and see how all that changed is going to turn out.




I shot from above for once without the lily blocking all the view.. No idea actualy what happened with lily.. She stopped growing floating leaves and sheded all the old ones.. Now is bussy making very tiny submersed leaves close to the substrate at the time.No idea what she has in store for me and if it ever comes back.


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## Greenfinger2 (21 Dec 2016)

Hi Marcel, Stunning mate


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## Tim Harrison (21 Dec 2016)

Looking great
I think the aspect ratio of a 60x30 tank works well.


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## zozo (21 Dec 2016)

Thank Tims..  Yes indeed it is a very pleasant dimensions to work with. At the beginning i thought it needed to be more shallow for this concept.. But that's maybe only in the way we perseive it.. Minus substrate it only has about 15 to 20 cm in the back, compaired with nature it's very shallow. I bit wider would be welcome, like 60 x 40 -(45) x 30..


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## zozo (21 Dec 2016)

Thanks Roy..


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## Nelson (21 Dec 2016)

Greenfinger2 said:


> Hi Marcel, Stunning mate


What he said .


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## zozo (3 Jan 2017)

Today some rigorous cleaning.. Had to, already had surface skum for weeks and wondering where the hell it came from. Obviously is was from my piece of driftwood with marginal vegitation.. It hasn't been removed for over a year, lots of duckweed stacked up behind it and accumulated a lot of old dead melting vegitation in it.. And this was constantly poluting my surface water.. So i had to take it out, give it a trim, search for old melting leaves and flush it out above the sink.. And it was necessary, a lot came out.

Well can't say it didn't grow.. A huge bush of M. pteropis Mini Needle.. 




And a nice Anubias nana.


 

This is how the tank looks without it.  And the first time for me too, to see the Echinodorus Kleiner bähr in it's full glory without being hidden behind the fern etc..


 



 



 
Looks like a complete different tank like this..


 
Looking at it like this for the first time kinda gives me new ideas too.. Dunno yet.  But i like it..


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## Greenfinger2 (3 Jan 2017)

Hi Marcel, Wow wicked growth there mate  And the scape looks wonderful after the clean up


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## Alexander Belchenko (3 Jan 2017)

Love your bar (bear). Can't say it really kleiner though. It does not look like small I mean. ))


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## zozo (3 Jan 2017)

Greenfinger2 said:


> wicked growth there mate


Thanks Roy,  That Java mini needle realy goes mental in this tank, that black blob in the middle bellow the Buce is a simmular large bush of the same fern. Started about a year ago with a tiny cutting. It gets relative high light and co2.. In the low tech it is a rather diffucult plant staying very small and very slow. 


Alexander Belchenko said:


> Love your bar (bear). Can't say it really kleiner though. It does not look like small I mean. ))


Thanks Alexander.. I didn't expect this either, all i did is never trim its submersed form and suddenly it changed grow form into this.. It's about 60 cm at the time i guess about the limit with what i can give. Me too i wonder how they got to the name Kleiner..  The other name Jungle star is more suitable in this case. It is the start of this jungle..


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## st.john (3 Jan 2017)

that is stunning! the tank looks far bigger than it is!


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## George Kulangara (3 Jan 2017)

Good job with this set up! Looks fantastic. Keep us updated


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## zozo (3 Jan 2017)

st.john said:


> that is stunning! the tank looks far bigger than it is!



Thank you.. It's net 42 litres, rest is 14 litre substrate, wood and few rocks.. 



George Kulangara said:


> Good job with this set up! Looks fantastic. Keep us updated


Thanks.. I will..  almost 2 years old now, still not bored with it.


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## George Kulangara (3 Jan 2017)

Hey zozo,

I am planning on setting up a 120 litre tank with some emmersed growth. Which aquatic plants have you had success with in terms of growing out of the water?


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## zozo (3 Jan 2017)

George Kulangara said:


> Hey zozo,
> 
> I am planning on setting up a 120 litre tank with some emmersed growth. Which aquatic plants have you had success with in terms of growing out of the water?
> 
> ...



There are quite a few, look at the emersed growing section of this forum, there you'll find lots of inspiration.
My personal experience with plants doing very good emersed, i mean rather low humidity and lower room temperatures in wintertime.
As above Echinodorus, i got the Dennerle Jungle Star Kleiner bähr, but have seem others on window sils too.. Pogostemon Stellatus, Hemianthus callitrichoides, lilaeopsis brasiliensis, Utricularia graminifolia. Above another tank i got Hygrophilla Lancea and Hydrocotyle Tripartita. Rotala indica also does good.. Cyperus Helfiri i know for sure also isn't that picky..

But as said, there are more in the emersed growing section i didn't try myself yet..  You also can look in the Wabi Kusa section.. But also many plants need a very slow transition to emersed growing in lower air humidity.. But what  summed up above are realy easy (for me)..

If you have a local shop selling pond plants, have a look there too, you'll be surpriced how many tropicals you'll find we also buy in the lfs for aquarium.
For example there you'll maybe find Myriophyllums and rotalas, bog pimpernel, small carex, penny wort and many other bog plants more hardy and easier to grow than regular aquariumplants.


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## George Kulangara (4 Jan 2017)

Thank you, I will check that out. I'm hoping to get my hands on a few of those plants over the next week. I will try and find the kleiner bähr because that plant looks absolutely stunning! I'll keep you updated on my progress 


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## Martin in Holland (5 Jan 2017)

Total different look after the big clean up, looking good as always.


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## zozo (12 Dec 2017)

While doing some cleaning today i realized i didn't update on this project for a while. Actualy i'm neglecting this setup a little, since i'm planning to refurbish the kitchen all this is standing in. But somehow i yet didn't come to that. But definitively needs to be done. So this tank is just standing there waiting to be stripped.A lot of plants i took out, reverted it back to low tech quite some time ago. Reduced the light to more than 50% and hung it much higher to reduce the BBA at the slow growers close to the surface. It kinda worked well.




 
What caught my eye and thought you might find interesting is the almost 3 years worth growing of Anubias nana petite at the left hand side.. It all started out with one little pot and grew into this without ever prunning it, looking like far over 20 pots by now..


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## Tim Harrison (12 Dec 2017)

That sure is an impressive clump of Anubias 
What you planning on doing with it once you've stripped the tank down?


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## zozo (12 Dec 2017)

I'm not sure yet.. My initial plan when the kitchen is refurbished with a new counter and floor etc. i would like the build a minimaly 80cm high (closed) paludarium with a 30 cm shallow water area in the niche which is in the wall behind this tank now. Since all fish in this tank are south american spp. and need a new home i want them in there and the paludarium emersed and submersed exclusively SA plants. Not absolutely biotope, but sort off more aimed towards the emersed back wall section with mosses ferns and orchids. 

So for this new idea the Anubias wont fit in. I didn't yet think of it what to do whit it. Maybe reuse it with wood and all, make a super small Anubias cube on the kitchens counter and grow it on. Or maybe just play santaclaus and give it away. Dunno yet. 

For the Echinodorus i'm thinking of a glass cilinder vase with substrate on the bottom and grow it on as is on the dining table.


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## Edvet (12 Dec 2017)

Maybe use it in a tank like this guy has at 33.40


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## zozo (12 Dec 2017)

Edvet said:


> Maybe use it in a tank like this guy has at 33.40



yeah!! Something like that..


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## Macman6 (21 Mar 2018)

Great Journal this.


could i ask what the plant front left is here?


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## zozo (21 Mar 2018)

thank you.. It's been a while it looked like this. I'm not sure which plant you're excactly refering to.. 
I asume the left for ground with the feathered leaf that's Aeschynomene fluitans (Giant sensitive fern)
Even more to the left, small round leaf is Anagallis tenela (Bog Pimpernel) 
Big leaf at the top left is Echinodorus Kleiner Bär, or Jungle star No2 from Dennerle..


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## Macman6 (22 Mar 2018)

Thanks, i meant the feather leaf, although i am planning on using bog pimpernel too.. just have to find somewhere that sells them now...


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## zozo (22 Mar 2018)

Macman6 said:


> just have to find somewhere that sells them now...



I guess it works the same in UK.. Wait a few more weeks and hop into a pond shop well stocked with pond plants.  Pond plants are meant for in the garden ofcourse. And pond shops start booming when weather starts booming and everybode dives into the garden. In general last nightly frost in our region is avaragely end of may. Around this time pond shops start stocking and displaying more outdoor plants.

If they do not have it in stock they can surely order from their wholesaler. It shouldn't be hard to get, all tho regionaly a rarety and on the red list, it's still an indiginious plant sp. Tho the ones in the shop are cultivars, depending on where you live you might be able to find it in the wild as well..

Note this little plant requires a lot of light to thrive and it likely still will not flower indoors, unfortunately. I gave it a try above an averagely low light low energy tank and it slowly withers away. 

Same actualy goes for the Aeschynomene fluitans..

Good luck.. 

And if you are absolutely unable to find it.. I'm not sure if i still have it, maybe in the garden if i do an extensive search i might find some back. Dunno it's still to early to see and find out. But if i remeber correctly i believe @dw1305 has it in the garden as well. You might want to send him a wink then..


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## Macman6 (22 Mar 2018)

zozo said:


> Wait a few more weeks


yeah, i just have itchy fingers and want to get going.

Cheers


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## zozo (22 Mar 2018)

gogogo...
https://www.gardensite.co.uk/aquatics/anagallis-tenella.htm


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## DeepMetropolis (20 Jul 2018)

Man I loved watching this threat, all that emerged growth looks so nice. I did try that giant sensitive plant, it came in half dead and it slowly rot after that the leaves never even opened up..


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## zozo (20 Jul 2018)

DeepMetropolis said:


> Man I loved watching this threat


Thank you!..  This tank was a nice ride indeed



DeepMetropolis said:


> I did try that giant sensitive plant, it came in half dead and it slowly rot after that the leaves never even opened up..


It's a very light hungry plant, not easy to grow under artificial lights.. For me it was a strugle too..


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## DeepMetropolis (7 Sep 2019)

Was searching for an enchinodorus that could grow emersed leaves for in my tank remembered this threat came here to find out it is an kleiner bär, what is klein (small) about this?


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## zozo (7 Sep 2019)

DeepMetropolis said:


> Was searching for an enchinodorus that could grow emersed leaves for in my tank remembered this threat came here to find out it is an kleiner bär, what is klein (small) about this?



I guess it depends how and where you grow it.. In submersed form it keeps relatively small.. I'm also growing it emersed outdoor in a basket but rather shallow. Than it also stays a lot smaller, not in leaf size but in stem lenght. It's a very addaptable plant sp. and its size is depended on the depht it is planted in. If planted in deep water it transitions to submersed form first, than if these leaves grow up to a 30cm tall. In this case the leaves also reached the watersurface at this lenght sticking a leaf tip into the atmosphere.

What i find most remarkable is the plant seems to sense this. When the submersed form leaf tips start to dry out, it seems this damage is a stress signal for the plant saying here is the surface and it wants to grow emersed. The plant is triggered to start growing a tiny emersed grow form leaf on a stem from iits rosette. Than this stem keeps growing rather fast towards the surface with a tiny leaf to it. Once the stem made it that far and the leaf is finaly emersed, this leaf starts growing bigger and the stem even longer.

Offspring from this plant that is planted in more shallow water grow much shorter leaf stems yet also not taller than +/- 30cm.

Ive seen very tall discus tanks growing out Echinodorus like this. 


 
I guess it isn't Kleiner bär but it grew in the same fasion. It's final tallness is definitively related to the planting depth. Another tank, don't know if it serves the right to be called discus tank but it contains them and also an E. palaefolius var. latifolius.



https://nl.pinterest.com/pin/165366617541104629/

And this is an E. palaefolius var. latifolius grown in my livingroom with only wet feet. Rather small, it has no need to grow long stems.





And most likely it's size depends on humidity and also maturity when grown emersed in a proper climate.. Artificialy this is difficult in the northern hemisphere. Because it always recieves a negative set back during the winter without enough artificial light and proper humidity. Than it has to start over again next summer keeping rejuvinating the plant and stays relative small.

Also light is an important factor, the kleiner bär from the tank in this topic grew under rather high light. The last 6 months it grew without any artificial light and only some indirect day light. And it was slowly turning back to submersed form. But it didn't get this far completely because the tank is torn down.  But it definitively was shrinking after the light was taken away.

Currently i'm also playing with E. Regine Hildebrandt.. That is a rather small cultivar very easy.. But not sure if it will suite your ideas and it grows agonizingly slow. It's a cross breed from E. ozelot x E. uruguayensis. Maybe taking one of these is a beter option..


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