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I would - in theory it should help seed the new substrate with bacteria and if you have it you might as well give it a shot. Filter is probably OK for 4 hours.

Any old filter for oxygenation if it's just a few hours, a mature one if you're going to take longer. If you can move your canister over that's best (it needs to be kept running really anyhow) but I've also kept a sponge from a sponge filter in my canister filter for a few weeks to mature it...

Thanks for sharing :) . If it helps you feel better every time I attempt some kind of rescape like this I end up finishing at 1:30am, exhausted, humbled and wiser... Catching the fish can be problematic & time consuming, but the upside is once done they are totally fine for days in a food safe...

Most likely C. Balansae, possibly C. Crispatulata

Nice one! Thanks for confirming my assertion made somewhere on here the other day that plants can totally load up on nutrients overnight. If your Pogo doesn’t like it maybe you can keep switching to and fro between the two states!? [emoji6]

Wow - this adds new depths to my coffee break phone posts! Do you offer a LinkedIn endorsements service too?! Thinking about this some more a stem will also be adapting along it’s entire length as it grows up and the PAR value increases closer to the surface... That could be 30 PAR at the...

[emoji846] The plants, even of the same species, adapt to the conditions they are in. Since light and flow (which affects access to nutrients including CO2) are not uniform everywhere each stem will be running a slightly different configuration. So a stem that has worse flow but more light...

You’re not going to like the answer: every single plant has different requirements for CO2, light and each and every nutrient (within certain limits at least). And yes, they can store stuff up to a certain extent and the ability to do that will vary too :)

First they melted then they came off (or some were helped off with a siphon and tweezers at the last water change) - previously this was a mass of green:

It seems to be very sensitive to changes. I had a thicket of S. Repens going crazy along the front of my 25cm. I decided to turn my light up from 25% to 50% and 3 days later all the leaves melted. Complete disaster. I went to remove, but as in your case the stalks have put down impressive roots...

Those crypts and your rotola seem to be doing very well indeed [emoji846]. The only other explanation I can conceive other than nitrates is light reflection (e.g. off sides or sand) or plant position boosting light dose to some plants - but squinting at your photos that looks like a long shot.

Crypts go bonkers in a high tech thank. They will attempt to take over. See posts #90+ in my 90cm journal.

Dennerle do ANUBIAS BARTERI VAR. NANA 'BONSAI' and it is super tiny. Really cute.

You can add more light up to the point the limit on growth is no longer light but becomes CO2 and nutrients, then it becomes counter productive and you will get algae. What light do you currently have on there? Light is just one factor. Availability of CO2 and other nutrients the other. Is...

For those who haven't already read it I highly recommend @zozo 's account of his love affair with a German water lilly! 🤣

If you want to talk about falling in love with lilly's I lost my heart to PJ Magnin's Nymphaea in the "Old Chinese Garden" that won AGA 2005!:

Thanks for that @zozo - very much appreciated, the Willem Kolvoort images are lovely and don't pop up in Google image search here in Switzerland. I'll add Potamogeton natans to my "to do" list and try to grow it instead of a lilly in a scape one of these days...

Sorry to revive this thread, but when I was a kid there was a pond near me with what looked like P. Natans across the whole surface. For years I’ve been thinking “that’s a much more manageable size for the aquarium than the so called dwarf lilly species” and finally did the googling to figure...

Probably one of the most beautiful crypts, but quite large for a 50l. I grew it in a 50cm high tank with CO2 and the leaves still trailed along the surface. If it is healthy you can absolutely cut all its leaves off and it will put up more. After a few months it will also put out runners under...

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The Cyprus Helferi and the Alternanthera reineckii are both medium difficulty on the Tropica website. I’ve only grown them in a CO2 tank (and even there, as I recall, my CH eventually melted after a blackout - tragic because it’s a gorgeous plant once it gets going - so it is sensitive). So...

Eleocharis montevidensis or a stem of choice - I’m trying Pogostemon Erectus in mine: 10l Nano Shrimp Tank DSM...

I've had good success with that in a low tech tank dosing just liquid carbon and, when I got bored of dosing that, totally low tech. I found it did need some NPK ferts from time to time or the leaves looked a sickly yellow. I would post a picture but I've just discovered Photobucket is no...

Very nice experiment - good thinking. When I use colder water for the w/c than I have in the tank I get pearling everywhere, on hardscape and hardware also. I understood this is because the cold water heats up and can carry less dissolved gas, so it comes out of solution as micro bubbles? If...

I also do as per saintly - follow the leaf down and cut and inch or so from the base. The remains of the cut off leaf will die back, you can then pull the rotten leaf off the crown at the base if you pull it sharply sideways away from the base of plant (upwards may uproot the plant). You can...

SuperColey, you are a genius and I bow before your brilliance. 8) I find trying to tie these rhizomes to wood quite the worst thing about planted tanks.

I used to worry about this also, but actually when a java fern is growing it grows from the tip of the leaf and those tips are translucent - that is the new growth and nothing to worry about, in fact, it is a good sign :D.

Yes. Good flow will help maximise the available CO2 and nutrients. You just need to drop your light to the level where the HC finds enough CO2 from the EasyCarbo but not so little light that it goes stringy and heads for the surface. :D Easy. :lol:

Here is mine: Not the best photo but the point is this is a low tech tank, I dose TPN+ and Excel once per week and it grows rampantly chocking the foreground (there is some crypt parva too, but it never had a chance). 25l, 13w CF light, 250lph HOB turnover, huge bioload - about 25 guppies...

I've been wondering the same thing - thanks for posting :D Really - is that a definite fact? You are giving me some ideas... I tried to grow E. Tenellus under 13w in a 25L with Easycarbo and it got algae all over it - suggesting there was too much light without CO2. Some persists in that...

I'd say don't underestimate the power of T5HO. It throws WPG out the window. I think they will grow, but maybe greener than desired. However, experiment won't be complete until they reach the surface... By the way Andy, really like the way your tank is looking - this is definitely your best...

Try it and see. Depends on the Vallais, the ribbon ones that trail down the tank in the flow can be cut off at the water surface with scissors. I have a twisted one however that just melts or goes black at the cut if you trim it.

So what did PJAN use in this one (best lilly scape I know, 2005 AGA contest winner), it looks completely green with no spots or stripes at all! Apparently it is Nymphaea glandulifera but I've never seen itfor sale? (more photo's here...

I guess that makes sense - in a pond at least light only enters through the top, you've got the sides as well. The green diatoms would cut the light getting to the plants and reduce your CO2 requirements but it wouldn't look good! I guess you'd need a PAR meter on the bottom of your tank...

<musing> I wonder how much energy is expended to get 25kg of CO2 into a bottle and delivered to Clive's door... :? With 9*55w I hope you signed up for "green" electricity :wink: From the ambient light in that startup photo it almost looks like if you omitted the backdrop you could grow the...

You've reminded me of something there Clive, because we are partly to blame - in very own UKAPS poster here: http://www.ukaps.org/documents/FAQ%20Poster.pdf We say for tanks less than 40L 1 watt per litre is required. I'd say you still only want 0.5 watts/litre right down to at least 18...

I think Beeky is right - you have to try it and see. I grew a long straight vallais sucessfully without carbon supplement but as soon as I started double doing (i.e. what the bottle says is maximum dose for heavily planted tank) EasyCarbo its growth became arrested. I grew the short twisty one...

Oooo nice link thank you James :D I just love the various German online stores and here is a new one for my bookmarks! I get the impression the hobby is so much more advanced (and cheaper) there than in the UK. These guys have no less than 20 varieties of crypt, only Aquaspot can beat that...

I seem to recall they have only been induced to breed using hormone treatment - hence the price. I think they are endangered in the wild so hopefully the ones we see in the shops are the hormone treated ones... Even so, 18 quid does seem a bit much!

You got photo's Tom? The tips of my Java Fern always look translucent when they are growing, had me convinced it was a deficiency, but I know you are too much of an old hand to fall for that one...

Can you mow it, like real grass? If the roots are established will they soon put up new shoots if you trim it off low?

I did see a photo of an Oliver Knott tank that had a carpet of Anubia's. It would be rather slow growing and quite pricy though (I think Oliver gets freebies from Tropica like our own Mr. Farmer). I've also seen carpets of Microsorum pteropus 'Narrow' for sale on eBay.

Yes, see the online shop: http://www.thegreenmachineaquatics.com/new_site/site.asp

That's interesting he suggests curring off all the leaves when you attach to the bogwood. I've never seen that done - not even by Mr. Amano. Anyone else tried that? I can see it makes it easier to attach and get a natural look for the plant in its new environment, but you really need patience...

If you water change bi weekly I think you could just dose EI at 50% to cover the bi-weekly rather than weekly changes, others will tell us for sure. Or instead of EI dose a fert such as Tropica Plant Nutrition Plus which includes Macros - I think on the label Tropica suggests "We recommended...

Hmmm, we should be careful about directing a newcomer down this route. Except Ricca none of the plants he wants to grow need CO2, he is adverse to water changes, maybe he doesn't want to go the whole high tech EI route right away? My Java moss and crypts are growing fine using Easy Carbo, for...