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#4 - River shore

Anyway this is and stays an awsome beatifull layout.. And indeed it needs time to mature.. Those rotalas can easily grow twice as big as they are now, even 3 times bigger if you want them to. To get that dens and lush it will take several months from now.. By then the rest will have increased a lot as well. It's waiting time.. :)
 
tim said:
really like this scape jordi, i dont think you need the height of the rotala on the left personally i find it at odds with the otherwise exceptional layout.
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Do you mean you would get rid of the Rotala bonzai in the left part?

Jordi
 
parotet said:
Do you mean you would get rid of the Rotala bonzai in the left part?

Jordi
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I would yes, I think as it grows and thickens up on the right removing it on the left will add the height to the scape others have commented on, it disrupts the triangular nature of the scape for me, just my thoughts mate, as I said I really do think it's an exceptional layout I would be most happy to sit and relax in front of in the evenings.
 
Very interesting scape - the rotala "trees" look somehow primitive

Is this Tropica's Rotala 'Bonsai' - or another source?
 
I kinda like that Rotala bonsai in that succulent like appearance, it gives it indeed a bit primitive jurasic look. I noticed this is my own scape whit my first (to low) light setup i began with. It grew even more stretchy than this. In this scape it suites actualy very well with all those mosses around.. :thumbup:
It can't be only the trimming making them red, what else do you do Jordi? Some extra with ferts? I do trim mine a lot as well, but yet not see the stems as red as yours. This i only see in emersed form.

Also the mosses realy grew in very well :) looks great, only the fontanilis stays behind a bit..
 
zozo said:
I kinda like that Rotala bonsai in that succulent like appearance, it gives it indeed a bit primitive jurasic look. I noticed this is my own scape whit my first (to low) light setup i began with. It grew even more stretchy than this. In this scape it suites actualy very well with all those mosses around.. :thumbup:
It can't be only the trimming making them red, what else do you do Jordi? Some extra with ferts? I do trim mine a lot as well, but yet not see the stems as red as yours. This i only see in emersed form.

Also the mosses realy grew in very well :) looks great, only the fontanilis stays behind a bit..
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Hi Marcel

The fert regime is fairly simple... I just add 1 squirt (1 ml aprox) of AquaRebel Mikro Basic, which is more or less as Tropica Premium. The only thing I do is to make sure that, whatever the brand I use, the Fe added is DTPA or HEEDTA, because I have moderate hard water (somewhere in the 500 microsiemens range). Both Tropica Premium and AquaRebel Mikro Basic do have it in these forms. But when I am traveling I don't even fertilize the tank for two days and I have no problem at all. The plants are not very demanding, most of them in the low-medium category. The Rotala bonsai you see is exactly the same planted in August and I trim (and of course discard a lot of stems) and replant every 15 days or so... that means, that some of them are really old. The light is a plain 2 x 24w T5HO... so no super light, just in the medium-slightly high range.
Photoshop was only use to apply focus filter and trim... so red is natural. In my other tank (Lava Rocks) reds come and go in Rotalas, not sure why. I guess red colors in tanks will always be a mystery :)

Fontinalis is growing like crazy but I don't use any heater on my tanks... the water is 18-19ºC (I only have Amano shrimps). The summer was a very hard time for this plant with the water near to 29ºC. The same for the rest of the mosses, especially for Fissidens. The only plants that is getting worse is Riccardia... I have continuous green and healthy growth, but it gets covered with algae at the end.

Jordi
 
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Hi Jordi, indeed those reds are rather a mystery sometimes.. :) Mine stay green and have a few in the tank to prevent the potamogeton gayi from sucked intor the filter inlet. These i just let grow and rarely cut, they go emersed and turn red stem as soon as they pop emersed, but submersed they stay green. Despite the roottabs, iron, micro's from easylife and tropica PGS. The others i cut about is frequent as you do.. Must be something, but what?? Guess got to learn to live with that. :lol: Also still got a few living in the garden emersed, those also are amazingly dark red stems.. :)

I was wondering why i didn't find more fontanilis in your tank.. I have the same experience as you have with what you sended me a while back. It grows very well, even in a low tech low light unheated tank.. And indeed that coral moss is also a difficult one for me, always strugling with algea.. I don't pay much attention to it anymore, i even don't no if it's still in the tank.. Have to look and search, probably overgrowen by others.. :)
 
I suspect this is a "variation" inherent in the Tropica 1-2-Grow plant material (or maybe it's latent in all the plant material but only triggered under certain conditions ...) - mine is green even after several months but local shop set up a tank recently & that R 'Bonsai' went straight into this red form of growth

This is just such a great tank :)
 
I seem to be confirmed in my observations, that there are different "strains" of Rotala 'bonzai' going around in trade/hobby. Some have absolutely no 'bonzai' appearance at all !!

When I tested this plant, from different sources, they performed rather different, though growing side by side.
Differences were most obvious in colouration (orange tips/no orange tips) and distance of nodes (long- /compact growth).

Orange colour in "the Tropica strain" is - at least partially - related to intensity/quality of light and added CO2.
 
Hi!

Thank you for the interest. Actually the tank will be changing a little bit. Im a bit tired of this mossy look (I love mosses but they look always the same...) and after some repeated trimmings I wanted the tank to change its aspect. I've added some touches of red: Rotala red in the background and H. pinnatifida in the middleground. It is something I decided this weekend so nothing that can be seen now.
I'm traveling right now but I'll try to post some pics in a few days.

Cheers,
Jordi
 
Hi all

Quick update. I planted Rotala indica red, H. pinnatifida, Trident Java ferns and Sagittaria subulata in the background. I'm expecting noticeable changes in the layout in 3 weeks time approximately. For the moment it looks a bit undefined (not as clean as the previous shots and still not jungly), also due to Eleocharis mini and Ranunculus runners invading the white sand, thus reducing the contrast created so far between the white sand, the driftwood and the green areas.

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Jordi
 
Hi all

No significant changes except these new inhabitants...

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I fell in love with them and they had to come home with me :)
The tank is becoming more jungly and I think that my little cockatoos will appreciate it. Not sure if the spaces between wood will be enough as spawning caves, if not I will add a mossy coconut cave or something similar with stones. For the moment I am conditioning them with live food and being careful with co2.

Jordi
 
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Just one more thing... the tank is a bit more grown than in the last FTS in post #57. H. pinnatifida and some Rotala are filling a bit more the background and the tank looks more dense. However maintenance for such a manicured layout (at least compared to the ones I've had before) is hard. Every week I have to trim mosses to keep on seeing the wood, to keep these two lines that go to the focal point, etc. I miss a less demanding tank in terms of maintenance and also a jungly look (that will probably entail less light and co2 too). This will fit very well with my new cockatoo cichlids.

The problem is that what you can see in the right background behind the driftwood is not a deep pile of fertile substrate for planting a huge range of stems plants, but a pile of stones covered with moss with some (enriched) substrate in between. Therefore, in order to create a second layer of plants, I will have to rely on epiphytes. My options for the moment are: Anubias barteri coffeefolia, Anubias barteri angustifolia, Bolbitis heudelotii or Ceratopteris thalictroides. To be honest my preferred one is C. thalictroides but I am not sure if it can be considered an epiphyte (I've read some of you got them floating... what about anchoring it?). Anubias are a bit low growers for my taste and a magnet for BBA being so close to the lights, and Bolbitis is also one of my preferred aquatic plants, but I use it in all my layouts, so I guess it is time for a change.
I'm sure you guys will have something interesting to suggest.

Jordi
 
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