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400 gallon.

roadmaster said:
I could do likewise in a small tank.
Try getting the jungle look in larger tank takes a fair bit of time IME
For my 300 litre it took nearly a year from scratch.
No clippings or plant's from another tank, merely sprigs of plants ordered online from aquatic plant sites.
I would imagine for 400 gal ,it would take considerably more than two or three months.
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Well if you start with barely any plants whatsoever then maybe. But from planting reasonably or from doing a huge trim it takes 2-3 months to get overgrown.
 
sciencefiction said:
Well if you start with barely any plants whatsoever then maybe. But from planting reasonably or from doing a huge trim it takes 2-3 months to get overgrown.
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I started with low light plant package for 125 gal X 2 for my 80 gal tank.(swords,crypt's,anubia,vals, hygro.)
I could get jungle look in small 20 gal in a couple months, but for taller tanks such as my 300 litre and low tech approach ,it took a year.
I am not complaining,gave me time to study,learn.
Hardly see large, tall, high tech or low tech it seems (very few).
Easy to make small tanks look full, and I suspect easier for CO2 distribution.
 
My tank is not small. It's a 5f tank. But not all plants grow at the same rate. The likes of vallis, bacopa and ludwiga need almost weekly trimming/pruning because they can overtake the tank, especially vallis and bacopa for me are super weeds. My amazon swords take about 2-3 months to grow from a couple of leaves to large(pleco munched them down twice 🙂 )
For the likes of anubias and crypts you may wait a year alright.
But you may be on a very low light if you are waiting a year for your tank to fill in/overgrow. My non-soil tanks are that slow actually so I think it's could be lack of CO2. But my soil tanks don't have that problem. They grow relatively fast.
 
Here for example my tank from 22nd of July(picture posted on my other thread that day). Only the left side grows in because the right doesn't get enough light tanks to the tropical plants above.

RooibosTea_zpsfec77154.jpg

And this one is from a few minutes ago which is about 2 and a half months later. The tank is a mess, you can't make out the plants right now. The bacopa, ludwiga and vallis have tangled all around the swords so you can't see them. And I have trimmed the stem plants several times and unplugged many vallis runners during this time too. And please excuse the running cables. My filter failed a while ago and I had to run replacement ones and haven't got around at removing them since.

DSCF7149_zpsce8d94a3.jpg
 
Sorry if i missed this in a post .. Are you using soil at all and what do you do for fertlizer.
The reason I ask is once my 125 is grown in im thinking about backing off on the high tech and going low ,Ive already went to med low light with co2 and my plants are loving it.
 
No soil. this same substrate has been in place for 15 years or so. Originally i put some laterite and clay under it, and it has a heating cable.
Nowadays i use a form of EI. I dose 3 teaspoons on KNO3, 1 teaspoon of Mg and 1 teaspoon of PO4 3 times a week, and micro's 2 times a week. I feed the fish once a day and they usually get frozen white, red and black mosquito larvae, i guess app 100 gram/day.
When i went low energy, I increased the distance between the lights and the surface from a few inch to app 3 feet, and added floaters, I have lowered the lights a bit to app 2 feet, but floaters can take up the whole surface fast, i have to cull a lot once a week. I do have to do a bigger removal soon seeing some swords are suffering from to little light.
 
Edvet said:
No soil. this same substrate has been in place for 15 years or so. Originally i put some laterite and clay under it, and it has a heating cable.
Nowadays i use a form of EI. I dose 3 teaspoons on KNO3, 1 teaspoon of Mg and 1 teaspoon of PO4 3 times a week, and micro's 2 times a week. I feed the fish once a day and they usually get frozen white, red and black mosquito larvae, i guess app 100 gram/day.
When i went low energy, I increased the distance between the lights and the surface from a few inch to app 3 feet, and added floaters, I have lowered the lights a bit to app 2 feet, but floaters can take up the whole surface fast, i have to cull a lot once a week. I do have to do a bigger removal soon seeing some swords are suffering from to little light.
Click to expand...
Thanks this is great info for me ..I would love to ei dose but we have to jump through hoops to get KNO3 the Canadian Government requires a copy of my license and the only person who sells it is 2000 km away 🙁
cheers!
 
ian_m said:
Not quite so, you are confusing the use for black powder making, which does require licensing. However is available from lab suppliers and farm shops in Canada eg http://www.sciencecompany.com/Potassium-Nitrate-Saltpeter-500g-Food-Grade-P16377.aspx as well as Ebay.ca under aquarium supplies and various other categories (including stump removal....).
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Thanks ill try it what can i loose ..
I refuse to give my id online (see link at the bottom)
http://www.theplantguy.org/PlantGuys-Potassium-Nitrate-KNO3-1-pound_p_618.html

As for ebay it ships from over seas I doubt it would make it here in fact I may have problems getting it across the border from the us but im willing to try 🙂
 
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dw1305 said:
How big has it grown
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The flower: app 5 cm diameter ( i have seen about 5 of them now, but i don't look at the top of the floaters everyday); the plant: huge if you let it. I started with three small plants. first it throws out some floating leaves and the it start to send out side shoots, if I let it I could have it cover my whole tank. I removed some of the shoots and planted app 10 of them in the right front part of the tank, these went to the surface fast.
I need to prune all the floaters every week now hence they cover the whole tank, i still want to see if i can relocate them a bit in a way their shadows bother the swords less.
And i stil contemplate have the whole tank with the lilies only............
 
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