Adding emersed grown plants to a mature tank

[Matt Havens]

Hi all!

As some of you may have seen in the emersed section I have been growing some plants emersed for some months and done very well.



The time has come where I need to do some trimming on them and I wanted to use some of the trimmings in my tank.


I will be keeping the livestock in there as I am certain the stress from catching them would be worse. I have 11 ember tetra, 5 or 6 very shy and scared emerald dwarf rasbora, 4 otto's and one 'chocolate' coloured shrimp.

I will be replacing the HOB and internal filter with an external canister (eheim 2215) which I plan to run all of them together for a couple of weeks.

My plan was to take the water down to a level which I can work at but enough for the fish to be safe. Whilst siphoning, removing parts of the hardscape to minimise detritus floating around. I have purchased some API ammo lock from the lfs today if I get an ammonia spike once finished.

- Move certain parts of hardscape and plant up.

- Refill tank with roughly 50% of the tank water and 50% fresh water. And running filters.

- Start dosing EI and liquid CO2 carbo fertilizer straight away to help the plants establish.

- 60-70% Water change evry 2-3 days for the first week and then as per EI regime once a week thereafter.

If there are any areas for concern in my plan please take the the time to comment it would be very appreciated!

Thanks

Matt



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[tim]

Hi Matt, plan sounds good, I've done many a rescape with fish in, plenty of water changes after for a week or two should see you right.

 

[Matt Havens]

Thanks tim! A bit of reassurance is what I was hoping for.

Going to get started

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[G H Nelson]

The time has come where I need to do some trimming on them and I wanted to use some of the trimmings in my tank.

Hi Matt
Some plants will fair better than others when transferred to a underwater environment!
Just depends on the species!
Most will tolerate Liquid Carbon...stick to the routine you have advocated.
I shouldn't see many problems unless you have one of the more finicky plants like HC!
Just be vigilant and remove any degrading leaves as soon as possible....this will encourage new submerged leaves!
Hope all goes well.
hoggie

 

[Matt Havens]

Hi Matt
Some plants will fair better than others when transferred to a underwater environment!
Just depends on the species!
Most will tolerate Liquid Carbon...stick to the routine you have advocated.
I shouldn't see many problems unless you have one of the more finicky plants like HC!
Just be vigilant and remove any degrading leaves as soon as possible....this will encourage new submerged leaves!
Hope all goes well.
hoggie

Thanks Hoggie,

As mentioned I will be dosing EI and liquid CO2. Using an LED light.

The plants I have are:

Lobelia cardinalis mini
Ludwigia sp. Mini super red
Hygrophila araguaia
Pogostemon stellatus
Didiplis diandra
Plagiomnium cf. Affine
Staurogyne repens
Alternanthera reneikii
Cryptocoryne pygmaea
Littorella uniflora
And heteranthera zosterifolia.

Just about to start planting up.
Any suggestions?



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[dw1305]

Hi all,

The time has come where I need to do some trimming on them and I wanted to use some of the trimmings in my tank.

Can you float the cutting until you need them? Either in the tank or in a shallow tray of water (especially if the cuttings sink). That will give them a chance to get used to lower gas levels, rather than the direct change from 400ppm down to less than 10 ppm.

cheers Darrel

 

[G H Nelson]

Hi Matt
I think you have everything covered.....Staurogyne repens can sulk a tad....it can be a pain to some growers!
You could float this one for a few weeks first to see how it fairs!
You take your choice and go with the learning curve!

Just saw Darrels post.....I agree if they float all the better for transition.....in a couple of weeks!
Or you could flood the emersed tank, but leave some of the foliage above the water line....do this every few days...slowly increasing the depth of water over a couple of weeks!
It all can be a tad hit and miss at times...but plants are very adaptable if given time!
Cheers
hoggie

 

[Matt Havens]

Well i have done the right hand side sorry for the bad pic



I could see a couple of the embers looking very un well so decided to leave it there for today. Fill up and get the water temp back up.

Ammonia test before adding any water

I think i should keep am eye on this though. Not confident that the reading is true as I caused major disturbance.

Thanks for all your help so far. I will carry on the other side during the week.



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[Matt Havens]

Sorry I forgot to say what I had planted, trimmings from the taller stems of the Pogostemon stellatus and the Lobellia cardinalis mini well the larger peices I just pulled up from the compost and rinsed in tank water ans the smaller peices were cuttings.

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[Matt Havens]

Any suggestions on what times I should be adding the ferts and also the CO2. Lights go on about 18:00 and off around 23:40 so just over 5 and a half hours.

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[Matt Havens]

So three weeks into the first part of the rescape and water change day has spurred me into action. Planting the left hand side and centre this time with some more emersed cuttings which I did not manage the first time round. (Only managed the right).

Anyway here are some pics from my phone.









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[Matt Havens]

Just started the external filter up too so I can then remove the HOB and internal.
Not sure if there is too much flow.
60L tank and an Eheim 2215 canister, says 620 l/h.

Can I just turn one of the valves on the outflow a little to restrict it?


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[G H Nelson]

You can reduce the flow by adjusting both in/out valves a little to the closed position, if the flow is too powerful.

 

[Matt Havens]

Update!

Hi all so week 3 weeks since the first plants were introduced. Cuttings from my emersed propagator of Lobelia cardinalis and Pogostemon stellatus.

The Lobelia is doing just fine and the Pog has grown a lot but now the leaves are melting. Not too worried as these were very well adapted to the emersed setup and transition was always going to have an effect. What im not sure of is if I should trim and replant the tips or wait longer. Any help would be great. Here are some before ( 3 wks ago) and now pictures. Sorry for quality only on my phone.

Before rescape. Looking tired .


And the first new plants after a clean up.


Now. Added some AR into the mix and a couple more Lobelia cuttings but the Pogostemon has shot up in 3 weeks.


Seems to be melting.


But overall I am happy. Here is the full tank again but I still need to remove both the HOB and internal filters. Want to leave them at least a week as the external canister has only been running 2 days so far.



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[Matt Havens]

Update pictures week 5.

I have now removed both the internal and HOB filters.





Think I need to plant much younger Pogostemon stellatus as it is losing colour and melting a bit.





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[Aqua360]

good job on the emersed growth 🙂

 

[Matt Havens]

Hi all, in a need of some advice.

So I am seeing a lot of algae here and there starting to get worse. A few of my Ember tetras have also suffered and it is not the result I was hoping for. If you have been following I rescaped this tank and filled it with plants, started EI ferts and dosing double the recommended liquid CO2. I also replaced a HOB running alongside an internal filter with an external canister filter and waited 2-3 weeks before removing the HOB and internal after starting up the canister. Most of the plants seem to be doing well even the S. Repens considering they were 'grown out' emersed, the Pogostemon stellatus is what I believe the culprit to be as they were very tall and established cuttings from the propagator when planted, you should be able to see from earlier pictures that there are a lot of 'melted' leaves on it mainly nearer the tops. I'm very tempted to take this out on next water change and replant with younger 'plants' instead of cuttings. Would others agree that this is the most likely cause? (Back right)


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[Matt Havens]

Hi all, in a need of some advice.

So I am seeing a lot of algae here and there starting to get worse. A few of my Ember tetras have also suffered and it is not the result I was hoping for. If you have been following I rescaped this tank and filled it with plants, started EI ferts and dosing double the recommended liquid CO2. I also replaced a HOB running alongside an internal filter with an external canister filter and waited 2-3 weeks before removing the HOB and internal after starting up the canister. Most of the plants seem to be doing well even the S. Repens considering they were 'grown out' emersed, the Pogostemon stellatus however is what I believe the culprit to be as they were very tall and established cuttings from the propagator when planted, you should be able to see from earlier pictures that there are a lot of 'melted' leaves on it mainly nearer the tops. I'm very tempted to take this out on next water change and replant with younger 'plants' instead of cuttings. Would others agree that this is the most likely cause? (Back right)


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[Mick.Dk]

Looking better then you seem to think, Matt..........
It would be much better to trim tops off the submersed Pog. stellata and re-plant those, since they are allready in submerse form and will not have to go through transition as would new "younger" plants grown emerse. Plant cuttings in the group of stems allready there - those will most likely grow new branches.
Same goes for the Alternanthera's and Lobelia's - and generally for all your stem-plants.
Trimming tops off at a quite low point of the stem, will encourage new branches and make the group much more dense.
- good luck and have fun with it......