Antoni's 60 cm scape - Autumn déjà vu

[Antoni]

Hi everyone,

a small update: yesterday I did the first majour trim, as the rotala rotundifolia and the prosperinaca has reached the surface. In the last week, they have grown mental... probably good 1 cm a day

Here is a pic before the trim:



Here is a top view. Some of the plants poking through the surface:



And after the trim. I have used the black current trimming technique, so I cut only the longest and the fastest growing 1/3 of the plants, to allow better co2, nutrient and light distribution to the slower growing plants and in the same time leaving enough plant mass.




The marsilea crenata is starting to form the carpet, but will need some more time. It is nice and gentle plant with lighter colour than the other marsilea.

 

[Robbie X]

Lovely little scape, the textures on the wood ate wicked cool 🙂

 

[Antoni]

Hi guys,

It is being quite a while, since the last update, so here are some pictures.

The tank is going ok, went through a lot of problems, which thought me a lot about colours, strong light, oxygen, CO2 and the balance of the latter...

To cut the long story short, after many errors, at the moment I am managing to get some colours out of the Proserpinaca Palustris, Rotala Rotundifolia, Hygrophila Pinnatifida, Rotala Mexican Goias and Rotala Macranda green.

The tank is still not in the perfect shape, but we are slowly getting there with lots of husbandry, water changes and looooots of light - currently 84W over 50 l tank.



Top view:



Proserpinaca palustris:



Rotala Macranda Green:



Rotalas:



Rotala Mexicana Goyas:



Hygrophila pinnatifida, starting to change colour. Not like Oliver Knott's tanks, but ....



And one of my favourite characters in the tank 🙂

 

[Dantrasy]

Great thread, really enjoyed the read. Looking forward to more.

 

[aliclarke86]

This is still going super strong! Looks fantastic, Ant!

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

 

[Antoni]

Thanks mate!

It went through lots of problems and the best is still to come! Just hope that I will manage to entice those plants to blush!!

 

[rebel]

Great read! Did you manage to get them super red?

 

[Antoni]

Thanks! I had managed to get some red colours, but was difficult to maintain.. after a trim, they turned green again and had to wait to grow close to the surface to get the colouration again... However I have learnt a lot through that scape, how to run a very powerful light on such a small tank, co2 management(not always a lot means better growth - I believe there is a limit, beyond which the plants start to become lazy), algae management 😛 etc.

 

[Greenfinger2]

Hi Antoni, Wonderful plants an health. I will be growing Proserpinaca palustris: in my new scape.

Is it an easy plant to grow ?

 

[Antoni]

Thanks mate! It is classified as an advanced plant in the tropica's catalogue, which means it needs a very good level of light and co2. It will grow easily, but getting it dark orange/ copper coloured ...that is the difficult part 😉

 

[Greenfinger2]

Hi Antoni, Thank You 😉 Looking forward to growing this plant.