How many tanks are you planting out? 🤣
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Consistency Deficiency
- Thread starter Hufsa
- Start date
How many tanks are you planting out? 🤣
John q
Member
Now that's a "Who's Who" list. 👍
Absolutely livid that you've got more species than me!! Oh no, I'll have to buy some more, what a shame 😅
Ow my back hurts like a mother- 😵
I got most of them planted though! A few mosses and buces can hang out until tomorrow, they shouldnt mind.
So many tiny invitro plants 😂
I cant wait for them to start growing, thats where I was wrong, planting isnt fun, watching stuff grow is!
I hope I dont kill them all off, that'd be a bit of a disappointment wouldnt it
Also in time-honored UKAPS tradition I have glue on my fingers
Riccardia is a pain in the butt to plant, why did no one warn me? Its like trying to wrestle feta cheese
I kept a few sprigs of the plants im most scared about killing and let them float in the shrimp containers, they will be closer to the surface there and can grow out if they want to. Sort of a backup I guess.
My tank is gonna look like a plant growing facility for the foreseeable future.
I think the collectoritis needs to burn itself through my system before sanity* will be restored. (*relative)
Will post an annoying amount of pictures soon! 😘
plantnoobdude
Member
QUICKLY!
First installment of pictures, I will likely be posting a lot of them for a while as I attempt to grow the poshest stems and maybe fail in a spectacular fashion.
The noodles have been busy all night making sure I havent cut any corners when I planted things, fortunately I seem to have passed the inspection and have very minimal amounts of floating plants swirling around in the tank this morning.
Before:
After:
Collectoritis - It could strike anyone
So lets take a tour shall we
Ive tried (to the very limited best of my ability) to plan ahead a little bit. The Cryptocoryne "Queen Vandom" is in the front left corner, and I figured she could have company by Cryptocoryne "Purpurea" behind her, this crypt is supposed to grow around 10 cm tall if I remember correctly. There are a few "plant refugees" crammed in there with them, I needed them out of the way and this was one of the few available spots. Hydrocotyle verticillata shouldnt grow too tall as long as it gets decent light, and ill make sure it doesnt drown out the "Queen Vandom". For most of the new plants I ordered invitro, time will tell if this was a horrible mistake or a decent choice. I didnt want to deal with pests and invitro offers a lot of bang for the buck if the cups are filled. Ive never tried Cryptocoryne invitro before, does anyone know if they are more or less prone to melting this way? The invitro pots had an absolute ton of little cryptlets, there is no way I need this many plants
I just want a few of each preciouses, so that they are mine, mine, my precioussss ahem Sorry 'bout that.
The Limnophila sessiliflora is kept on as a buffer plant, my tank feels extremely vulnerable having an absolute truckload of delicate invitro plants and not a lot of mature growth to fall back on. I had to sell off some portions of the older plants, there was just no physical way to keep everything, even with optimism set to 5000%.
Behind the Purpurea is Rotala rotundifolia 'Orange Juice' and 'Pink' respectively. Ive wanted OJ for a long time, I like the slightly fatter leaves it has and the color isnt painful to look at either. My last bouts with Rotala didnt end so well for the Rotala, but conditions should be more favorable now so fingers crossed 🤞
This Rotala rotundifolia 'Pink' that I have ordered is supposed to be a different variety than 'Ceylon', which also is traded under the name 'Pink'. Dont you love trade names.. so accurate
Anyway my 'Pink' also goes under the name 'Rosa'. Ill probably refer to it as Pink/Rosa going forward because I dont like contributing to confusion. The difference between them is said to be "Under same conditions it has thicker stems and grows more upright, while 'Ceylon' has a tendency to grow upwards in loose, wide spirals." Ceylon also has darker stems.
Ill need to make sure they are not too shaded by the Bolbitis behind them, I think I should maybe pull the whole planting a bit further forward together with the Purpurea, maybe kick out a few plant refugees to make more space.
Javafern in front is the new Microsorum pteropus 'Petit', should be much like Tropica's 'Narrow' but stay smaller. Buce leaves directly behind it belongs to Buce "Dark Achilles", two decent submersed leaves now. The veining has become more faint and the leaves are bluer. Some of the new Riccardia sp. "graeffei" is shown here glued to the wood, the main difference between this one and regular Riccardia chamedryfolia is that this one has wider "branches".
Drop checker color in picture is right at lights on, which is not the target color. As most of us know the drop checker works on a delay, often quoted to be 1-2 hours. Although I would like to know exactly what delay this one has. I might do tests on it later to find out. I assume the delay also varies slightly by design. I think I heard decreasing the amount of fluid in the drop checker can make it respond a bit faster, so I will try emptying out about half and see what happens, unless anyone objects.
Drop checker last night right before CO2 solenoid turned off:
1 hr after gas on this morning:
2 hrs after gas on:
3 hrs and lights on full no picture.
4 hrs after gas on:
5 hrs after gas on missing, was walking the dog
6 hrs after gas on finally approaching end of day color:
Im kicking myself for not getting a picture of the drop checker right before gas on, and a good closeup right at lights on, I will do better next time
But this seems to be obviously insufficient, doesnt it? Either the drop checker is reeeally slow or I really suck at this. Given the historical facts I tend towards the latter.
Last night I made some pretty big changes to the photoperiod, I had been running it at 10 hours "low tech style" but I am too nervous about nuking these new baby plants, so I have set it to 6 hours to be safe. Gas now turns on at 09:00, light starts the 30 minutes ramp up at 11:30, full light intensity at 12:00. Gas turns off at 16:00, light starts 30 minutes ramp down at 18:00, ending at 18:30
So I am injecting CO2 ~3 hours before photoperiod, but the drop checker is still teal when lights go on
I need to get a good overview of the ph profile, probably should have bought a ph meter before I went and bought all these plants but theres no instant gratification in that is there Low light intensity, please save me from my poor life-choices! 
Theres no use chasing the drop checker around, because of the delay and the uncertainty it wont tell me much more than "CO2 was at this level at unknown point".
I can do a poor mans ph profile with a liquid test, but I doubt it will be anywhere near as accurate as a proper ph meter.
I will get one, im just delaying because of the price. Everyone seems to say the budget ph meters are a much riskier choice than a budget TDS meter, so I dont want to buy cheap and then have to buy an expensive one later on anyway.
Back to the plants shall we;
I hit the BBA on the wood with some glutaraldehyde yesterday, not sure if it killed it off, I didnt let it sit for as long as last time before rinsing it off. The Bucephalandra "Black Ventii" have been loosely attached to a stone, which in hindsight is way too big and takes up a ton of space in the tank. Im not wanting to disturb it again for a while so I will just have to live with it until it puts out some new growth. Excess stems from the Hygrophila polysperma is elegantly shoved into the foreground as buffer plants.
Crusty pic of center back showing Cryptocoryne spiralis 'Red', Tonina fluviatilis, Ludwigia bla bla bla 'Pantanal' and then 'Cuba'.
Spiralis 'Red' was also invitro and had a ton of plants. My first choice was Spiralis 'Tiger', but it was out of stock.
Im really hyped about the Tonina, its soo beautiful, I hope it will find my 3 kh acceptable as some have suggested it can.
Out of all the posh stems Tonina is the one I am most excited about, followed by the 'Golden' Ammannia.
Right side of tank, im going to have to make sure H. polysperma doesnt shade its neighbors too much, if it gets too rampant I can move it away for a while until the babies get going. To the right of it is Ludwigia sp. "Marilia", this plant is said to be a vigorous grower, so I think it can work ok in the corner. Sorry about my filter intake, its absolutely manky (excellent british word btw) and I will be cleaning it today. The infamous Ammannia pedicellata 'Golden' is to the right of the Buce "Black Ventii". Hoo Boy I hope it doesnt die on me. It can stunt if it wants to, just not die so badly I need to aquire it again, please and thank-you. Lastly Myriophyllum 'Guyana' is to the right of the Pogostemon helferi. I think midground can be a good choice for this and it will be good to have some bright green to balance out all the colorful collectoritis stems. I realise the squares I allotted for each plant doesnt look the most natural. I will try to adapt it to a more natural look in time, but for now my main goal is just not killing them all, aesthetics can come later.
The shrimp have gotten all of the normal Hydrocotyle tripartita and a few oak leaves to hide in, and it seems to have improved their comfort immensely. They were prone to start doing stress laps around the circumference of the fry ring when the light was brightest, and now they are relaxed and plucking away at the plants instead. I dosed the last medication on monday and did a waterchange on tuesday, and there has been no reappearance of parasites since then. The molting rate of the shrimp has gone way down and all molts look clear of eggs. Im very tempted to let them back out again today, I could use their help picking at algae and any plant leaves from the invitro plants that have broken off.
In addition to the photoperiod changes, I have increased the light intensity somewhat as well. I know I said I wasnt going to for a while, but I just cant afford to replace these plants if they die, so im going to go with what I think is the safest route. The new settings should theoretically be well within safe limits given that my water has a ton more CO2 than it used to, so a small increase in light should not tip CO2 demand over the edge, and will make it a bit easier for some of the very light hungry new plants (Cuba, Pantanal, Golden). I set the same intensity on both bars, and went for 30 % red, 6% blue, 25% cool white, 30% pure white and 25% warm white. The ratio was chosen based on a scaling down of the "Planted" preset that comes with the light. I hope that the ratio represents a good spectrum, although my trust in manufacturers is generally low.
Im sure ive forgotten something but I need to get this post wrapped up and plant the rest of the plants
The noodles have been busy all night making sure I havent cut any corners when I planted things, fortunately I seem to have passed the inspection and have very minimal amounts of floating plants swirling around in the tank this morning.
Before:
After:
Collectoritis - It could strike anyone
So lets take a tour shall we
Ive tried (to the very limited best of my ability) to plan ahead a little bit. The Cryptocoryne "Queen Vandom" is in the front left corner, and I figured she could have company by Cryptocoryne "Purpurea" behind her, this crypt is supposed to grow around 10 cm tall if I remember correctly. There are a few "plant refugees" crammed in there with them, I needed them out of the way and this was one of the few available spots. Hydrocotyle verticillata shouldnt grow too tall as long as it gets decent light, and ill make sure it doesnt drown out the "Queen Vandom". For most of the new plants I ordered invitro, time will tell if this was a horrible mistake or a decent choice. I didnt want to deal with pests and invitro offers a lot of bang for the buck if the cups are filled. Ive never tried Cryptocoryne invitro before, does anyone know if they are more or less prone to melting this way? The invitro pots had an absolute ton of little cryptlets, there is no way I need this many plants
I just want a few of each preciouses, so that they are mine, mine, my precioussss
ahem Sorry 'bout that.The Limnophila sessiliflora is kept on as a buffer plant, my tank feels extremely vulnerable having an absolute truckload of delicate invitro plants and not a lot of mature growth to fall back on. I had to sell off some portions of the older plants, there was just no physical way to keep everything, even with optimism set to 5000%.
Behind the Purpurea is Rotala rotundifolia 'Orange Juice' and 'Pink' respectively. Ive wanted OJ for a long time, I like the slightly fatter leaves it has and the color isnt painful to look at either. My last bouts with Rotala didnt end so well for the Rotala, but conditions should be more favorable now so fingers crossed 🤞
This Rotala rotundifolia 'Pink' that I have ordered is supposed to be a different variety than 'Ceylon', which also is traded under the name 'Pink'. Dont you love trade names.. so accurate
Anyway my 'Pink' also goes under the name 'Rosa'. Ill probably refer to it as Pink/Rosa going forward because I dont like contributing to confusion. The difference between them is said to be "Under same conditions it has thicker stems and grows more upright, while 'Ceylon' has a tendency to grow upwards in loose, wide spirals." Ceylon also has darker stems.Ill need to make sure they are not too shaded by the Bolbitis behind them, I think I should maybe pull the whole planting a bit further forward together with the Purpurea, maybe kick out a few plant refugees to make more space.
Javafern in front is the new Microsorum pteropus 'Petit', should be much like Tropica's 'Narrow' but stay smaller. Buce leaves directly behind it belongs to Buce "Dark Achilles", two decent submersed leaves now. The veining has become more faint and the leaves are bluer. Some of the new Riccardia sp. "graeffei" is shown here glued to the wood, the main difference between this one and regular Riccardia chamedryfolia is that this one has wider "branches".
Drop checker color in picture is right at lights on, which is not the target color. As most of us know the drop checker works on a delay, often quoted to be 1-2 hours. Although I would like to know exactly what delay this one has. I might do tests on it later to find out. I assume the delay also varies slightly by design. I think I heard decreasing the amount of fluid in the drop checker can make it respond a bit faster, so I will try emptying out about half and see what happens, unless anyone objects.
Drop checker last night right before CO2 solenoid turned off:
1 hr after gas on this morning:
2 hrs after gas on:
3 hrs and lights on full no picture.
4 hrs after gas on:
5 hrs after gas on missing, was walking the dog
6 hrs after gas on finally approaching end of day color:
Im kicking myself for not getting a picture of the drop checker right before gas on, and a good closeup right at lights on, I will do better next time
But this seems to be obviously insufficient, doesnt it? Either the drop checker is reeeally slow or I really suck at this. Given the historical facts I tend towards the latter.
Last night I made some pretty big changes to the photoperiod, I had been running it at 10 hours "low tech style" but I am too nervous about nuking these new baby plants, so I have set it to 6 hours to be safe. Gas now turns on at 09:00, light starts the 30 minutes ramp up at 11:30, full light intensity at 12:00. Gas turns off at 16:00, light starts 30 minutes ramp down at 18:00, ending at 18:30
So I am injecting CO2 ~3 hours before photoperiod, but the drop checker is still teal when lights go on
I need to get a good overview of the ph profile, probably should have bought a ph meter before I went and bought all these plants but theres no instant gratification in that is there
Low light intensity, please save me from my poor life-choices! Theres no use chasing the drop checker around, because of the delay and the uncertainty it wont tell me much more than "CO2 was at this level at unknown point".
I can do a poor mans ph profile with a liquid test, but I doubt it will be anywhere near as accurate as a proper ph meter.
I will get one, im just delaying because of the price. Everyone seems to say the budget ph meters are a much riskier choice than a budget TDS meter, so I dont want to buy cheap and then have to buy an expensive one later on anyway.
Back to the plants shall we;
I hit the BBA on the wood with some glutaraldehyde yesterday, not sure if it killed it off, I didnt let it sit for as long as last time before rinsing it off. The Bucephalandra "Black Ventii" have been loosely attached to a stone, which in hindsight is way too big and takes up a ton of space in the tank. Im not wanting to disturb it again for a while so I will just have to live with it until it puts out some new growth. Excess stems from the Hygrophila polysperma is elegantly shoved into the foreground as buffer plants.
Crusty pic of center back showing Cryptocoryne spiralis 'Red', Tonina fluviatilis, Ludwigia bla bla bla 'Pantanal' and then 'Cuba'.
Spiralis 'Red' was also invitro and had a ton of plants. My first choice was Spiralis 'Tiger', but it was out of stock.
Im really hyped about the Tonina, its soo beautiful, I hope it will find my 3 kh acceptable as some have suggested it can.
Out of all the posh stems Tonina is the one I am most excited about, followed by the 'Golden' Ammannia.
Right side of tank, im going to have to make sure H. polysperma doesnt shade its neighbors too much, if it gets too rampant I can move it away for a while until the babies get going. To the right of it is Ludwigia sp. "Marilia", this plant is said to be a vigorous grower, so I think it can work ok in the corner. Sorry about my filter intake, its absolutely manky (excellent british word btw) and I will be cleaning it today. The infamous Ammannia pedicellata 'Golden' is to the right of the Buce "Black Ventii". Hoo Boy I hope it doesnt die on me. It can stunt if it wants to, just not die so badly I need to aquire it again, please and thank-you. Lastly Myriophyllum 'Guyana' is to the right of the Pogostemon helferi. I think midground can be a good choice for this and it will be good to have some bright green to balance out all the colorful collectoritis stems. I realise the squares I allotted for each plant doesnt look the most natural. I will try to adapt it to a more natural look in time, but for now my main goal is just not killing them all, aesthetics can come later.
The shrimp have gotten all of the normal Hydrocotyle tripartita and a few oak leaves to hide in, and it seems to have improved their comfort immensely. They were prone to start doing stress laps around the circumference of the fry ring when the light was brightest, and now they are relaxed and plucking away at the plants instead. I dosed the last medication on monday and did a waterchange on tuesday, and there has been no reappearance of parasites since then. The molting rate of the shrimp has gone way down and all molts look clear of eggs. Im very tempted to let them back out again today, I could use their help picking at algae and any plant leaves from the invitro plants that have broken off.
In addition to the photoperiod changes, I have increased the light intensity somewhat as well. I know I said I wasnt going to for a while, but I just cant afford to replace these plants if they die, so im going to go with what I think is the safest route. The new settings should theoretically be well within safe limits given that my water has a ton more CO2 than it used to, so a small increase in light should not tip CO2 demand over the edge, and will make it a bit easier for some of the very light hungry new plants (Cuba, Pantanal, Golden). I set the same intensity on both bars, and went for 30 % red, 6% blue, 25% cool white, 30% pure white and 25% warm white. The ratio was chosen based on a scaling down of the "Planted" preset that comes with the light. I hope that the ratio represents a good spectrum, although my trust in manufacturers is generally low.
Im sure ive forgotten something but I need to get this post wrapped up and plant the rest of the plants
Attachments
Konsa
Member
Hi @Hufsa
looking great. Can't wait to see it growing in.Please keep them updates and pics comming.
I have suggestion if you worried about the invitro plants.I am using a root stimulator that helps them to develop good root systems quickly as some invitro pots lack those.The product also boosts any epiphytes and mosses you have.
Its called Canna Rhyzotonic. I use it for a week or two when starting new plants(tank) at 1ml per 10l of water without any ill effects on live stock.It is alkaline in nature and may up your alkalinity a bit tho.
Regards Konstantin
looking great. Can't wait to see it growing in.Please keep them updates and pics comming.
I have suggestion if you worried about the invitro plants.I am using a root stimulator that helps them to develop good root systems quickly as some invitro pots lack those.The product also boosts any epiphytes and mosses you have.
Its called Canna Rhyzotonic. I use it for a week or two when starting new plants(tank) at 1ml per 10l of water without any ill effects on live stock.It is alkaline in nature and may up your alkalinity a bit tho.
Regards Konstantin
Garuf
Member
Woof. That’s some plant list. Buces are nice n all but I can only tell the difference between the very different ones 😬😅
pat1cp
Member
Garuf
Member
Also on Ceylon vs pink, Ceylon is a blousier more oval leafed plant than pink, pink if from aquasabi looks more like h’ra in shape but not colour.
Garuf
Member
Also also
Nail polish remover pads are what you need for getting glue off.
Nail polish remover pads are what you need for getting glue off.
They can melt, but in my limited experience they are much less prone to melt in a mature substrate than they would be in a brand new one, so you may have an advantage there.
Im kicking myself for not getting a picture of the drop checker right before gas on, and a good closeup right at lights on, I will do better next time
But this seems to be obviously insufficient, doesnt it?
I think you just need to turn the gas on an extra 1-1.5 hours earlier and you should be good.
You picked some tough cookies there!
Karmicnull
Member
@Garuf thank you! My hands are going to love you.
Oo, thanks for the tip! I will see if its available around these here parts. Since I have completely inert substrate im not sure if root growth will help the baby plants much, all my nutrients are in the watercolumn for now
Hahah same! Or I thought all buces looked 100% the same before I had any, and now that I have a few different varieties I can pick out subtle differences enough to tell them apart at least, so they only look 90% the same. I guess if someone really likes collecting just for the sake of collecting, having 30 different varieties of buce is fun, but im really only interested in keeping the nicest most distinct ones. I think I just have to kiss a few toads before I find the prince's, if you know what I mean 😁 I already sent Tropica's sp Red packing, it didnt compete with the rest.
I think a key part in beating collectoritis, after the acute stage, is to heavily edit the collection down to your favorites, and selling off the rest. I am planning to do that, especially with ~"slightly greenish-blue buce" number 25 through 48~. Move them on to another hobbyist that will appreciate them more.
Thanks for the info on Ceylon vs Pink/Rosa, that makes sense
Sweet, thanks 😀 I was hoping it wasnt going to be "Oh yeah they 100% always melt from invitro"
4-4,5 hours ramp up time for a 250 liter tank 🤔 Is that "allowed"?
@KirstyF what do you have?
Theres a fine line between bravery and stupidity 😁
Second installment of photos.
I was very much in a "git r' dun" mood so things were strapped to rocks and put in here n there where they fit. I wanted to be done with planting 😄
The buces were emersed grown apart from the invitro Brownie ghost, so should look a bit different once they get submersed leaves.
Bluish-green buce number 32, "Biblis"
Plagiomnium cf. affine "Pearl moss"
"Lamandau Purple" in front of "Blue Green" from before
Im calling this rock "Mt. Brownie Ghost". I felt like an actual brain surgeon gluing these tiny little sprigs on, trying to get as delicate a gluing as I could.
I think its some of my best work
I have no idea if the Brownie Ghost invitro cups are anything like the famous BG 2011/2012. I remember there was a lot of buzz around them when they were first launched, but I havent seen anything since then, and would like to know if they grow out nearly as nice looking. Keeping in mind that many pictures of BG 2011/2012 are in very purplish lighting.
A good example of this is in this 2hr aquarist article , showing it in purple light as well as neutral. I think it looks nicer in the neutral light tbh.
I very sadly lost one of my noodles this morning, it had gotten itself tangled up in the mesh I used to hold down mosses 😢 I feel like I have failed my noodles.
I was cutting escape holes on the underside of the coconut pieces, when I realised the moss has attached itself completely now and I was able to remove the mesh. Even the Cameroon moss had mostly attached, and with a little bit of gentle help keeping it down I got the mesh pulled out from between the strands. Poor little fish.. ☹️
"Hooker moss" apparently also attaches strongly, which I was surprised to find. It looks like it shouldnt grow under water and therefore I expected it to be weak and pitiful. Not so.
I also figured out why the three coconut pieces of Fissidens shown in the back of this image dont appear to be growing. When I turned them and looked at them sideways, I saw a ton of teeeeeny tiny green fronds. Oh my goodness so small. So small that apparently they are only visible at certain angles 😅 Well, this dum-dum did ask for the smallest ones!
Speaking of small, Hydrocotyle tripartita "Mini". I couldnt figure out how to plant this so I strapped it to a rock and called it a day.
Im going to grow the normal and mini side by side, and get a real good comparison photo. With CO2 they should both grow to a good maximum potential size.
Blurry photo of Mini xmas moss, tiny shrimplet celebrating freedom and photobombing.
Buce "Deep Purple" next to "Black Ventii".
This is what I did with the plants from the shrimp (/fry) rings. Used the mass of tripartita as a base, and then sprinkled sprigs of fussy posh stem plants on top. Hopefully they will survive like this, they can grow out of water if they want. Just want a back-up incase the ones below go t*ts up 😁
As I was taking the last photo I realised I still didnt clean the manky intake. I audibly groaned, because I was feeling pretty done, but told myself that if I want to be a big boy now the least I can do is clean my disgusting filter intake.
I thought I would share my method with you guys.
Keeping the filter running, I have the cut off foot of some ladies tights, that I carefully put over the filter intake, making sure not to knock any of the debris.
I wrap it around a little bit so it will stay, and then I unplug the filter. Without the tights, all the debris would start falling down into the tank. I remove the entire mesh with ladies tights on and clean it. I like to use a bottle cleaning brush, it gets in between the mesh squares and makes it much cleaner. Job done.
Unfortunately I would suspect not. I’ve had a pot myself, and I’ve read other report from people trying pots, and it’s not the infamous 2011 variety.
I hope she didn’t mind?! 😂
I do a similar thing, but without the lingerie, using a fine mesh fish net. 😆
You must have a great shop near you to get all these rarities so easily. Do they have an online store?
Ah, what does yours look like?
Nah she was cool with it once I explained what I needed it for 😁 It was a bit fiddly to cut off while she was wearing it though
