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"Dutch something or the other" 120 Gal

Whitey89 said:
Its absolutely stunning in your tank though Tom. That Ludwiga 'Tornado' is amazing aswell :woot:
Click to expand...

I did not like it as much as I thought initially. then later, I figured out how to make it denser and get it really growing well. It does grow a bit slower at 1st.
I like and want nice thick large dense groups, so I replanted the tops a few times and used the stumps to sprout new side shoots, then after a couple of rounds of that, I have a nice bunch of healthy larger stems.
As these grow out, I sell a few nicer tops, then save the side shoots and lower portions to fill out again.
 
andyh said:
Top knotch as always Tom, really like your uniform planting style, Its defo your signature style in my opinion.

The plant health is amazing!
Click to expand...

Well, it's one style. I have a number of styles. Wall of plants was one for a number of tanks.
 
The UG has piled up and grown more aggressively than in the past. As such, it's not really a foreground plant for a long time frame nor is easy to keep that way in this tank.

I'll keep the bigger pile in the front middle section and then return to more group style with multiple species rather than a single foreground type.

It was well worth a try though with the UG. the problem side has always been the Left. I have Rotala macrandra there now, it'll grows very nice there, but it's a high current region, so it'll be all over the place. I'll move it to the rear behind the main tree trunk.

Some options for the last red row: Rotala butterfly, there's some at the end of the row , about 4 stems. Not sure if it'll do favorably in the row however.
Rotala sunset, I have some growing in another tank, problem: it does not like to be transplanted often which is required by this tank and the row in question. I can do it, but it's more work than it should be. Return the Lud sphaerocarpa back to that location. It does okay but is a pale red, I wanted something more intense. L peruensis does well,m but is very common etc and has the same color as the L. red next to it. I have L arcuata, but it's too spindly. L inclinata was okay, but gets ratty and grows too fast.

The search for the plant that goes there continues.









Some changes are afoot:


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It'll be getting some Elatine in soon for that front spot, removing some if not most of the Fissidens and replacing with mini pellia. Added some new plants, L gigantea is a nice weed that now is in the middle front row.



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Removed the L sphaerocarpa, had extra R macrandra, but it'll be waving all over in this spot pretty bad.

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Still have not decided what plant will go in the front section in the middle, but likely will try some E hydropiper again and perhaps HC./Mic umbrosum "Monte Carlo".
R. macrandra is in a serious need of a trim.

UG is starting to actively grow/fill back in. Seems to not do much for 4-8 weeks, then takes off.
Pantanal is shaping up better after a slight CO2 issue.

I've learned this tank is very touchy about CO2, mostly related to the very high light values.
I may slow things down and drop to 75% max output like the 180 Gallon.
The other idea is to add a dual pipe bean animal like CPR prefilter and this will help a fair amount on this tank.
I'll do this in a month or so.




Goldnuggets_zpsf338636e.jpg
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Been folowing this tank for a long tank now. I still love it. Never seen plants that healthy. Loved the thick UG carpet.
 
Hopefully in another 2-3 months, it'll be at the peak. I might even break out the nice camera equipment and do a real photo shoot.
The Rear Right has some P stellata which has nice purple color on the abaxial side of the leaves, the plants are not not visible in the pics.
Obviously some trimming of the macrandra and some growing in by some other plants, but that will be fairly quick at this point.

I'll try a few different plants in the front central foreground area.
I'd like to get some Dwarf mini Riccia since it's fast and easy.

Then get a few pics and try something else.
 
Some sections are progressing well, still waiting for some plants for that front section.
The Mic umbrosum monte carlo is growing even if I had one tiny sprig to start. A single sprig of E hydropiper also made it.
Mini pellia is growing in on a few pieces of the wood nicely. I'll tie some more on today.
I much prefer the look of this compared to Fissidens which can get a bit weedy and frags everywhere.
I'm okay with the Rotala macrandra now where it's at, I resisted placing it there for a long long time.
It's relatively manageable in this location also.
UG is always happiest in this far corner.
I'm not entirely happy with the color development of the L acruata, but it's shaded by the main wood and the other Myrio behind it.
I might remove it and then allow the mini butter fly to arc around the back side of the wood over to that location. People by that plant, they do not buy L arcuata really.
I topped 90% of the L senegalensis this time instead of uprooting. Then replanted the tops. Does not give quite as nice look while those tops grow back and the bottoms resprout.
But I'll have a pretty dense even growth after wards. When I topped and replanted only fresh tops, the plants grew much faster also. But I did not get a lot of production for sale....and it's more work.
I'll uproot and replant the Downoi in a week or so, this will clean that spot up some and make it more even/uniform.
I suppose I could try the A. reineckii mini, but the long term look/care is critical for the locations I want for that plant.

Hygro Chai is another one I'll be working with, likely will phase out the H araguaia or move it over where the L acurata is now and put the chai up front.

As far as Gold nuggets, there's another one in this pic below also. The R macrandra trimmed low like this looks decent, I do not like it so tall and whipping in the current.






UGandRmac_zpsa6211a72.jpg
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The monte carlo Micrantherum is growing in nicely.
Mini A reineckii is doing well. Dwarf riccia on the branch will be expanded here and there.
Removed the Fissidens branch on the far right side and replaced with a thicker Mini pellia branch. I'll add more as I harvest of can buy more of the mini pellia to fill that section in, the branch will fill in nicely, but it'll take a couple of weeks.

resizedtopview3202013_zps1f623bc1.jpg
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BTW, I jokingly said that the A reineckii is selling for 50$ a stem, and just pulled that $ out of my butt, well.....2 people are offering it for that amount it seems as they thought I was serious.
Haha, I'm a schiester.
 
I tried to put a large lace plant in the rear right corner, but it was just too large.
I'll try E gussonii in the front open spot.
You can see the trim method for the Monte carlo, it's much firmer than you think, it's a tough thick mat, nowhere near as delicate as Gloss, ET, EH etc.
It'll slowly crawl over things.
I replaced about 10 sq ft in a client's tank with that little strip I removed, so it's very dense growth.
Fish did not uproot it at all.
Client's tank is running about 35-25 micromol where it's growing and it appears to have a very wide light tolerance.

TopviewMay12th_zps910d28c6.jpg[/URL]
PosttrimmedMonteCarlo_zps5f51be33.jpg[/URL]
 
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