"Dutch something or the other" 120 Gal

[flygja]

Forgive me for saying this, but I hope one day you'll be too busy to trim and let it grow into a gigantic bush of colour. I think it'll look really sweet! 😵

 

[plantbrain]

 

[Nathaniel Whiteside]

*mouth wide open*

Stunning shots!

 

[Edvet]

Impressive shots!

 

[GreenNeedle]

First time I've seen this Tom and whilst the plants are very 'structurally' arranged I find it absolutely stunning. Ver visually appelaing to the eye and the range of colour 'banks' against each other provides superb contrast from one to the next and so on.

Lovely setup.

 

[Stormy]

you have the unique ability to bring out the best of any plants Tom!
your tank is like an encyclopedia, it shows us how the plants are supposed to look like!

those colors are insane!!!

 

[plantbrain]

First time I've seen this Tom and whilst the plants are very 'structurally' arranged I find it absolutely stunning. Ver visually appelaing to the eye and the range of colour 'banks' against each other provides superb contrast from one to the next and so on.

Lovely setup.

View the video.

 

[plantbrain]

I will likely not trim anything etc in this tank for another 5-6 days. The tornado is going nuts as are most of the back ground plants, the red pant is doing very well ATM, not sure why.
Tends to grow a bit paler in the middle stages and then reddens as it tops the surface.
I could trim a few rows and make it so you can see the A. reineckii mini, trim the Tonina a bit, wait another 2 days, trim the red pant, trim some of the front Downoi, clean up some etc.
But.......I'll wait and let it over flow.
Some whiners have asked for it.
Tank shall be quite overgrown.
Added more CO2 and ferts to keep up with things.
NO3 drops fast, so I've already spotting BGA in the tops of the Tornado, which I only see if the NO3 drops too much.
A day or two later, the BGA is gone after dosing KNO3.
So I've gone from what I thought would be non limiting at 30 ppm of NO3 from KNO3, not to mention good heavy feeding of the fish, likely adds at least 10 ppm a week, to adding another 15 ppm NO3 dose. So about 50-60ppm a week. That's a lot, but.the CO2 is high, the light is very high also and the tank is packed with a lot of stem plants and is a very shallow wide tank.

 

[Edvet]

Can you share any tips on the Tonina as i can't seem to get it going very well?

 

[plantbrain]

Light pretty much, it's resistant to algae, CO2 variation(not CO2 demanding, likely due to low rate of growth relative to many stem plants).
Sediment does NOT matter, it has very wimpy root systems and you can see the whitish fine roots in the water column pretty well.
Grows somewhat well once transitioned to emergent culture and will branch well. Does decent branching in higher current regions and can be floated and grown that way also.
Good light all the way down helps and regular trims. I suspect it does not like hard water, high KH, maybe 5-8 etc might be the upper range for this one, but I could certainly be quite mistaken.
Likes Low pH/ ADa or rich sediment= myth.
I can say that.

Erio setaceum type 3 is a far more difficult plant IME.
It's finally doing well again in another tank. Finicky plant.
I can grow it fine, but learning to scape with it over a long time frame(years) is quite another matter, I have the record thus far.

 

[plantbrain]

E. hydropiper is growing in after much replanting, the top sloped part is still getting uprooted by the elephant noses and shrimp. The soil is new and is lighter up in that section.



Blood vomits are doing well, and time to split a few already.

I need to find a better home of the S. uraupes and lago grade.
I'll likely switch the UG with them and then move them back somewheres.
A few other minor changes I suppose.
E hydropiper is a PITA to get a larger decent rug if you have fish.
I have ample Belem grass and Monte carlo as well as HC if need be.
It grows, but fish go after it. It roots deeper than HC etc also, so it's weird to me.
Speaking of which, I now have 100 Rasbora kubotai green neon.
Very nice fish, does not leap to it's death, but does not contrast well in this tank, so it might end up over in the 70 Gallon Buce tank. Nice fish though.
I drilled some more holes in the wood and will add some more Mini pellia in those spots.
The tops of the wood are coming along well with this liverwort.

 

[Martin in Holland]

always amazing to see how everything grows and looks healthy in your tank.... I want that toohoohoo

 

[plantbrain]

Added the nice Erio compressum I got from Aaron.
This was troubling because they are not easy to scape with.

I found a good location and had to redo a little bit of the design, but it's a nice fit and a nice dramatic plant.

Not easy to plant, extremely buoyant.

I got mad at the Elatine hydropiper. Removed it and put a smaller patch on the far left corner instead. As I removed it, I noticed it had really grown in very well.
Still, it did not grow at the same rate the other plants around it were.
I think very very high light and finer sediment would help. Smaller shallower tanks.

I added the UG back into that location.
It's easy.

Added the S uruapes to the side section and the L senegalnesis also. Removed the Rotala green. Nice easy plant, but I wanted to keep certain species. Drilled holes into the wood in various spots to stuff more Mini pellia into.

Will get pics up later tonight.

And what the tank looks like after uprooting EH

I am trying to use more native USA wild collected by hobbyist plants.
R. sunset, Erio compressum, L. sphaerocarpa etc.

 

[flygja]

Who do I need to bribe/steal/rob to get these results?

 

[plantbrain]

This is what the tank looked like after uprooting the EH, Cuphea and UG


Nice eh?
So when I folks whine about why the water is a little hazy, well, frankly they HAVE NO IDEA.
A day later it looks like this:









The Erio compressum is a good fit in this location. It's among the most buoyant of any plant I've worked with. I'll trim some of the others and focus more on those for awhile. R macrandra needs a trim, R. sunset needs to grow in a bit more, I'll add more EH to the L corner, Erio setaceum type 3 needs to bounce back and do well. I'm not entirely happy with that. the R. mini butter fly has not done well since I redid the tank, but it's coming back now. L sphaerocarpa needs a trim but I'll wait awhile till it gets another 5-6 cm taller, then cut back more. So I'm getting there, slowly, but the muck in the water, vs the next day, that gives you an idea of what I do. I do not have a mechanical filter other than a 4 inch block of 20 ppi sponge. And I might only clean it once every 3-6 months. You are also looking into 75-120 cm distances with high light and a lot of pearling bubbles. Makes it pretty hard to get the clear shots.

 

[George Farmer]

The E. compressum works a treat. It brings a welcome contrast in texture.

 

[plantbrain]

Yep George, it's a big old nice plant no one has really scaped with. Seen a few farm tanks with it, no scapes. A local club goes out hunting for various local native plants to try out.
So I get to try out some nice new plants, but also to highlight and promote them to the rest of the hobby. A plant does not sell or look well in a boring ratty farm tank.
I wanted to add some E. agustifolia var. vesuvius or a small red sword, but this did one better, since it's a native new plant and an Erio to boot, as well as being rare.

Adds a more Dutch style to the layout and makes it look better. A lot of finer leaved plants, so....

I just whacked the Ludwigia red back to make the room. Worked out better than I'd thought I'd end up with without too much work and change.
The Ealtine hydropiper was the bigger headache and then replanting the UG. Erio was an easy planting, but it's super light and will float/uproot easily.
That's it's worse trait. It's like Erio parkeri which is among the easiest Erio to grow, also a native, but it's almost too common here these days. I'd thought of doign an entire foreground of Erio parkeri in my 180 or downoi to replace the Starougyne.

 

[aliclarke86]

Hi tom is the plant at the front centre erio trithuria sp.?

Sent from my GT-I9505G using Tapatalk

 

[plantbrain]

Hi tom is the plant at the front centre erio trithuria sp.?

Sent from my GT-I9505G using Tapatalk

Yes, Trithuria species, it's not an erio, from Australia.
Erio Compressum is from the USA as is E parkeri.

 

[Gilles]

Hey Tom, besides the 20ppi block of 10cm what else is your filtration about? That result in just one day looks awsome!