GA in-store display 120P Iwagumi - Fly above the giant cliff

[viktorlantos]

This tank was featured in the latest Aquatic Gardener Magazine.

Thanks for Luca Gallarca - Aquabase for interviewing me. 🙂

 

[viktorlantos]

You might try Monte Carlo next time, the rooting is super strong and will not pull up, makes trimming less problematic.

Cheers Tom, thanks for your suggestion. Just got the first ones from Tropica i guess. Looking forward to that. As far as i know this is also from you right? 🙂

Victor, the UG/HC temp issue: when the temp goes up, the growth rates also go up, so you need to add more CO2 and ferts, otherwise plants autofragment. O2 also goes down when the temps go up. We have large temp swings where I live, so I learned this a while ago. This happens with most all plants. I had this happen with Gloss in a large client tank. The maintenance people turned the heater up to about 30C from 27C.

Yup will try the warmer temp more CO2 thing. On other hand i am more worried that i do shock livestocks with this. Warmer water usually has lass oxygen so the fishes shrimps are less tolerant to CO2 increases.

But we do have 24/7 air conditioners in our showroom to keep consisten water temp for all tank. This way the swings are not that major. Usually between 20-24celsius. But never more than 25C that is the upper limit and where problem start for us 🙂

UG..... how i hate this plant 🙂
Honestly this is not an aquatic plant 🙂 Just there to drive so many people crazy. I've asked about the secret at Tropica. As everyone tells different thing and everyone has different experience..... fresh soil, more light, less fert, no carbo..... and then i see your tank, or Oliver Knott famous UG tank and many others and all of this is BS 🙂
This is an undemanding plant and the reason why we probably can't grow it in our larger tanks, as the flow is too high and the light is too powerful (but again then i see your tank and this is all BS 🙂 ) catch 22 🙂
Now we grow this in a nano tank where the filtration is super silent (flow slow), light is ok, but not too much. CO2 is required i see that, and we do not fertilize it frequently. But if a plant has so many silly things then i just do not need that 🙂 Each plant need to live and work well with others and if we focusing too much to one single species then all others will have issues after a time. So i put this to the end of the list and may will do an UG only minimal in the future.

 

[plantbrain]

Yes, livestock often has some issues when you have more CO2, but, you also get more growth which means higher O2 ppm. I am at 9-10 ppm of O2 in my tanks, but my CO2 is also high.
I use wet/dry filters and sump;s, I lose more CO2 from degassing, but, I get more O2 and a more resilient tank. I can simply add more CO2 without much issue.
I know Amano knows about the O2 issues. But they are not big on sumps even though he has one on his own tank at home🙂

Same here.

Yes, likely the same plant, I spoke with Troels, I ID'ed the plant as the genus Micrantherum. I was correct based on Tropica's DNA markers for loci for the genus.
We have the same stuff.

It's pesky at 1st, but allow the plant to arch up and then it will come back down and form a mat after about 3-4 weeks.
Nice plant. 25C? That's pretty cool actually for most of the people in the USA.

I've long mentioned the issue with lower temps= more O2, slower rates of growth= much easier management.
If you went to 20-22C ranges, this is 2-3X easier than say 28-30C for the same plant species.

Huge factor.

Q10 metabolism growth rates increase 20-100% for some plant species.
O2 drops about 1-2 ppm. This is a huge factor that is often not discussed and over looked very often.

UG is a CO2 demanding plant, Troels, Ole will both tell you this. I've found it likes current and is not picky otherwise, light/CO2 are the main things.
Sediment? Not really. I just uprooted replanted this mat, but I've replanted and regrown it maybe 6-7X now with some of the densest thick mats I've ever seen anywhere on line.
Temp is about 28C in the tank, I'll get Ick on the Botia and Elephant nose if I go lower.

Yes, temperamental plant. But only with CO2 really.
Not so much with the other ferts/light.

So it's like the canary in a coal mine: the plant that will fail if something is off.not good with the CO2.
You agree that some plants will require more CO2 than others to grow well in a mix plant species setting, no?
Some do well with no CO2 enrichment, others, they require it.

 

[plantbrain]

Oh yes, the same thing will happen as the mat of UG grows, it'll pull upo in some spots, but this is due to the fish in some cases digging under the mat, and perhaps strong pearling O2 etc, the roots are healthly under neath those sections where it lifts off.
Not like the HC or Gloss issues I had with temp.

 

[Karen]

Hello,
your HC-tank looked really great! It was a pleasure to read the thread.
You wrote that you covered ADA Amazonia Soil with the Amazonia Powder. How much Powder did you put on the soil? And there is no problem with the ground circulation?
Thanks,
Karen

 

[viktorlantos]

Hello,
your HC-tank looked really great! It was a pleasure to read the thread.
You wrote that you covered ADA Amazonia Soil with the Amazonia Powder. How much Powder did you put on the soil? And there is no problem with the ground circulation?
Thanks,
Karen

Thanks for your comment.
Powder is usually 1 or 2 cm on the top of the soil.
We use it successfully with small root plants like HC or Elatine. There this add a great value.
Otherwise it is more of an aesthethic thing. In smaller tanks helps with the tank size soil grain ratio to look better.

 

[plantbrain]

Viktor, I think if you can do a nice HC rug like this, you can certainly do the UG.
99% is CO2 related.

 

[plantbrain]

Also, I think the finer ADA powder type may help root better for the UG. You know you have to beat this plant, otherwise it'll bother you forever🙂
That's the way this stuff goes.

 

[viktorlantos]

Also, I think the finer ADA powder type may help root better for the UG. You know you have to beat this plant, otherwise it'll bother you forever🙂
That's the way this stuff goes.

I feel the pressure already 😉 Had to do this sometime. Your tank shows that it works well with other plants. Just need to do another attempt with this. Probably in a CO2 reactor tank next time to help myself a little 🙂

A little above there was a question about powder and normal soil. Since we have 2-3 tanks with normal soil and powder on top i made a quick shot from one of these to show the difference when the powder is used in a high energy setup.

The photo not that perfect as in real life, but maybe helpful to some. The eleocharis sp mini is 3 months old on this shot. In the powder soil the grass is super dense just like the root. And as the larger grains comes the root will be less dense and the rotts goes easier in the finer soil than going down.

In real life this is much more visible. So i think powder has more usable value than just aesthetic.
We do have other tanks where powder is not used and the density is much less there. Small things, but add a nice visual impact if you do afterburner on your plants.

 

[plantbrain]

This is true for hairgrasses, the grain size is important, if you can chose 2-3 mm, this is a good trade off, the powder is 1-2 mm roughly, but it does break down pretty fast relative to the normal size. I had some when it first came available, I only see dust these days. the normal stuff is still around. the powder is good for the initial stuff, but it's not something that will much good a couple of years later.

HC, Elatine hydropiper, anything that has trouble rooting due shrimp or fish picking at it etc, the UG however as little issue being thicker in the normal type.

I got extremely dense Belem grass using Black flourite sand, which is about 1/2 the size of powder type. So the nutrient content has nothing to do with it(well, if you do not add anything to the water, then sure), the particle size does.

This is maybe a few times denser than what I've seen from the ADA vendors in the USA. Plain old black flourite sand, nothing special here.

 

[miuYH]

Very nice tank!
I just have a question for you, how often do you pull out your UG carpet and replant it?
I am just over my 6 month mark with my tank and I am finding my carpet to begin lifting in some spots. Do you cut out the section that is lifting and replant that section? Or do you pull out the entire carpet and replant it all?
Any advice will help greatly!
Thank you!

 

[plantbrain]

Some trim the UG like grass. This should work and be fine I suspect.
Some pull the mat up and then replant plugs from that.

If you do not want to replant or sell UG, then trimming it like grass might be the best method.

I sell about 50% of what I uproot and replant from the mat and people tend to buy UG very quickly here.