Help With Plants On Wood

[Lee iley]

Too late Ive already ordered the plants I have listed above, have a look and tell me if Ive made a big mistake, I usually do I bought too big of wood and although it looked the same in the shop, when they are water logged they are 2 different colours so cant use both in the tank. I also bought about 10 kilos of dragon rock way too much lol, Im not very good at this

Buying more is better in my oppinion. You can always change scapes

 

[Tommy]

By the looks of it, all they are all slow growing and all attach to wood/rocks. Apart from the crypts. You can lay them all out in the places you want them in the tank and gradually add more as you go along I have done this over the last 2 month. Crypts are a beautiful plant but plant them in a soil based substrate. Hope this helps.

Cheers, lee

Thanks Lee, I watched a youtube video cant remember whos Ive watched that many and they had the crypto petchii on wood, it looked good too so I thought it would be ok.

 

[Tommy]

i remember seeing on george farmers youtube that he put monte carlo in between some rocks and that it would grow to drape down the rocks, if memory serves he mentioned that jurijs jutjajevs had shown it to him.

if you don't know much these two individuals youtube channels will be a great source of information.

Thanks for the monte carlo suggestion David, I will add it to my list. Ive watched loads of George Farmers and Jurijs aquascaping videos, they make it look easy.Its not so easy for a first time.

 

[Lee iley]

Thanks Lee, I watched a youtube video cant remember whos Ive watched that many and they had the crypto petchii on wood, it looked good too so I thought it would be ok.

Watch George farmers You tube videos, crypts and jave fern are his favourite plants he uses them in all his scapes. I have learned loads from his videos.

Cheers, lee

 

[Tommy]

Buying more is better in my oppinion. You can always change scapes

I do have another 3 tanks to do so it will come in handy, those plants I bought came to just over £100 not cheap by any means.

 

[Tommy]

Watch George farmers You tube videos, crypts and jave fern are his favourite plants he uses them in all his scapes. I have learned loads from his videos.

Cheers, lee

Ive been watching his videos Lee, he makes it look easy lol.

 

[Lee iley]

Ive been watching his videos Lee, he makes it look easy lol.

I know he is brilliant at doing it. All his scapes are slow growing and low maintenance set ups. They look great.

 

[david watson]

get a small tank that you can scape, let grow for a month or 2 then tear it down and re scape it again and again until you are happy with the end result.

 

[Tommy]

I know he is brilliant at doing it. All his scapes are slow growing and low maintenance set ups. They look great.

So with my plant choices I take it they are all low maintenance as well? That's what I hoping anyway

 

[Lee iley]

So with my plant choices I take it they are all low maintenance as well? That's what I hoping anyway

Yes they are so you need to have low to medium lighting. The crypts will melt at first but they will soon bounce bk.

 

[Tommy]

get a small tank that you can scape, let grow for a month or 2 then tear it down and re scape it again and again until you are happy with the end result.

I was just thinking of doing that yesterday, Ive jumped in at the deep end with my roma 240 and I don't have a lot of time before my LFS want to give me my fish back they've had them for a month now.

 

[Tommy]

Yes they are so you need to have low to medium lighting. The crypts will melt at first but they will soon bounce bk.

I don't think the led light that came with the fluval roma 240 will be high lighting its most likely low to medium, would it matter if they had a higher power light? I was going to add a fluval aquasky led.

 

[Lee iley]

I don't think the led light that came with the fluval roma 240 will be high lighting its most likely low to medium, would it matter if they had a higher power light? I was going to add a fluval aquasky led.

It depends what plants you have and if you are using co2. You don't want high lighting if you have slow growing plants you will just stress the plants out.

Cheers, lee

 

[Tommy]

It depends what plants you have and if you are using co2. You don't want high lighting if you have slow growing plants you will just stress the plants out.

Cheers, lee

I didn't know that, I just thought the plants would like higher power lighting. I will be using liquid Co2 with the intention of setting up a proper Co2 system in the future.

 

[Lee iley]

I didn't know that, I just thought the plants would like higher power lighting. I will be using liquid Co2 with the intention of setting up a proper Co2 system in the future.

Fast growing plants do like the higher light. Slower growing plants crypts java fern anubias etc like low moderate lighting.

 

[Tommy]

It looks like some of my plants will be here tomorrow, is there a way to keep the plants alive out of the tank while I set up the hardscape? Thanks.

 

[Lee iley]

It looks like some of my plants will be here tomorrow, is there a way to keep the plants alive out of the tank while I set up the hardscape? Thanks.

Put them in a air tight bag with a little water, make sure plants are wet aswel.

 

[Tommy]

Put them in a air tight bag with a little water, make sure plants are wet aswel.

Thanks, Ive started my hardscape will you take a look at the photos and tell me if its any good and what I need to change? Thanks.

 

[Lee iley]

Thanks, Ive started my hardscape will you take a look at the photos and tell me if its any good and what I need to change? Thanks.

Its looking ok but you do need to make a few changes for it look more interesting. The sand is too flat you need to add some depth to it. Higher at the bk sloping down towards the front. The wood looks fine but the rocks don't look right the way you have them. Instead of having them in a circle around the wood make it look more natural if you know what I mean. Space them out more and have them staggered. Hope this helps. It just takes time to get it right there is no rush, just keep messing with it until you are happy with it.

Cheers, lee

 

[david watson]

to start with its far easier to use another tank to try mimic the core layout then the more you do it the easier it will be.
have a look at this: https://tropica.com/en/inspiration/layout/Layout108/21195 the island style scape is good as it will allow for fairly good flow around the tank its rather easy to ballance it out ant just looks good.

play around my first few tanks looked rubbish so don't stress.

dave