Plants out for rescape, how to care for?

[Rob P]

Hi,

I've blagged a Rio180 to use as a temp tank whilst I attempt to rescape my Roma125.

I'll be removing all fish and plants to this holding tank whilst the rescape is done. It could take me at least a week or two (internal background to remove etc).

Some of the plants won't be transferred to the new scape but a few will, so these need caring for in the short term.

At the minute they are been provided with Grobeam lighting (20%), ferts, liquid carbon, planting substrate (aquabasis) and pressurised CO2.

The Rio180 has the original light fitting (2 x T5's?) with what looks like old tubes in, but they work ok.

I'm thinking along the lines of dumping in a bag of play sand as a cheap/temp substrate and planting into this and continuing with ferts/liquid co2 for the period the plants are removed. Not planning on running pressurised CO2 in the temp tank.

Any thing I am missing or should that do the trick?

Thanks,
Rob

 

[tim]

You may find the two t5s a lot stronger than your grobeams personally I just keep my plants in a bucket no light and daily water changes and they've been fine.

 

[Rob P]

How long for in a bucket tim? I could remove a tube and leave just one, it doesn't look that bright in there... Probably take me a month knowing me! 😀

 

[Andy Thurston]

Hi rob the lights in the 180 are pretty high, if you use it as a holding tank for the plants you will need co2.
Its a shame you don't own the 180 because you could just scape that and leave the current setup as your holding tank, transferring filter, heater and fish etc when the scape is done. I'd only keep the plants in a bucket for a few days maybe a week

 

[Rob P]

Well I could have it, I don't think my mate is expecting it back lol...

However, as much as it's a nice size it has no cabinet and wouldn't fit in my living room anyway. And the missus would murder me. Shame!

What about if I ditched the T5 fitting and got a piece of ply to cover the top (since it's missing a flap already and i have some jumpy surface fish) and then cut out a slot where I could then hook the Roma unit with the grobeams over. I can then control the lighting and keep it low. Would this idea coupled with the bag of play sand keep the plants alive and well for a couple of weeks?

Regards,
Rob

 

[Andy Thurston]

If your dosing enough nutrients then yes you could keep plants indefinitely in playsand

 

[Rob P]

Cool. Sounds the best plan then. £3 for a 15kg bag from Argos sounds like my kind of thing lol 😉