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Something... Something... Shallow UG Tank!

Cool, hopefully enough to go on in this journal for other folks to start a UG setup with some confidence.

Need to get it to at least a year before we can really say anything of merit though.
It’s made me consider using it in my next ‘rivergumi’ set up. Stripped the plants from my 600 last night ready to empty tonight for rescape. Going to be utilising some wild rhino stone and was considering a single species plant….maybe UG could be the one.
Im going to utilise new Tropica soil so I’m guessing with the ammonia theory id be best dark starting with a mature filter if I go down this route?
Great little scape Geoff and a frat journal too, thanks for sharing your experience and knowledge :thumbup:
 
Stripped the plants from my 600 last night ready to empty tonight for rescape.

It appears we’re on the same timetable @Ady34 😉

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Half way through. Needs a final clean before rescaping but keeping the sump ticking over for today.

Going to be utilising some wild rhino stone and was considering a single species plant….maybe UG could be the one.

That would be stunning 🤩

Im going to utilise new Tropica soil so I’m guessing with the ammonia theory id be best dark starting with a mature filter if I go down this route?

Mature filter, dark starting with just soil and daily water changes worked out well here. Also using floaters to mop up the water column initially after dark start and background Co2 24/7.

On the Co2 part I’m unsure just how much it matters for the UG, but the lower pH range between photo and dark period from running 24/7 seems to suit its food sources.
 
15 weeks:

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Lowering the lighting has resulted in greener UG. Haven’t noticed any difference in leaf form, just an increase in chlorophyll.

At a place now where trimming is on the cards. Not really sure how to go about this. May test a corner and trim like eleocharis and see what happens before committing tank wide. Noticed others cut strips away from the edges and let it recolonise, but this seems to be done to sell portions on rather than for any other sensible reason.

Spread is good though, the UG is even beginning to grip onto some of the rocks:

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Still just one solitary flower:

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Hoping for a few companions in the coming months. The flower coincided with the warmer weather. Room temperature is 25C or above during the day. Near the light it will be locally warmer.

The shrimp are also doing well. Noticed they’ve been breeding whilst away for a week. Adults are no longer berried and there’s some babies dotted around the tank:

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Hope everyone is looking forward to the warm and sunny weather this weekend 😎
 
Sorry to keep bleating on about this flower but was wondering when it would change colour to match other reference photos:

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Finally turning purple.

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There is quite a bit of intricacy lost by using a phone, will have to dig out a camera for a proper macro shot.

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Wish came true as well. There’s another flower on it’s way as you can see above, just at the bottom of the shot.
 
I’m finally growing some in my 45p, hope it will continue this way :)

Love, love, love hearing this @CooKieS

The stuff is widely sold in in vitro pots everywhere, but not much consensus on how to grow the damn stuff successfully. It’s high time we started kicking ass and taking names so there’s some comprehensive agreement on caring for UG. Keep us posted 😉
 
Survived the tankwide trim. Mainly just topping up water and a couple of weeks since water change:

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More flowers too:

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Will do maintenance this week; glassware, pipes, clean the glass, water change etc…

Seems pretty stable and content for the time being.
 
Had a bit of a play around since the last post. Dumped an additional centimetre of fresh soil over the entirety of the tank:

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The shrimp were all removed before anyone begins to worry, above shot is a week after the burying. It didn’t burn the UG, but it does appear to have brought about thicker leaves:

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It also brought on some algae but nothing too major:

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Carpet is getting closer to what others have in their tanks; more thicker leaves than stolons and bladders.

Fast forward three weeks since taking a dump in the tank:

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Getting back to full coverage. With a few trims with this form it’s possible to achieve that putting green appearance everyone seems to go bonkers for.

I think the important point to get across is that in all the forms the UG has taken so far, none of them have been unhealthy. When feeding the paramecium there were a lot of bladders. Without the addition of paramecium, everything sort of stopped. Added the stimulus of fresh soil and no paramecium addition, just daily K and micros, we have mainly leaves and bladders that remain in the substrate.

Above the waterline:

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Flowers are still with us with more on the way:

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We’re over six months now:

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Owed a trim, a water change, general tidy up. However, dragging the ‘ol feet with this one. Torn between taking it all the way to a year as is to see if it will make it, or, replanting the rear to create some change. It is mind numbing, even freshly trimmed and orderly.

We’re down to just K and micros ongoing now, no paramecium going in anymore. There’s plenty of visible life in the substrate scurrying about when you look closely regardless.

Have found removing submersed sections of UG from this tank for emersed setups works very well. Using 1-2-Grow pots directly into emersed the UG failed rapidly.

Beyond that not much else to say. It’s like that episode of Black Mirror where that guy is doomed to the equivalent of an eternity in the sterile computer construct where they speed up time to condemn him to a horrifying and cruel descent into complete madness. Anyway… happy Saturday everyone 😂

Hope you’re all enjoying your tanks 😎
 
Trimmed, bit of house keeping and a different feeding schedule.

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UG appears to be thickening the carpet up with broader leaves appearing under the new circumstances.

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Will repeat the process a few times before jumping to any conclusions.
 
Looking great Geoff, the Aquasky adds a new dimension. And no mean feat growing UG in the first place, let alone keeping it healthy for this long. Shared on instagram 👍
 
Show off 😀

Well the feedback from the eldest son is it looks ‘terrible’ and the wife said ‘meh’ 😂 Tough crowd around here @John q

Looking great Geoff, the Aquasky adds a new dimension. And no mean feat growing UG in the first place, let alone keeping it healthy for this long. Shared on instagram 👍

Cheers Tim. Was convinced that the central, outward radiating light spread from the ONF was holding this tank back. There’s a flipping rock dead centre under the unit 😂 Hardly a good use of an ONF Nano.

Added the Aquasky to see if the carpet can be improved with more uniform light across the footprint. Unit has only been on a few hours and the whole carpet is pearling like a good’un for the first time. So far so good. Know UG can be done so much better than this so will keep plugging away. Hopefully have some useful suggestions for folks at the one year mark.
 
If ug can be done better it ain’t by me. Can not get it to take off at all so I’m hugely envious of your tank even if you think it ain’t so.

It’s a bit premature but here’s what makes sense about startup from this experience so far @Garuf

RO water remineralised to 5GH and 1KH is working fine. @Christel in her latest wonderful book puts the River Thodupuzha, where UG can be found in India, in water with <1KH and 0.9GH with TDS 31.3. Suffice to say soft water with low carbonate hardness is the way to go.

Burying UG deep into soil at startup is a must. If you don’t it will result in failure.

On the burying point above… Dark starting the tank upfront to lower ammonia levels from the soil makes sense with carpeting species in general. Helps lower the chance of melt. In this setup it was only a week long dark start but would hazard a guess that this was important given subsequent experience.

A paramecium culture being added at water change each week is a good way to feed UG. Freshly hatched baby brine shrimp may seem like an alternative, but can result in algae due to their limited survival time in fresh water before polluting the water column to no benefit. A diverse substrate with lots of critters is useful. If you have a rain barrel with life in it’s worth considering using the rain water. Ours here always have dead snails and slugs that find their way in so the water has high ammonia levels. Something to watch out for before adding.

Adding a very small amount of potassium each day seems to help. Micros I’m still unsure of but add it in very small amounts regardless. Nitrate and phosphate via inorganic means is useless to UG it appears.

UG seems extremely tolerant to various amounts of dissolved Co2. It also seems pretty forgiving to varied light levels having played around over the months. Plummeting your pH by going over the top with Co2 isn’t wise, less for the plant and more for the diversity of life it eats.

I will say this is a mono species setup, without stock. Others have done just fine with mixed planting and off the shelf ferts. Those tanks seem to have high plant mass besides UG and use leaner fert regimes, so it’s highly likely their water column is kept lean and close to what UG is accustomed to despite the comprehensive fertilisation being added.

Take all this with a pinch of salt @Garuf, it’s entirely anecdotal and only happened once. Hopefully there’s something useful to you though that may trigger a thought as to what may have happened in your experiences.
 
I think I’ll refer you to my hobby return thread and then any helpful hints are all in the same place rather than throwing this one all awry.
 
I prefer the looks of the ONF nano but I get why you swapped it, light wise :) looks great, but I have to ask, is it at all entertaining for you or is it just a project/need to find out?
 
but I have to ask, is it at all entertaining for you or is it just a project/need to find out?

Don’t consider them entertainment, but do get a great amount of enjoyment watching all sorts of plants grow. Plants don’t lie, they are always truthful in telling you how they’re doing. Very few things are that simple and straightforward in life.

I think I’ll refer you to my hobby return thread and then any helpful hints are all in the same place rather than throwing this one all awry.

Will have a read and follow the thread @Garuf
 
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