Tom's Bucket O' Mud - The End

[Alastair]

Very jealous of that carpet

 

[Rob P]

Yeh, me too! What is it again Tom? Lilaeopsis brasiliensis? In hard tap water?

Stunning.

 

[BigTom]

Yeh, me too! What is it again Tom? Lilaeopsis brasiliensis? In hard tap water?

Stunning.

Yup, predominantly L. brasiliensis but with some Eleocharis, M. 'monte carlo', Glosso and Al's mystery carpet plant mixed in. My tap water is actually fairly soft, but the lime in the substrate pushes it up a lot.

 

[Rob P]

Al's mystery carpet plant lol. Didn't do much for me in hi tech. Gave it all to Lee (Roots Dyed Black low tech) and saw his tank last week, it's going great guns.

I do wonder if some plants don't like co2... 😀

Looking great anyway Tom, amazing sense of depth 🙂

 

[BigTom]

Cheers Rob. Al's plants basically sat and did nothing in my tank for months, it's only in the past few weeks that they've taken off and are chucking out runners. Just seem to need a long acclimatisation maybe.

 

[Edvet]

Wow, nice!
(is that a stich or a crop, which lens)

 

[Lee Sweeting]

Its looking amazing Tom. 🙂

 

[EnderUK]

I've never experienced this unexplained crypts melting that other's have. That tank looks fantastic though.

 

[BigTom]

Wow, nice!
(is that a stich or a crop, which lens)

Cheers Ed. Had the pano head on the tripod so thought I might as well use it! 5 stitched shots at 12mm (24mm equivalent) but with loads of overlap. It does exaggerate the width a bit.

 

[BigTom]

I've never experienced this unexplained crypts melting that other's have. That tank looks fantastic though.

It's not really unexplained. Crypts tend to live in swampy areas and riverbanks where the water levels often change, so they've adapted to quickly shed their leaves and grow new ones appropriate for the conditions when they experience large environmental changes. In this case bring uprooted from someone else's tank, sent through the post and replanted in totally condition water, haha.

 

[ourmanflint]

I can only echo what others have said already! Magnifico!

 

[EnderUK]

It's not really unexplained. Crypts tend to live in swampy areas and riverbanks where the water levels often change, so they've adapted to quickly shed their leaves and grow new ones appropriate for the conditions when they experience large environmental changes. In this case bring uprooted from someone else's tank, sent through the post and replanted in totally condition water, haha.

Like I said I haven't experienced this with my crypts, either in first planting them or when uprooted them tore out half their roots and replanted them in the new scape. The little I had was a slight darkening of the leaves. I have read that some people do a minor change then all their crypts in the tank have a mass melt before growing back. The swamp thing explains this I guess.

 

[BigTom]

Like I said I haven't experienced this with my crypts, either in first planting them or when uprooted them tore out half their roots and replanted them in the new scape. The little I had was a slight darkening of the leaves. I have read that some people do a minor change then all their crypts in the tank have a mass melt before growing back. The swamp thing explains this I guess.

Yeah it seems to be pretty hit and miss. My guess is there's probably a pretty complex species*environmental cue interaction with regards to triggers.

 

[Alastair]

Cheers Ed. Had the pano head on the tripod so thought I might as well use it! 5 stitched shots at 12mm (24mm equivalent) but with loads of overlap. It does exaggerate the width a bit.

😕 totally went over my head that bit lol

 

[Edvet]

Crypts tend to live in swampy areas and riverbanks where the water levels often change

Not sure but for me i always feel crypts ususaly live submerged but can tolerate drought, while Becephelandra's usualy live emersed but can tolerate emersion.

 

[BigTom]

Not sure but for me i always feel crypts ususaly live submerged but can tolerate drought, while Becephelandra's usualy live emersed but can tolerate emersion.

Yeah you might be right Ed, I'm no expert. If you seach Michael Lo's blog for crypts there's loads of biotope shots and the crypts seem to be out of the water almost as often as not, depending on season.

http://junglemikey.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=cryptocoryne

 

[Edvet]

Yeah i know his work, thx. Somehow it seems there is more available on Asia then on South America, biotopewise

 

[BigTom]

Well chaps, I'm afraid that's it. After 3 years, 4 months and 15 days, the Bucket has been taken down. I have a rather drawn out house move planned at the end of the month, so it seemed best for the livestock to find them new homes here and start again from scratch at the other end (with an upgrade!).

Thanks very much to everyone that's contributed to the journal and given their knowledge and encouragement, I've loved every minute of this tank and learned a lot.

This morning -


Just now, catching the last few shrimp -


The End 🙂

 

[TOO]

I imagine you are in a state of mild trauma after pulling this out and up.

What's the next project tank wise?

Thomas

 

[BigTom]

I imagine you are in a state of mild trauma after pulling this out and up.

What's the next project tank wise?

Thomas

I'm about to have a large medicinal Laphroaig 😛

The new project will start in a couple of months, I'm still ironing out the details but lots of people will recognise the glass box!