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What are these plants called?

K

kassysimon

Seedling
Joined
29 Apr 2012
Messages
2
Hello everyone.

I have just discovered this amazing site and the first image i saw was this...

header.jpg

This is amazing and what i plan to do also....But i need your help.

I have a 3.0m tank x 600mm x 600mm.

I have CO2, 6 x 150w MH lights and 4 more if required, 2 Fluval FX5's and an automated change over system running off of a Profilux.
I have spent almost 10k to get this tank ready and now i have finally found what i want it to look like.

I will be using the EI and i would like my tank to look like the above picture.

Can you tell me what plants are in the tank and how i can set my tank up (with regards to planting) to achieve such a great affect please?
Also, does anyone know whos tank this is (is it Ceg4048's?) or how big it is?

Thank you

Simon.

http://www.ukaps.org/EI.htm
 
Hello,
The tank measures roughly 6 foot by 2 foot by 1.5 foot with capacity just over 600L.

Is that a typographical error, or are you seriously intending to light a tank with quantity 6 X150w MH lamps, with an additional 4 in reserve? If so you are destined for failure because that amount of radiation energy will disintegrate the plants in a matter of days. That must be a typo. 3 or 4 of these 150 would be more than enough for your tank, especially if this is your first attempt. 1500 W MH is beyond even Klingon current weapons technology. 😵

It's not clear how you allocated the £10K, but I hope that you allocated a significant amount of it to filtration, high pumping capacity, flow distribution, and CO2 diffusion, because that is what will determine the success of your tank, definitely NOT the lights. At most, I would suggest 3 or 4 of those lamps evenly spaced along the length of the tank and on centerline, mounted high enough to give an even spread and which generates not much more than about 30-40 micromoles of PAR measured at the bottom of the tank, otherwise you will be spending most of your time cleaning algae. I can't stress strongly enough how important it is to minimize the level of light intensity. It would be ideal if your MH ballasts were dimmable. Then you could use as many lamps as you want and would still have some level of control.

At the time of the photo, there were nearly a hundred different species in the tank, a bit tedious to list them all right now. I'll have to get back to you on that. In any case I think you need to get the basics down pat before trying to have a menagerie like that.

Cheers,
 
Hello.

No that isnt a typo but the lights are dimmable and 150w is the maximum wattage per fitting, i do not necessarily intend to use the full capacity of the individual fitting but rather different globes in different fittings to mimic sunrise and sunset and midday.
The 10k has been allocated in areas other than that of the tank directly but indirectly as it is being included in the construction of a new house.
Would you mind specifying what you would allow for filtration, flow distribution, pumping capacity and CO2 diffusion?
This will give me an idea of whether i have got my plans right.

Im sorry, i didnt realise there were so many plants in the tank and I agree that it will be extremely tedious to name them all. Rather, could you just name the plants that are visible in the image please?

Thank you.

Simon.

P.S. Im writing from Australia. My 10k is very different to your 10k.
 
Oh, OK mate, I'm with you now. You might want to update your profile to show your location.
That's good news the MH being attached to a dimmable ballast. I'd suggest, if you don't already own one, to get yourself a PAR meter. That way you can set specific energy levels and you'll know what they are.

At around 2600 USgallons, theoretically, according to the 10X rule you'd ideally need a pumping capacity of about 26,000 GPH for a high light CO2 injected tank. This is based on the 10X general rule of thumb. That's the best way of ensuring that you can distribute nutrients and CO2 to all areas of the tank. The stronger the light intensity, the greater the consumption of CO2 and therefore the greater the need for stronger flow. That is the basis of my caution to carefully regulate the MH energy. Of course the 10X rule is a rule of thumb, so really, depending on the light intensity, you could get away with 18,000GPH capacity.

I assume also that you have a sump, and that you will be injecting the CO2 into the sump. Part of the problems with sumps is that they tend to be open topped, and they tend to churn water quite a bit. In the case of an injected tank, this tends to off-gas the CO2, so it's suggested to seal the sump to prevent massive CO2 evaporation, and to arrange the innards of the sump to minimize splashing. This will significantly reduce off-gassing of the CO2.

So, lets see, in that image above, the plants that are visible, from left to right are as follows:
Ordinary Java Fern on the far left
Cryptocoryne wendetii brown just to the right and below
Limnophilia aromatica behind and to the right of the Crypt
Echinodorus aquartica just sitting low in front of the L. aromatica
Cryptocoryne wendetii green just to the right of the aquartica
Ludwigia inclinata var. verticillata "Cuba" just to the right of wendetii green
Micranthemum umbrosum just in front of "Cuba" and just behind the yellow spec
The carpet plant near the front glass is Pogostemon helferi
Ammania senegalensis is the amber colored plant just behind the umbrosum
Echinodorus "Kleiner Bar" in the background behind the senegalensis
Ludwigia inclinata var. verticillata "Pantanal" below and slightly to the right of the senegalensis
Alternanthera reineckii 'Pink' is the red plant just to the right of Pantanal
A second grove of Limnophilia aromatica is behind the Alternathera
Ludwigia glandulosa is the second red plant to the right of aromatica
On the far right is Pogostemon stellata

Hope this helps!

Cheers,
 
Sorry for the off topic question, but I thought MH/HQI couldn't be dimmed?

Second off topic: Where can I get Ludwigia inclinata var. verticillata "Pantanal" - haven't found it for sale anywhere? :?
 
Hi Park,
There are dimming ballasts available for MH/HQI. They are not very popular because it is reported that these types of ballasts tend to shorten the life of the bulb. But the real reason for their lack of popularity is that dimmed MH bulbs emit a different spectrum which reefers don't really like - and reefers pretty much drive lighting technology. Of course for us it doesn't really matter. Dimmable ballats also only normally appear on high end fixtures, although it's possible to purchase the ballasts and match them to the fixture. Here is a typical example

High end example

Also, the dimming normally is only up to about 50%-60%, so you can typically only dim a 150W bulb to about 70W, but they might have some that dim even more.

You cannot find Pantanal very easily in Europe. I had to buy it from Asia from an outfit that I can't find on the net anymore. You can find it on Austrailian ebay though, no problems.

Cheers,
 
Hmmm...well it used to be easy. I think unless it says "Pantanal" in the description I always assume NOT.

Anyway, from his description this sounds a lot more like some other version of "Repens". You might want to contact the guy at Liverpool Creek Aquariums or the guy at Bubbles to see if either can find it for you.

Alternatively, you might want to contact the OP of the thread=> viewtopic.php?f=3&t=20078 to see if he has any to spare.

Cheers,
 
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