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wild looking / multiple plant carpet suggestion

Andrew Butler

Andrew Butler

Member
Joined
1 Feb 2016
Messages
1,729
Location
Banbury, Oxfordshire
I'm looking to create a carpet with a bit of a wild look; by that I mean have a main carpeting plant and create some interest by adding in a few 'sprigs' of a few different plants here and there.
I'm thinking something like Micranthemum MC as the main plant but think it maybe best to get that filled out first before adding the other 'sprigs' - thoughts?
I then want to add something a bit hairgrass like so naturally Eleocharis acicularis 'mini' springs to mind and also I quite like Rotala bonsai so a few sprigs of that dotted around or maybe even a patch I think might look nice. Without wanting to make this carpet too busy I am also wondering if it could use something a bit like a Hygrophila; maybe verticillata.

Please feel free to speak your mind; give me some suggestions, what you think will and won't work about the above.
I do wonder if the letting the monte carlo fill out first will surpress the other plants spreading out so fast enough and allow me to keep on top of it. Ultimately it would be nice to trim it as one to save trying to cut around individual stems etc but I do also wonder how it will grow back.


Where it's going.........feel free to comment on the below ideas too:
The picture below is of my mock tank, the wood I have created by fixing 2 pieces together and looking at it has made me feel it could possibly work without any added stone 😕. I'm yet to add any gradient into the substrate but thinking a small slope upwards in the back left with a carpet of staurogyne repens on it then depending on how it looks with the branches a bigger slope up in the right hand corner - planting there I'm unsure at the moment; could be a continuation of the carpet but thinking that may look a bit boring and I think a bit of red wouldn't hurt either. I will be adding some buces to the wood too.

I'm not the biggest fan of stem plants due to the need to replant but wonder if anyone has tried to carpet with anything stem and red other than Alternanthera reineckii. I've never tried to create a stem plant bush before either.

I will stop now and see whether people have anything to say
Thanks
Andrew

20181030_151935.jpg
 
Looks good to me so far mate, going to watch the progression on this build 🙂
 
First thought is its going to be a bit of a balancing act and you might need to try a couple of species and go from there. I like the idea of naturalising the carpet with different species growing through but think it will be a bit of a balancing act to get two or more species that grow at similar rates. When I grew mc in a low tech it outgrew my hair grass and took over. I tried to keep it a one chop carpet, as like you I didn't want to fiddle cutting around individual leaves. In the end I had to have larger areas of the hair grass where it could grow at its own rate and require less maintenance than the mc (sorry like usual no pictures). I think I shortly swapped it out for a mix of Sagittaria, blyxa and S. repens.
 
mort said:
When I grew mc in a low tech it outgrew my hair grass and took over
Click to expand...
Do you mean in area or height? - I was hoping the hairgrass would out compete the MC and grow in height quite quickly and faster than the MC.
Maybe I need to find an alternate main carpeting plant but only have experience with MC or maybe a hairgrass which will grow in height quicker, not spread in area so quickly and allow me to trim it - hoping for too much I think.
There might only be one way to find out what happens; learn by doing.

Any other suggestions for plants that might work with the 'one chop carpet' method? :artist:
 
Andrew Butler said:
Do you mean in area or height?
Click to expand...

A bit of both really. I am a laid back aquascaper so that might have been why the mc overtook the hair grass. It could have also been that I was sold the wrong hair grass and it was a shorter growing species that just got swamped. The mc just thuggish over grew the hg but that could just have been because it liked the conditions in the tank and the hg didn't (I've had a couple of easy plants not take to the conditions where harder ones have done well, I've just learnt to not take it personally). If I kept the mc really trim it might have also improved the conditions for the hg but I think a trial and error approach is good. I have confidence that what your hoping to achieve with the plants you plan is doable.
 
I had the same, Monte Carlo outgrew dwarf hair grass, now no grass left.

Tenelum green is Working well mixed with MC. Verticalata is also working well mixed in. Have to trim round that though.
 
This is a picture of my mixed carpet in my 50 ltr semi high tech in so far as the lighting is on the low side although I do trickle a little bit of co2 in there.They were in three separate areas originally of two areas of S.Repens either side of some MC and the Japonica just found its own way in there. I decided to go for the wild look to let them all mingle in together to see how it panned out and sort of wished I never some days. The Japonica wins hands down and is smothering the MC. Repens is holding its own but I see it less and less. Pulling the Japonica out is a PITA as it tries to drag everything out with it.

carpet.jpg
 
Thanks for your input @Siege and @AverageWhiteBloke - it seems it has been tried and failed.
I have seen some tanks in post #4 and #20 of the thread below which seem to have a main carpeting plant and some kind of hairgrass but unsure what the plants actually are and how much work goes on keeping it looking the way it does; I'm not so sure they're one chop carpets!
https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/nature-aquarium-party-2018.55489/

Still keen to hear from people with similar experiences with similar plants.
 
Looking at post 4 mate I would say it would be a case of planting hair grass first then let it grow long then pull out any runners it sent out. Follow on behind with carpeting MC. I would imagine the hard bit would be that MC when trimmed low grows very dense so would you get enough light to the bottom of the hairgrass to keep it going? I tend to find with hair grass as well that even after you think its gone it re-appears every now and again of its own accord.
 
AverageWhiteBloke said:
Looking at post 4 mate I would say it would be a case of planting hair grass first then let it grow long then pull out any runners it sent out. Follow on behind with carpeting MC. I would imagine the hard bit would be that MC when trimmed low grows very dense so would you get enough light to the bottom of the hairgrass to keep it going? I tend to find with hair grass as well that even after you think its gone it re-appears every now and again of its own accord.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the words, post 4 isn't the best example as I'm not wanting a tall hairgrass but it gives a rough idea.
 
Anyone had experience with the different types of hairgrass?
I wonder if ' Eleocharis Acicularis' would be my best option to plant amongst the MC; I want to be able to keep it at not too great a height, probably around 70mm which has made me question 'Eleocharis Parvula' and maybe rule out 'Eleocharis Acicularis sp. mini' as think this may stay a bit too short. Words of experience welcome please.

 
I'm about to try Monte Carlo with echinodorus parvula.... I'll let you know how I get on... it will be a while though as my tank is very low tech indeed!
 
Yes I did mean Eleocharis.... sorry end of a long day there...

I did conaider doing a DSM bus was concerned that in a low tech setup the plants adapting to underwater growth after flooding would mean any growth just melted away...
 
Matt @ ScapeEasy said:
I did conaider doing a DSM bus was concerned that in a low tech setup the plants adapting to underwater growth after flooding would mean any growth just melted away...
Click to expand...
I can't see why it would, if the setup is going to grow the carpet then it should handle it getting wet. Worth asking the question though I think.
 
Eleocharis Parvula did ok... I have had better success since with Lilaeopsis... the stuff is indestructible! I've just started with Marsilea Hirsuta too and early signs look good.
 
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