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Troppo,
The tanks growing in very nicely .

With the ship redone, and the plants regaining control it does look a lot more like a real wreck.

^_^

Did you get any new types of plants, and if so what? Could you let me know what plants you have? I don't know what all your plants are 'cuz I'm a newbie when it comes to plants. Those swords, they're all parviflorus? I'm just confused because a google image search comes out with a bunch of different images. In any case, if you're keeping plants successfully in your tank I figure the same types should be fine in my tank, which is similarly a low-light set-up but just a tad shallower (125 gallon). I am also holding off on buying higher wattage. 'Cuz I'm cheap...

BTW, check out this low-light low-tech large tank on AGA:
http://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2004.cgi?&op=showcase&category=0&vol=2&id=112

Pretty much because of that tank I can't wait for my Anubias nana to start growing more so I can cover the tank in them, it looks awesome and quite effective in the above set-up. I might have to get more Anubias nana, though, lol, because they don't grow very fast at all, so it'd probably be forever before I'd have enough plants to have anywhere near enough to give that kind of impact. I've had my one plant for like two months and finally it has one new leaf.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

Thanks for the comments.

Did you get any new types of plants, and if so what?

if you're keeping plants successfully in your tank I figure the same types should be fine in my tank

I have added a heap of different plant types, but I'm not confident enough just yet to say that they are growing "successfully", after all it has only been a few months.... I might still be able to kill them all off!

As far as the actual types of plants.... I still have those listed in the first post (vals, anubias, apon. crispus and E.parviflorus) and I have added the following:

Cryptocryne apongeton - the crinkled leaf form of this seems to go nicely with the similar form of the apons

Bacopa - I'm not real sure that this one is going to stay long term. Growth is not all that fast and I don't think it is getting enough light at the lower ends of the stems, so it's getting a bit leggy (although I've managed to hide that by planting in front of it with other bushy stem plants)

Anacharis - My current favourite plant! It seems this will grow in a dark cupboard. The stem length between leaf nodes appears to be getting a little longer since I put it in the tank (I assume that is because of the lower light and it's quest to be closer to the light source) It is not quite as bushy as it was when I bought it, but I don't mind too much... the rate at which it grows means that I can build up a big bunch of it fairly quickly so the legginess is not so noticeable.

Wisteria & watersprite - these were some of the first plants I added in the re-do to add some immediate "greenery". They are doing their job and going nicely

Banana lillies - these have only been in there a few weeks and seem to be doing OK despite me planting them upside down (oops!). I have had about a dozen submersed leaves sprout from each as well as a few surface leaves. I picked up another 6 of these from the LFS yesterday and I have planted them the right way up this time so we'll see how they go.

Echinodorus Osiris (AKA Melon Sword plant) - There are now 8 or 9 of these plants in the tank, which are plantlets of one I bought in emerserd form from the garden centre a while ago. See this thread for more info on the origin and progress of these plants.

Cryptocryne wendtii - I transferred these from my higher light, more tended, planted nano in the last week so we'll see how they go in the big tank.

Java Fern - This is another very recent aquisition. I just had to grab some when at the LFS last week - it was the first time I have seen java fern in real life! For the moment there is some floating, and some just sitting on the substrate but I have already noticed 3 plantlets that were not present when I bought the plant home . I am assuming that this plant will do OK in this tank given its reputation for hardiness and tolerance of lower light. The plan is to acquire some scrappy bits of DW to attach it to and hide the DW behind the ship so only the plant itself is visible.

That's probably more info that you were after, but it's done now. Hope it helps.

G_T


Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.

I forgot to mention earlier... although I haven't upgraded the overall wattage of lighting yet, I have swapped all the flouro tubes out for 10000K ones.

G_T

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.

No, that's not too much info at all. Thanks for taking the time to respond completely!

A few months is enough, IMO, I've only had plants for maybe two months and I'm already getting a feeling for what's not quite working... I'm surprised you actually have all of the plants that you started out with, 'cuz I've already had a few plants reduce themselves to leafless nubs.

Surprised about those Osiris swords... I thought they were normally higher light plants. I had an Ozelot Sword which is supposed to tolerate lower light. I thought it was doing okay, it was putting out new immersed leaves to replace emersed leaves at an okay pace, but my Royal Plec decided to absolutely trash it. I only have the base left with maybe two scraggly roots coming out of it; I'm not exactly hopeful for survival at this point. I'm also intrigued that the banana plants are going as you describe. Maybe I'll pick one up to try it out.

Interesting how your wisteria is doing well, I don't think my wisteria is doing very hot at all. Granted my wisteria have got brown diatoms attacking them, but it's interesting because most of my other plants do not have diatoms on them. On the other hand, my water sprite is like the best plant ever. I bought one plant and now it's like twenty plants floating around with all new foliage, it's great.

If my C. wendtii are any indication, your C. wendtii will do just fine. I've got quite a few new leaves on the two big plants that I had bought, but unfortunately the plantlets that I pulled off and planted separately don't seem so keen on growing yet. Maybe it was too early... In any case, if I were to pick any plant other than my water sprite that's doing amazing, C. wendtii would be at the top of my list. I also have Java fern and although they're not growing like my wendtii, they're doing all right. I also have a bunch of plantlets growing off of one of my ferns, I can't wait to have ferns taking over my tank, lol, it's totally possible since my one plant has like 10 or more plantlets coming off of it.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

Congrats troppo.........looks so much better!
I will await the full tank shot, as those are my favorite.

Well I am a little late to this conversation but I will through in my bit as well.

If it was mine I would build a large rock formation in the center so that it kind of divides the tank in half. place one part of the ship wreck on one side and the other two on the other so that it looks like the ship ran aground and broke up. then I would concentrate the plants on one side of the tank and have very few on the other. To look like a cross section of a freshwater reef. one side being the lagoon and the other the wave swept side.

mts.gif" border="0"> I vote do you?
My Tanks at Photobucket

Aquascaping judges mention from time to time about trying not to divide the tank; rather, try to make it feel the tank is a single unified whole. Aquascaping articles also often recommend not placing points of focus directly in the center as it is less appealing than being set off just a bit to the left or right (1.3:1 ratio). Then again, you can really be creative and do whatever you want, so whatever floats your boat. Even if you boat is sunken.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.