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Bride has bought me a new 125 gallon tank. I intend to set it up as a planted tank. I will have two triple tube T8 All-Glass fixtures with Eco-complete as the substrate. I would like to use existing plants in the tank plus I'm looking for a planting plan suggestion.

Plants are:
Crypt Wendtii Brown (many)
Crypt Crispatuila Balansae (6)
Echinodorus Ozelot (1)
Echinodorus Ruben (1)
Nymphaea (1) pink leaves

I have mopani driftwood to add to the tank. Other plants that I had thought to add were gymnocoronis spilanthoides and green rotala rotundifolia. Anyone care to give me some ideas?

The tank is 72 inches long by 22 inches high and 18 inches wide. Tank will be a discus tank with BNs, corydoras and rams as a clean-up crew. Water temps to 30C/86f.

__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

Bob Wesolowski

I have no proof of this statement. I have always been told never put different varieties of Cript together ( By this I mean in close contact) Apprently if the roots come in contact with each other the stronger plant will actually kill the other variety. For this reason I have only bought one variety and then all at the same time. As I said I have no proof of this statement.

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
VOTE NOW VOTE NOW

Mmm, I never heard that Keith. So I have a number of crypt varieties in my tanks crawling over one another. I never have had a crypt "meltdown". of course, I have always chosen the "easy" types according to Tropica.

__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

Fantastic I must have just had bad luck with the varieties I had. As I said I had no proof.

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
VOTE NOW VOTE NOW

Plants are:
Crypt Wendtii Brown (many)
Crypt Crispatuila Balansae (6)
Echinodorus Ozelot (1)
Echinodorus Ruben (1)
Nymphaea (1) pink leaves
gymnocoronis spilanthoides
green rotala rotundifolia


I liked your Idea of using the Balansae as a Backround plant, especially in a wider tank. The Ozelot, Ruben, and Nymphaea are obviously going to be your centerpiece plants, and thus desrve an eyecatching spot in the middle-back of the tank where they will most likely tower over the low plants in the front(which you haven't really named). Since you chose a lot of red/brown/pink type plants, I'd suggest using the rotala and gymnocoronis spilanthoides as both backround and/or filler inbetween all your colorful plants to break up the color. If they can manage to stay smaller than your other plants the brown crypt wendtii can be your middle/foreground plant.

I noticed that nobody really answered your question, and since you've been a help for me, I thought I'd give it a whirl. I'm not the best mental aquascaper, it usually takes a bunch of fidgiting(sp?) for me to get it right. good luck with the new tank, I'm sure it will be fantastic.

matt

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Hi,
The correct term for the phenomena mentioned is
ALLEOPATHY and is covered in Chapter III (pp 33-56),
of Diana Walstads' book ECOLOGY of the PLANTED AQUARIUM.

One of her statements aludes to the premise that in
a "high tech" tank because of frequent water changes
the toxins will be diluted and Alleopathy would be
minimized (my words for her statement).

We should note that the overwhelming majority of
our tanks are considered "high tech" by her standards.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Matt and Frank,

Thanks for your replies. Although Frank threw me with his reference to "alleopathy". Went back to find the context of the word... I wonder how I'm going to work it into conversation now that I know it?

Matt, couple of changes...
1. Boosting the light to 382W of just over 3 WPG,
2. Add E. Tenellus as foreground plants,
3. Trying to figure out how to use the "golden section" for the planting,
4. Adding an UV sterilizer,
5. I need to work in three large pieces of mopani wood.

I intend to post progress at this address: http://www.aquaforums.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1465

I'm curious as to how this puppy is going to hunt...

__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

Finished! Set up the tank on Saturday, added seeded filters and fish.

http://www.aquaforums.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1465&amp;st=20&amp;p=14542&amp;

__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

I agree with MsCichlid over on the other forums, you have A LOT of light for the few plants you have, relative to the size of your tank. However I disagree that having two focal points in such a large tank is a bad thing, IF you can fill out some of the space inbetween. Anyways, it looks great, and will look better as the plants fill out over time.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Thanks, Matt!

I took MsCichlid's advice on moving some of the plants around. I moved the ozelot sword to center stage and consolidated the bacopa.

Fish seem to like the set-up as the discus have spawned on the right driftwood and on the center driftwood. The rams are cleaning the small piece to the left. Mmmm, maybe I need a bigger tank!

__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright