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Hello

Setup Dec 24th, a christmas present to myself.
This replaced the 10gal on my dresser. It was to be a holding tank for crypts so no scaping but experimenting with a few foreground plants and a new substrate.

Nisso Plant Sand - Japanese aquasoil almost identical to Amazonia. The difference is I can find it
in Canada, half an hour from my home, and no $350. for shipping, just a few dollars worth of gas. The grain size is 2-3 mm, dark earthy color, pellet type. It drops the ph and has nutrients, without the excess nutrient problem Amazonia has on setup, and will kill flourite, according to a source in singapore.





I had approx a bag or so (2 inch layer) of used washed Flourite to use up so I mixed it with 250 grams of azoo slow release fert pellets (does not leave harmful residue in the tank), sprinkled more fert on top of that, then capped with an inch or so layer of Nisso. Approx inch and a half substrate in the front, sloped to a few in the back, built up a bit in the middle. This is a 25g hagen or fluval 'light-glo' tank, 24Lx12Wx14H, single 15w 6700k tube, can also do it frameless. I did a 25x13 white laminate particle-board plus foam under the tank. The background is black construction paper.

Without further ado, 'Kryptorium'


Stage 1



a C undulata 'copper' stand I grew in the 40g, before splitting to 4 then root trimming to approx 3 inches, and planted in the rear right. The roots were over a foot long (held next to the 25g)



Stage 2 - After dry-planting the crypts and dropping the java fern lace rock in, the crypt leaves were drying, so I started pouring water in, onto a saucer.



A couple E augustifolius runners made it's way in between the fern and crypts.



Crypts that show bronze, copper, reddish, and purple color.
I had over 15 species once but I cut out the brown/green ones.



Zipper moss on a small driftwood stick, it's been in a glass beer mug for over a year, ignored. Still enough green to hopefully recover and grow.



So yup, some filling out to do, not much at the moment.
Some nano vals may make it's way into the rear left.

Luckily only a few crypt leaves melted.
Since then I moved my mosstainer in from the 40g,
which holds 4 samples.

A cycled ac 150 filter in for now, an ac 300 from the 40g will take it's place.

To do, trim the melted leaves, add the hagen co2 (diy mix) with fine wood 'airstone', make co2 diffuser using a powerhead, get some mylar from a chip bag to improve reflection under the lid. The cycle is being kept going with shrimp pellets and mts snails until I add the other stock. Fissidens fontanus will be glued to driftwood and added. I'll be using Loctite superglue ultra-gel, someone used it for frags in a marine tank, then tested with moss. No more tying thread for me.

The plant list.

Crypts – C undulata ‘copper’, wendtii ‘tropica’ & ‘bronze’, becktii, others.
Java Fern Lace ‘Wendelov’
Echinodorus angustifolius
Dwarf Hairgrass (Eleocharis parvula)
Brazilian Micro Sword (Lilaeopsis Braziliensis)
Baby Tears – regular (Hemianthus Micranthemoides) or giant (H umbrosom) - think the latter.
Zipper Moss (Fissidens zeppelianus)

Mosstainer – Java, taiwan, flame, Fissidens fontanus

Hope that foreground fills in

The Amazon Nut...

Show a pic of the mosstainer. I've googled the Fissidens fontanus and it looks very cool, better than my tangle of java moss. I don't know how to look up the other two mosses you named. Where did you acquire your mosses?

TTFN --->Ta-Ta-For-Now
Kelly ;o}

Hi Kelly, happy new year !

The mosstainer is a Marina Betta Barracks. It's open against the glass, it would be better sealed in, but it quickly gave me a way to get rid of the small containers I had lying around, well, still xmas moss in a glass jar lol.



I will get samples of these into a small tank in pots to try emmersed growth. That should mean algae free growth, and there's a couple more mosses I'd like to get.

"I don't know how to look up the other two mosses you named." Zipper moss seems rare as it's hard to grow and very slow growing. Don't see it for sale anymore. Is it on aquamoss.net ?

"Where did you acquire your mosses?"
Local aquarists thru buy and sell sites, fish sites, and fish clubs. One must network here, it's getting harder to bring plants into canada without a permit. We refuse to pay $15. for a plant at big als, which doesn't have the 10th of the plant variety local aquarists have, and for much less cost.

Google is your friend. Build up contacts over time, learn who is breeding and growing what. Interesting trades can also net you items that weren't even posted for sale. I gained a few crypts species that way

If you've found no other mosses by spring, send me a pm or hit one of my threads and I'll do what I can for ya





The Amazon Nut...

Wow, those are nice. I finally did find the other 2 by google. duh I was trying to figure out the scientific name, but found them with the common name. Good grief, small samples cost $10 online and I didn't even bother with looking up shipping costs. I really like the look of the flame and Fissidens fontanus. I will check around locally for them. Although, I did find a few websites that state I could probably find Fissidens fontanus in local waterways. Michigan has lots of waterways.

I may resort to joining a aquarium plant forum. This will be a last resort. I tried joining other sites and I'm spoiled by this one. It's sooo easy to navigate through. I get lost in the other 2 I'm in. I just stopped going to them.

TTFN --->Ta-Ta-For-Now
Kelly ;o}

Yup the problem is the more sites you're in the more time is lost. I am big on independant research though, so I browse anywhere I can.

By summer I want to complete the 75g setup with pressurized co2, teardown the 40g and 10g, and setup an emmerse grow tank (going to be called 'GS3')

Still have to finalize what fish i want in where, and source out the co2 equip.

The Amazon Nut...