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Well, after a long period of time dabbling with hornwort and some other stuff I can get locally, I decided to take the plunge and get some plants from AZ Gardens. Here's a list of what I picked up. I could probably get them from a pretty good fish store in Lansing (Pruess), but I'm still on medical and cannot make the 2-2.5 hour drive for some time. This will come to my home. The shipping cost (about 35) is what it would cost me to fill my gas tank for such a trip. It ran me $73, which included a $5 box fee, plus the 35 for shipping.

10 Crypt Willisii (6 go in 20 long; 2 ea of 2 betta tanks)
10 Dwarf Sagitaria (Subulata) - Ditto as above.
10 Anubias Nana v. Petite - same split as above.
1 Red Ozelot Sword (small)
4 tsp of Riccia Flutians

You may laugh about the Riccia, but that's one way it is sold if you only want a little and not a large carpet. I wanted a few pieces to float and one to tie up high on a piece of wood where it will get strong light. Hopefully, my modest co2 will make it reasonably happy. It is currently about 8.48ppm with my pH at 7.2 and kH at 4.48 degrees.

The rest I believe do not really require co2 and will likely be happy with even the modest amount I'm giving them

I know this is only a small amount of plants for a 20 long, but I want to gut my tank in another month and don't want to overdo it. This will be an experiment to see how these particular plants like my tank.

Ooooo - I can't wait


Last edited by Cory_Di at 18-Mar-2005 18:09

Awesome plant mix! You gotta show us some pictures when you get the plants in!

I don't know if I'll regret going all short, but my 20 long is only about 12 inches deep (I think). It is short anyway. I just want to experiment with clusters and thought these would be a good way to go.

I got the idea when FRANK mentioned to someone to look at the Easy Life Habitat. I didn't want all of those plants and wanted to mix and match my own, but I did use it as reference to find plants that would work in my moderately lit tank. While it is only 20w, the tank is so short that the light is more intense. I would imagine it is comparable to 1.5 wpg.

Last edited by Cory_Di at 18-Mar-2005 18:17

I always liked the look of plants on aquabid.com and some of the sellers even offer free shipping!

I did that once and got really good Val Spiralis. I'm lucky that it wasn't infested with snails or anything too. It was top quality and I actually worked with him privately to get java moss, which I couldn't find at the time. I had one small clump then and have since gotten at least 4-5 more clumps out of that one.

Don't worry about the riccia and co2 i grow it in the betta tank i entered to the acuascape contest not floating but attached to a rock and it's doing wonderfully, no co2 no special lighting. Just be sure to spread it even if you are going to cover something, the pieces that don't get light die, detaching the rest of the piece from the surface, so take your time and spread it very even.

Di,

You will like the Ozelot Sword. Mine is spinning out stems and I have multiple babies. The runners are stiff stems with the babies suspended above the parent at three inch intervals toward the surface. Parent plant is just 10 inches tall, in line with Tropica specs.

Last edited by bob wesolowski at 19-Mar-2005 08:43

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

Good luck on your plants. Please let us know when they arrive and what condition they are in. I have thought of ordering some plants from that business also.

I was pleased when someone replied same day to an email I sent, in a panic over shipping. I misunderstood their posted method to mean they would pack them on Thursday night and ship on Friday morning. What they meant was that I should get them Friday morning. I was also upset that there was no way to get a shipping estimate - something I had not experienced with any site from which I made purchases. I told them I wanted a ballpark figure since some of my own tinkering at the Fedex website suggested it could be in excess of $100 . She emailed back that with the plants I was getting would be roughly $35, give or take. That, I could handle knowing that my round trip to Pruess would probably cost close to that in gas and, I can't drive out there right now anyway.

I've long wanted to order from them when I stumbled on their site two years ago. So, this will be a good test run.

I'm glad to hear the ozelot will be nice. I thought either an anubias coffeefolia or ozelot sword would be good. I opted for the latter.

I just hope that these plants can handle a month in the current conditions before being transplanted in Eco. I'm just not up to breaking a tank down right now.

Di,

Have a look at www.fishvet.com and the plants they have. They have some interesting stuff and they give a good impression. I've not used them because their shipping charges to Britain were a little too much for me. However, makes me feel good to read your post. Everything is much mroe expensive here in Britain, but at least the website where I order my plants from shipping is free for orders of more than £15 ($30).

Looks like they have decent stuff. I like the fact you can buy plants on driftwood. The only caveat is that I like to boil my driftwood for 4-5 hours to get the tannins out . I don't think I would do that with riccia or anubias tied to it

Just a little comment about www.fishvet.com, i don't know their service if it's good or bad, but what i do know is that their info is all screwed up in relation to plant care, need and specs. Also which is the issue that i most dislike about that site, is that their photos are digitally enhanced, that means, the colors are altered to apear more bright, specially the reds and bright greens. So watch out and keep that in mind, you will never get that red from an echinodorus for example.

Interesting comment about the pictures being digitally enhanced and incorrect information.

As for the pictures being enhanced, I the pictures on many sites don't always show how the plant looks in real life, whether it's because they just shoot an individual strand of the plant, or the plant by itself, or now digitally enhance them. What I do when I see a plant that I'm interested in is a google picture search, where you can usually find lots of pictures of the plant in actual aquariums and how it may look (some plants look differently in different tanks, of course) and make my decision according to that.

As for the information, I have realised that many online retailers here in the UK "alter" the facts about the plants a little to make hard plants sound easier, so I just don't read that information anymore. If I decide that I like a plant I just go to Tropica and see what they have to say about the plant.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think they should do that kind of thing. Most people, I assume, when they buy plants on such websites think that as the "professionals" they know what they're talking about.

I thought about getting fishvet's co2 diffuser for a while and I was searching google for people's review on it, but have only found some reviews on their plants which were very positive. I even thought buying some plants we don't have in the UK from them, but their shipping charges to the UK are outrageous and I found a cheaper source in Singapore.

Cory_Di: If you're interested in their plants on driftwood maybe you can drop them an email and ask them if the driftwood are treated?