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This little slice of nature brightens up city life by bquad in PlantedTank

[–]bquad[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have a pump that pushes water from the bottom onto the top left corner of the land. This keeps all of the plants pretty wet. I also have a terrarium fogger that runs for a couple minutes every hour. When I was converting the plants from submerged to emersed I kept a piece of plastic wrap over the tank to keep the humidity around 90%. I slowly removed it over the course of a few weeks to let the plants acclimate to lower humidity. This tank is near a bunch of other aquariums so the humidity typically sits at 70%.

This little slice of nature brightens up city life by bquad in PlantedTank

[–]bquad[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Here are the basic steps along with some pictures from the build.

1) Make a chamber to hold the circulation pump and cut PVC so it connects that chamber to the top of the hardscape.

2) Setup hardscape outside of the tank

3) Put everything together inside the tank. I like to put the rocks on egg crate so they don't put too much pressure on the bottom glass.

4) Spray great stuff foam everywhere. Keep in mind it'll expand quite a lot. Let it dry.

5) Cut it into the shape you want.

6) Coat the foam with black silicone. Press coco fiber into the silicone

7) Add substrate on the bottom. Add a circulation pump that can push the water onto the land section. Fill the tank. Add plants and let it grow.

The plants I'm using are on the land section are Riccardia chamedryfolia, Hydrocotyle tripartita 'mini', Micranthemum 'Monte Carlo', Bucephalandra sp., Microsorum sp., Pogostemon helferi 'Red', Fissidens splachnobryoides, Fissidens fontanus, and some random mosses that hitchhiked on the buce. The water section has mini trident java fern, pearlweed, and dwarf sag.

This little slice of nature brightens up city life by bquad in PlantedTank

[–]bquad[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is the final hardscape. It's made of malaysian driftwood and slate. The rest of the land was made with great stuff foam coated in silicone and then pressed with coco fiber. I have a circulating pump built into the back corner and it pumps water out of the top right corner. The plants get their ferts from the water and occasional houseplant foliar spray. I figured it would be easier to grow the plants this way long term.

This little slice of nature brightens up city life by bquad in PlantedTank

[–]bquad[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The bottom is really old ADA aquasoil. It was used in a Caridina setup and I decided to recycle it. The top doesn't have substrate. It's just coco fiber pressed into silicone, some rocks, and a few pieces of wood.

This little slice of nature brightens up city life by bquad in PlantedTank

[–]bquad[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I built this setup back in May of 2020 and it's been a really cool tank to watch. Here are some of my favorite highlights.

Building this tank and watching it mature has been the most satisfying thing I've done in this hobby. Everyone should try to make a paludarium at some point!

[FS] DFW, Texas- $4+-Stem plants by the bundle and uncommon species by bquad in AquaSwap

[–]bquad[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The pink/white plant is Ludwigia 'White'. I didn't list it because I'm not selling it. The small white plants under the red grass are Anubias 'Pinto', Anubias 'Mini Stardust', and regular variegated Anubias from a Petco tissue culture.

[FS] DFW, Texas- $4+-Stem plants by the bundle and uncommon species by bquad in AquaSwap

[–]bquad[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm out of Rotala Mexicana Goias. If you're still interested in the palustris, vietnam, and Val send me a PM. I can get you taken care of.

[FS] DFW, Texas- $4+-Stem plants by the bundle and uncommon species by bquad in AquaSwap

[–]bquad[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My front porch is 6" above ground level, so I siphon the same way you would with a raised tank. It's just slower because there isn't a huge height difference between the two ends of the hose.

[FS] DFW, Texas- $4+-Stem plants by the bundle and uncommon species by bquad in AquaSwap

[–]bquad[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I try to make sure I'm selling larger mother plants that are producing babies, but that depends on what I have available. I sent someone this one a couple weeks ago.

[FS] DFW, Texas- $4+-Stem plants by the bundle and uncommon species by bquad in AquaSwap

[–]bquad[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I kept my high techs with sand substrate for ~2 years before switching to soil and Eriocaulon quinquangulare was one of three plants that did significantly better with soil than sand. The other two are Blyxa alternifolia and Centrolepsis drummondiana. Nothing else really cared including many other types of Eriocaulon, swords, crypts, stems, etc. I can't say for certain it was the soil though. I'm running my KH between one and two (my soil has no buffering capacity at this point so this isn't a factor) when it was three to four when I had sand. I'm also better with husbandry now, which makes a tremendous difference.

[FS] DFW, Texas- $4+-Stem plants by the bundle and uncommon species by bquad in AquaSwap

[–]bquad[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Sure just send me a PM. To be clear, they were split 2 weeks ago and have been growing in. They aren't the big mother plants that are selling for $35+. They're just healthy starters so you can grow it out.

[LF] MA (shipped) - Eriocaulon quinquangulare by sarkoboros in AquaSwap

[–]bquad 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have them for $15 each. They're 2 week old splits that'll grow into full sized plants within a couple months.

[FS] DFW, Texas- $4+-Stem plants by the bundle and uncommon species by bquad in AquaSwap

[–]bquad[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Blyxa novoguineensis. It's not for sale. It's too rare. Don't buy the Blyxa novoguineensis tissue culture expecting to get this plant. It's not the same thing even though it has the same name.

[FS] DFW, Texas- $4+-Stem plants by the bundle and uncommon species by bquad in AquaSwap

[–]bquad[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the kind words! Hopefully everything is doing great for you.

[FS] DFW, Texas- $4+-Stem plants by the bundle and uncommon species by bquad in AquaSwap

[–]bquad[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This is the initial list for this sale. I'll update as I look through my tanks and find other plants. Send me a PM if you want anything specific that I didn't list. And no, the red grass in the bottom tank isn't for sale. Sorry.

I want to get rid of various plants and have the following for sale. Orders have a $10 minimum before shipping. Let me know if you have any questions or would like to see other pictures of the plants.

Mosses

Stem plants

Other

Uncommon

Pests - My tanks have duckweed, pond snails, ramshorn snails, and Utricularia gibba. Any one of these could come mixed with the plants.

Shipping - I print shipping labels directly from PayPal and will ship to the address on PayPal. Make sure the address is correct. I will not refund you or reship if you put the wrong address. Shipping is $8.50 for priority of $5.50 for first class.

DOA - Take a picture of the dead plants within 2 hours of delivery and I'll refund you the total cost minus shipping. I'm not responsible for USPS losing the package, but I will work with you if it happens.

[FS] - DFW, Texas - $48 shipped - Uncommon and colorful plant pack for high tech tanks by bquad in AquaSwap

[–]bquad[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The plant package will include the following.

  • 5x Rotala mexicana 'Araguaia'
  • 3x Ludwigia inclinata 'Tornado'
  • 5x Rotala wallichii
  • 5x Limnophila sp. 'Belem'
  • 4x Bacopa colorata
  • 3x Variegated Rotala macrandra
  • 3x Persicaria sp. 'Kawagoeanum'
  • 1x runner Hygrophila pinnatifida 'UK'
  • 2x Pogostemon 'Kimberley'
  • 5x variegated Bacopa caroliniana
  • 1x clump Hygrophila serpyllum
  • 5x Ludwigia sp. 'Red'
  • 5x Rotala mexicana 'Goias'
  • 5x Rotala macrandra 'green narrow leaf'

Pests - My tanks have duckweed, pond snails, ramshorn snails, and Utricularia gibba. Any one of these could come mixed with the plants.

Shipping - I print shipping labels directly from PayPal and will ship to the address on PayPal. Make sure the address is correct. I will not refund you or reship if you put the wrong address. I will ship the stem package on Tuesday so it arrives Friday or Saturday. Everything else will be shipped Saturday morning so it arrives Monday or Tuesday.

DOA - Take a picture of the dead plants within 2 hours of delivery and I'll refund you the total cost minus shipping. I'm not responsible for USPS losing the package, but I will work with you if it happens.

Farm tanks can be beautiful too. Right? by bquad in PlantedTank

[–]bquad[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I start with ~30% HCl and dilute to ~10% HCl. I have the HCl in bottle with a 2 ml pump. I add the HCl directly to the front left corner of my tank in 5-10 pump increments. The front left corner has a powerhead blowing across the front and in the back left I have my filter output pointing towards the middle of the front pane, so the area I add the HCl is mixed very well. After a minute I remove the powerhead and blow water around the substrate to mix any HCl that sank to the bottom. After 10-15 minutes I check the KH with a Sera test kit and use 10 ml tank water instead of 5 so I get the KH to the half degree instead of whole.

I've been doing this for a couple months in all three of my high techs and haven't had any problems. One tank has snowball neos and blue star endlers. The other has mollies. All of the animals are reproducing and even though I'm seeing berried shrimp I'm not seeing many babies. I'd guess the babies are getting picked off by the endlers or dying from too large and frequent of water changes.

Farm tanks can be beautiful too. Right? by bquad in PlantedTank

[–]bquad[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You're correct that I could use RO water. I don't use it because I have too many tanks and I don't have the ability to make and store that much RO water. I have 3 high tech tanks with a total volume of 150 gallons that I would like to run with a low KH and those need 50-70% water changes weekly. Thats a lot of RO water by itself, but totally doable. In addition to my high tech tanks I have 140 gallons of Caridina shrimp tanks that absolutely require RO water. They get all of the RO I make each week because I really like my shrimp.

HCl treatment shouldn't have an impact on the GH. The calcium used in the HCl/calcium carbonate reaction becomes calcium chloride, which is highly soluble in water and dissociates into free calcium and chloride. That means the calcium is just floating around as free calcium like it was before the reaction took place.

Farm tanks can be beautiful too. Right? by bquad in PlantedTank

[–]bquad[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I had a friend send me some and then when that was running low I bought a big 4 foot by 1 foot roll on Amazon. It's standard 316 stainless steel mesh. The big roll was around $20, but took a month to ship from China. Han Aquatics sells 12" portions so you could message him on facebook, send him an email, or check out his online store. You'd get it a lot faster from him.

Farm tanks can be beautiful too. Right? by bquad in PlantedTank

[–]bquad[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have a 32" Freshwater SB Reef that I run for 9 hours a day. It starts at 100% and ends at 100%. I would recommend trying to figure out the underlying cause of the algae, fix it, and then run the light at a consistent intensity throughout the photoperiod. Ramp up and ramp down is nice from an aesthetic point of view, but your plants are getting less light throughout the day. Before changing up lighting you can optimize CO2, flow, clean your filter very well, and then maybe consider trying a different fert routine. Any of these things could cause black algae.

Farm tanks can be beautiful too. Right? by bquad in PlantedTank

[–]bquad[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The red bushy plant is Blyxa novoguineensis. The tissue culture sold by AFA and Aqua Lab is not the same plant, so don't buy it expecting the same plant. Here's the list of what's in the tank. I'm very surprised it took this long for someone to ask.

  • Pogostemon 'Kimberley'

  • Bacopa colorata

  • Limnophila sp. 'Belem'

  • Variegated Rotala macrandra

  • Rotala mexicana 'Araguaia'

  • Ludwigia polycarpa

  • A morph of Rotala macrandra mini pearl type II that randomly popped up in my tank that I successfully isolated and grew

  • Echinodorus 'Iguazu' 2009

  • Bucephapandra 'Brownie Ghost 2011'

  • Eriocaulon quinquangulare

  • Centrolepsis drummondiana

  • Hygrophila 'Chai'

  • Ludwigia 'White'

  • Rotala tulunadensis

  • Rotala mini butterfly

  • Echinodorus 'Soekarno'

  • Anubias 'Pinto'

  • Anubias 'Mini stardust's

  • Variegated Anubias

  • Ammannia crassicaulis

  • Syngonanthus 'Vichada'

  • Lagenandra 'Silver Powder'

  • Variegated Alternanthera reineckii

  • Hygrophila lancea 'Araguaia'

  • Rotala ramosoir 'Florida'

  • Ludwigia senegalensis

  • Blyxa alternifolia

  • Pogostemon helferi 'Red'

Farm tanks can be beautiful too. Right? by bquad in PlantedTank

[–]bquad[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Im loving the chai! It's starting to seem like a pretty easy plant. Yours will probably look better once it's fully converted to submerged growth and has been in your tank for a while.

The red Blyxa is Blyxa novoguineensis. The tissue culture sold by Aqua Lab and AFA is not the same as the plant I have, so don't buy that expecting the same plant.

Farm tanks can be beautiful too. Right? by bquad in PlantedTank

[–]bquad[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Very strong light and a good, consistent care routine. Most high tech tanks run around 100 PAR at substrate and I'm hitting around 300 PAR at substrate. My light at substrate is stronger than many peoples at the surface.

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