# Some Of My Planted Tanks



## Guest (Jul 15, 2011)

Some of my current tanks, these pics where taken 4 hours after lights out.

A nano that originally started as a Iwagumi, it now homes a breeding pair of ghost shrimp.





























One of my new nano's, Iwagumi HC dry start.






















Another nano, Micro swords dry start, experimenting with soil capped with sand.















A 38 gal just recently planted, in need of a trimming as a lot of my stems just started shooting up recently.







Some Riccia I'm growing for the microsword nano, got a little bunch with some Christmas moss and decided to grow it, I'm surprised at how fast it actually grows once it starts.







Some Rotala macaranda growing accross the surface now.















Thank you for looking.


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

Bro, those rocks in your HC iwagummi are really nice!

Great scaping job on all..

Tanks look great!


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## TRIG (Jun 1, 2011)

wow Trav, I'm impressed, didn't know a n3p was capable of creating such nice aquascapes







. I really like that rotala macandra, would you be able to send me some? What is the other red plant in the last picture?


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## bob351 (Oct 23, 2005)

damm trav





















... did you scape thoes yourself if so... next time you travel to toronto hit me up i have a few tanks that could use some planting

stupid question what is a dry start? planting the plants and letting them root in moist substrate then adding water?


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## TRIG (Jun 1, 2011)

Sure, you can post in the lounge all day but you can't reply to ur own thread!?


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## His Majesty (Apr 5, 2005)

very nice trav







im impressed by your collection. im really digging the Iwagumi HC, i think planted tank with decent rock works looks so nice if done properly. keep us updated on their progress

also why are you dry starting the nano's? im no expert in planted tanks so excuse my ignorance.



TRIG said:


> Sure, you can post in the lounge all day but you can't reply to ur own thread!?


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## Guest (Jul 20, 2011)

DiPpY eGgS said:


> very nice trav
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Thanks Bob & HM for the compliments








Dry start is when you grow the plants first with only enough water to keep the substrate moist and occasional misting to keep everything moist. Reason is some plants grow slow and have a hard time rooting (eg. HC) so a dry start helps it root and grow a little faster (higher CO2 content in air then water). The Microsword nano is an experiment of mine, I've been growing some of it in a pot in one of my tanks and it sent out some runners but in another tank it hasn't sent out any runners. So I pulled it to try a dry start.

Once again, thank you all for the compliments and I will be updating the Iwagumi nano as it fills in.


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## JoeDizzleMPLS (Nov 5, 2007)

Got any more pics of the 38 gallon? If the tetras weren't in there, I would have thought that tank was bigger than it is.


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## TRIG (Jun 1, 2011)

Do you use fertilizers on your tanks? If so what are you dosing? Also, do you use both nutrient rich substrates and inert ones? I am going to get my tank going in a couple weeks here and am trying to figure out some final things. Basically I'm jsut waiting on my co2 tank and some more plants.


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## Guest (Jul 20, 2011)

I'll snap some more pics of the 38 tomorrow and I'll upload them.








Also got a 120gal which I'm going to be working on tomorrow (plants still haven't arrived though so I'm just going to be trying out some hardscapes).

I dose all my tanks except the nano housing the ghost shrimp (no CO2). I dose P2O5 (better to dose KH2PO4 but I couldn't get any), K2SO4, KNO3 MgSO4 for my macro and seachem flourish for my micro. I also use Jobes organic fertilizer spikes broken into 1cm pieces and I place them 1-2" deep into the substrate around my heavy root feeders or plants I feel are struggling or stems sending out a lot of roots. I follow the basic ei dosing regime (I don't dry dose I premix macros) but I have it tweaked a bit for the 38gal. I use flourite, eco complete, and now I'm trying out soil (nano microsword tank). I honestly prefer using plant specific substrates as I find plants root better and aren't constantly floating up like they do in sand, also its a little bit more forgiving if you miss doses.


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## TRIG (Jun 1, 2011)

wow, well all your work has deff. payed off. Once you start a dosing schedule do you need to stick to it very strictly? Like, can you skip a day of dosing but dose it the next day or would that really offset the balance of the tank?


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## Guest (Jul 28, 2011)

Update:

Microsword tank has failed, plants started to melt and when I went to investigate, roots had melted as well. I'm not too sure what caused it, the smell was awful and when I sifted through the sand I found a lot of gas pockets.

I cleaned out the tank and started again, 1/4 tablespoon of organic bonemeal, some soil (no fertz) and all capped with black eco complete.

I've planted a section of the tank with what might either be Hemianthus micranthemoides or Micranthemum umbrosum, it's throwing me off a lot because some nodes have 3-4 leaves whilst other have 2 also some of it has a lot of horizontal growth. Either way, I'm planning to cover the whole substrate with it and then trim it to encourage more horizontal growth.

This is what it looks like now, once I have it planted I will be flooding the tank, no CO2 as I want to avoid it growing to fast.


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## Bawb2u (May 27, 2004)

Traveller said:


> I'll snap some more pics of the 38 tomorrow and I'll upload them.
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I found this a long time ago. I never got around to making it but it sounds interesting. 
Mineralized soil substrate


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

Sorry to hear about your microsword tank.

Hope this one goes better


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