# Switched over to real plants



## notoriouslyKEN (Jul 31, 2003)

OK, I made the switch over to live plants. I have 2 6700k bulbs in a 48" coralife T5 that is on for 8.5 hours a day. I have some crypt wendtii (red and bronze) on both the left and right sides. The back left is occupied with a few amazon swords. I have a couple java ferns in front of them. The back right is occupied by a bunch of leopard vals. The rocks have a bunch of anubias coffieola growing on them. And finally, I have some dwarf saggitaria for the foreground area. I'm hoping that it will fill out most of the tank and get shorter. The guy I bought it from says it was grown emersed and it will die off and come in much shorter over time. I hope he is right. There is also some duckweed that was on one of the plants that I let free in the tank. I heard its a nutrient hog and will help prevent algae. My rhom has been tearing up the plants pretty bad, so I don't know how well this will last. I've seen him take bites out of the wendtii. I'm not dosing any ferts, however there are root tabs in the sand. Anyways, here are the pictures and let me know what you think.


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## THE BLACK PIRANHA (Dec 8, 2003)

The tank looks good keep it up.


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## Trigga (Jul 1, 2006)

Looks very nice.. Make sure you control the duckweed in the tank.. I can get out of control sometimes and cause some serious havok to your filters


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## roccov12345 (Sep 26, 2008)

Very nice. I agree on the duckweed. As for the dwarf, even if it decides to die off, it may grow side shoots in the interim. You could just weed out the main plants as the side shoots grow in. They tend to grow like weeds.....


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## His Majesty (Apr 5, 2005)

that really is a fantastic looking setup.
nice and clean keep the good work up


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## ryanimpreza (Jul 19, 2006)

good looking scape. Swords re-producing I see...


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## notoriouslyKEN (Jul 31, 2003)

Thanks, guys. I got the Sword like that. I've since planted the babies, so I hope they continue to grow. The fish really seems to enjoy biting the plants and tearing everything up which definitely sucks.


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## T-wag (May 21, 2009)

thats a sexy set up...i made the mistake of rushing out and not researching befor i bought my live plants....now i have 5 different plants....3 which i find absolutly disgusting looking lol


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## notoriouslyKEN (Jul 31, 2003)

Here's my tank update. The swords have pretty much died off. I took them out last night b/c I have given up on them. The java fern seems to grow more staghorn algae then actually growing, so I am getting rid of that as well. The Vals are sending runners all over the place, but my piranha likes to mow them down so they aren't very tall anymore. My wendtii are shooting up new leaves all the time, by far the best of my tank. The dwarf sag is doing very well also, it's sending out new runners, and has actually shrunk some so it is more like a lawn. I noticed a little cyanobacteria in the tank the other day and graveled it out. I've decided I needed more plants, so I went out and dropped $40 on some new ones that should be coming Friday or Saturday. Here is a picture of my current tank scape that I did in photoshop:








And here is a picture of my future tank scape, once the new plants arrive:








What do you guys think of the new aquascape plans? I am not really moving stuff around so much, as I am adding to it. I will take some pictures with my digital camera once the plants arrive and I get them in the tank.


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## thedude8 (Oct 6, 2008)

sounds like a plan, only concern I see is that the crypt. Wendtii can grow pretty massive have 5 in the front of the tank might be an issue down the road. They do grow real slow though so you'll have time to decide if that is what you want or not.


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## notoriouslyKEN (Jul 31, 2003)

I am a low light setup with only root ferts, so they aren't growing that fast now. I have a friend who wants to convert his tank to plants so I can always get rid of some if they get too big. Right now, they have a fair amount of leaves, but they are laying flat on the sand.


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## Ibanez247 (Nov 9, 2006)

The dwarf chain sword plants I bought died off like you described but grew back. I almost took them out and glad I didnt cause they are looking sweet now. That tank will look totally different in a couple months. Looks good!


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## thedude8 (Oct 6, 2008)

notoriouslyKEN said:


> I am a low light setup with only root ferts, so they aren't growing that fast now. I have a friend who wants to convert his tank to plants so I can always get rid of some if they get too big. Right now, they have a fair amount of leaves, but they are laying flat on the sand.


gotcha, even with co2 and daily ferts those things grow slow as hell.

have you seen a picture of dippys egg tank. The wendtii looks awesome when it grows out

nice looking tank, looking forward to new pics, when are the plants coming in?


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## notoriouslyKEN (Jul 31, 2003)

Ibanez, i gave these swords time. They shed all their leaves when I first got them, I think it was emersed growth. The new growth started off OK, but quickly went transparent/yellow and died. Since all my other plants have been far easier to care for, I'd like to stick to the easy stuff for now.

TheDude, Dippy Eggs is like a grand master of planted tanks. I am still a young grasshopper. I ordered the plants yesterday. If they don't ship today, I will get them next week, probably Tuesday. If they do ship today, I should have them tomorrow or Saturday.


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## notoriouslyKEN (Jul 31, 2003)

My plants came in today. This is the same place that I ordered from before and they always give a ton of extras. The dwarf sag was grown emersed (as it was last time), so it's much taller than my older sag that has shed it's emersed growth. I believe the wendtii was grown emersed as well because it looks more similar to the walkeri than the wendtii I already have. I have a sh*t-ton of hornwort that came with the order. Waaaaaaaay more than I expected and can deal with. Luckily, I have a friend that wants to take some off of my hands. The rest I will just toss. Everything looks good and I will get pictures up after the holidays.


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

For emersed vs submerged, whats the point of buying emmersed? as i thought when you do the transition to submerged there is alot of die off like close to 100%, or is the plant fine, but the new leaves just grow in differntly and the old leaves stay the same untill they die?


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## maknwar (Jul 16, 2007)

sean-820 said:


> For emersed vs submerged, whats the point of buying emmersed? as i thought when you do the transition to submerged there is alot of die off like close to 100%, or is the plant fine, but the new leaves just grow in differntly and the old leaves stay the same untill they die?


Most plants grown from commercial sources are grown emmersed. Only advantage is the growth rate, which is greater emmersed. Yes, some plants will go through a transition but most dont. Crypts, and a lot of sensitive plants do melt when converted. HC for example doesnt melt, but goes through a weird stage of looking like crap before taking off. Java fern and other sturdy plants do not seem to be effected by the conversion.


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

so your pretty much buying the plant quantiyy rather then size since the plant will die off then come back from the amount of plants? Im assuming more sensitive plants are grown submerged then?


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## notaverage (Sep 10, 2005)

Is this your first planted tank?
Looks good.
I'm in the slow process of doing this with my 55 but the standard lights I don't think will cut it.


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## notoriouslyKEN (Jul 31, 2003)

This is my second attempt at a planted tank. The last one was a 75 gallon that got infested with staghorn algae pretty bad, so I am trying to do better this go 'round. As was previously said, most sellers grow their plants emmersed b/c they get bigger that way. Last time I ordered from this guy, the only thing grown emmersed was this dwarf sag. This time, I think the wendtii was as well b/c it looks different. Time will tell, but all the plants look healthy and crypts seem to be doing well in this tank. I haven't grown them before and they are quickly becoming one of my favorite genus of plants.


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## maknwar (Jul 16, 2007)

crypts are awesome. Let me know if you want to see some exotic crypts.


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## notaverage (Sep 10, 2005)

Come on dude!
You know the answer to that..show us show us.


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## TJcali (Mar 27, 2009)

Nice set up natoriousken


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

notoriouslyKEN said:


> This is my second attempt at a planted tank. The last one was a 75 gallon that got infested with staghorn algae pretty bad, so I am trying to do better this go 'round. As was previously said, most sellers grow their plants emmersed b/c they get bigger that way. Last time I ordered from this guy, the only thing grown emmersed was this dwarf sag. This time, I think the wendtii was as well b/c it looks different. Time will tell, but all the plants look healthy and crypts seem to be doing well in this tank. I haven't grown them before and they are quickly becoming one of my favorite genus of plants.


One thing i would add is more rocks to the left rock pile. Looks good though


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