Help me plant my 180

V

vmahaffe

AC Members
Dec 10, 2006
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Rochester, MN
I am having a hard time planting my 180 so that it looks nice. Anty advice would be appreciated. I have a 384 Odyssea light with 12000k bulbs and am going to add another 100 watts of 6700k bulbs to the hoods that come with the tank. For plants I have a nice amazon sword in the back of the tank behind the driftwood and a bunch of vals along the back. There are a couple of anubius attached to the stump and I am trying to get java moss to grow on it too. This is pretty much where nice leaves and the rest is a mess. I have anacharis, cabomba, hygro cory, wisteria and Indian fern mixed together, more or less. In the front I have some nice crypto wendtii (green and red). I have about 100 pounds of eco-complete as my first layer followed by sandblasting gravel. I can't figure out how to plant the middle plants so that they look more organized or not so cluttered. Should I plant clumps of each in a couple areas, clumps spread, dump plants, buy different ones? I am completely lost.
Thanks for your help.

new house 008.jpg
 
I think that you should clump like plants together and space them out with the shorter ones as foreground plants and the tall ones in the back. I like to use a sword plant as a "centerpiece" and maybe separate the wood if it's more than one piece to balance it out a bit. I definitely wouldn't put a hodgepodge of unlike plants together, I would keep clumps of the same plant together. If you space them out a bit they will fill in the spaces. When I look at your tank I see a lot in the back and nothing in the front. (first impression) I hope this helps. I'm hoping that my plants will grow as well. I just replanted my tank.
Good luck,
Barbara
 
Some moss will do well with those two branches
 
"I think that you should clump like plants together and space them out with the shorter ones as foreground plants and the tall ones in the back."
I will definitely do try this tomorrow. I think that is part of my problem is that I have everything kind of mixed together, so it looks like a really bad salad! Maybe the clumping will make things look "cleaner"

"Sounds alot like my 180gal plant tank setup. I am really pleased with mine.
This is how it turned out: http://users.adelphia.net/~vidiots/A...allonTank3.JPG"
This is what I would like mine to look like, very nice!!

"The driftwood is begging for some moss...not java moss, maybe some Fissidens fontanus"
Does this stuff grow better than java moss? I have been fighting to get java moss to grow, but apparently I have too much light, or I am just an idiot. The latter is probably more likely.

Thanks for all of the responses, this helps a lot.
 
So, regarding Java Moss....having trouble getting it to grow? A couple of things: Java Moss really likes to be spread out, so it'll grow much faster if it's not attached to something. On top of that, it does very well in swift moving water, can't really say why(probably because it helps it spread out). That's why I suggested something else. Plus, Java Moss is so common, for that driftwood, it would be awesome to have a one of the more uncommon mosses, something truly beautiful.
 
jmhart said:
So, regarding Java Moss....having trouble getting it to grow? A couple of things: Java Moss really likes to be spread out, so it'll grow much faster if it's not attached to something. On top of that, it does very well in swift moving water, can't really say why(probably because it helps it spread out). That's why I suggested something else. Plus, Java Moss is so common, for that driftwood, it would be awesome to have a one of the more uncommon mosses, something truly beautiful.
Click to expand...

I have found that when Java Moss gets into a thick stationary ball the stuff at the bottom tends to die off presumably from lack of light and the build up of debris over time and it grows much better either spead out thin or free floating where more of it is exposed to light and it collects less debris.
 
Here is an updated pic of my tank. Grouping like plants together made a huge difference. The tank looks a lot neater and clean. I do have to thin out my anacharis soon though and my wisteria doesn't look nice, so I will probably dump it too. I have a bare spot in front of my amazon sword, so I am going to the LFS to see what I can find. I did order some of the Fissidens fontanus, so hopefully I can grow it better than java moss. The java moss I have now is rubberbanded to the driftwood in front of the outflow tube from the filter and it is pretty thin, so maybe I will get lucky and it will grow.
Thanks everyone for your advice.

DSC00318.JPG
 
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