Plant size & non rooted cutting questions

Hehe..so I can shove those anacharis ends back in the substrate so they quit blocking the light to my other plants, right??
And what about hornwort (I think it is) Can I likewise shove some if it in the gravel? I acutally have it tastefully draped around some driftwood, as do I have the java moss. I need to take new pics, maybe I'll do that when ai get home tonight.

Happychem....do you do anything about the high ph, kh and gh..besides move to where the water is better :D
I do have 4 pieces of driftwood, while none are big, will this have an affect on pH? My experience while treating my swimming pool has been that no matter what you put in to try to drop the hardness, it will just rebound anyway. In the pool, I can hammer down the pH with muratic acid and it will be fine until the next time I add tap water. What about my fishtank?
 
Yup, I usually plant mine in groups of 3-4 stems, I find that gives me a bushier look. When I still had it in my 33g tank I even went so far as to plant 6-8 stems together. But then as I started to cut back on its presence I scaled the number of stems planted together back to 3-4.

I've never kept hornwort, so I can't say for sure. I'd wager yes, though. Pretty much any floating plant can be grown submerged, just usually takes more light than if they were grown floating, obviously since they're farther from the light. ;) Basically do whatever you find attractive and let the plants tell you if there's something wrong with it.

pH and KH (and GH) can be monkeyed with effectively, but it's not cheap and it's not for the faint of heart. Every now and then someone will post a thread about lowering pH and KH and someone will inevitably suggest driftwood. It's really not a good approach since it's short lived and you have no control over the extent. Once you get a good test kit (have you tried www.bigalsonline.com ?) that allows you to know better the KH of your water you'll be on a little firmer ground than right now. From the sounds of it though, it sounds like you've got perfect water for CO2 supplementation.

Adding CO2, btw, will decrease your pH without affecting KH.

edit: oh! so I guess my answer to changing pH/KH/GH is to do nothing. You're not at an extreme and you can keep most fish with great success in that water. Besides, a higher KH just means that you've got a great buffer so your pH should be pretty rock steady.
 
Swimfins said:
Blinky? Is that your myrophilium floating on top in the pic? I just got another bunch to try again, since my last one didn't do well under the freaking blue actinic bulb lol, live and learn. :idea2:
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Sorry for the hijack Nursie :)
Yep, I've given up forcing the poor thing to live 24" below the surface. I've got lots of light, but this plant seems to want even more than I can give it - it grew well rooted in the substrate, but never had that thick, 'bushy' look, and only turned really red near the surface. Floating on the surface, it's no longer leggy and spindly looking. It's big and bright (putting out fluorescent pink roots ATM), and I've gotten used to having it float around. The fry seem to love it, so I guess it's found a new calling as a floating plant :D
[edit] it looks HORRID in the picture, in person it's lovely ;) [/edit]
 
Blinky...I don't consider it a hijack at all :)
How long have you had the tank going that is in the pic? I hope mine will look as good some day.
How long do you wait be sure things are stablized and can add fish?

Happychem..thanks so much for your help. I think I need to start slow so my intention was to start with low light easy plants and no CO2. I read all that stuff and it's like greek to me.
I'm still trying to figure out how to fertilize what I have. And how you know if you need to add macro and micronutrients to your tank, and how much, how often, and what kind. I read the "sticky" post and wish there was some kind of table or something.

Swimfins...I didn't know the anacharis had atb properties...so a good thing in your tank then? Also, I never thought about putting anything betwen rocks, I can do that!
 
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Great site for ferts

Chuck's site has been great for calculating ferts and CO2 concentration.
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/
As to lowering your pH, if you decide to one day, CO2 is a great way to do it. My pH was >8.4 (off the test kit) and is now stable at 7.2 with pressurized CO2 injection. Good luck. It's nice to see another person starting a planted tank. I just finally got mine to a point where I will be posting pics soon(2 months).
 
nursie said:
Blinky...I don't consider it a hijack at all :)
How long have you had the tank going that is in the pic? I hope mine will look as good some day.
How long do you wait be sure things are stablized and can add fish?
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The last major teardown was when I sold my 45, got the 65, switched from gravel to flourite and went planted. That was December 4, so about five months ago.
I appreciate the compliment :) I've been learning as I go; other than green water for a week or so at the start, the only problems I've had with this tank were with my own lack of aquascaping ability. I'm getting the hang of things, but I'm very hands-on - I don't seem to be able to imagine things well (though I draw layout after layout on paper), I have to actually put the plants in position, live with it for a while, and then fix what I'm not happy with. It's been a great learning process. This weekend I did a major pruning and moved some plants around, bought a new piece of bogwood and I think it's made all the difference. I'm enjoying the look a lot more now. I had no idea what was wrong with the tank until I read a comment from Takashi Amano on the AGA website about wood with cut edges looking unnatural - I realized it was the bare, cut wood that was ruining things. It was also a jungle; I'm determined to prune more rigerously from now on. I bought a beautiful Java fern today, I have no idea how or why I've lived so long without one! I'd love to see it cover a lot of the wood and create a gorgeous mid-ground.
But I digress... back to the question. If you've filled the tank with fast-growing stem plants, I'd give them a couple weeks to really establish themselves and get going - when you start seeing fast, healthy growth you should be able to add some fish and see no measurable ammonia levels - the plants will use it as it's produced. Test frequently to make sure, but IME as long as there are lots of plants and they're growing well, you're more likely to have to add N than worry about an excess :)
 
I've finally got things in balance, was discouraged for awhile but that's how it goes. My tank has alot of nice looking healthy plants,now, its not an aquascape by any means but its attractive and I add new plants as I go so it changes from week. It will become a rainbowfish tank in time. That's the fun of this, things change as the plants grow, you can shuffle them for effect. And get a bigger picture of where you'd like it to go and aim for that :)

Tank looks gr8 Blinky, the wood is really nice. I've got that big old fashioned chunk of driftwood that I keep because those things cost a fortune and I got mine for free because it came with the tank, so I make the best of it, but if I had my druthers I'd have a long vertical piece instead.

D'oh I meant horizontal, its late!

Happy Chem? Whay do you hate pants lol ;)
 
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