[biffe]

I didn't get the time I wanted in the weekend, so ill make the first major update today. At 9am I received the plants, and I just couldn't wait to get started, so after a turbo breakfast I went into aquarium world for the next several hours :biggrin:

Lets take a look on what I got from the mailman.

I guess it took me around 3-4 hours to get the plants planted, with stems and all it added up to 250+, just to give you and idea how much that is, I have the pictures of all the pots, please keep in mind that not all plants came in pots, so this is around 75% of the plants.

After 4 hours work I was finally ready to fill up the tank, I only have one picture of the tank tonight, the tank need to clear up a bit before I can make some decent shots.

This picture was taken 5minutes after fill up.

I'm aware that the tanks background in both left and right side looks a bit empty and fragile compared to the massive middle, but trust me its filled with a lot of nice stemplants, that hopefully will bring the tank in balance, but i should be able to post a lot more pictures in a few days when the water clears up

The plants started to pearl after an hour, mostly because of the new water, but its still beautiful, here is a few examples.

(Hemianthus callitrichoides)

(Myriophyllum elatinodes)

I am really looking forward to some feedback, especially some positive constructive criticism, since this is my first planted tank.

Regards Kenneth (Biffe)

 

[biffe]

Forgot to add a plant list:

25 Heteranthera Zosterifolia
25 Hygrophila Polysperma "big leaf"
25 Hygrophila Polysperma "Varigata rosanervig"
25 Limnophila aromatica
25 Limnophila sessilflora ambulia
20 Myriophyllum elatinodes
10 Rotala nanjenshan
04 Sagittaria subulata
01 Echinodorus marcophyllus
03 Echinodorus rubin "narrow"
02 Microsorium pteropus
15 Microsorium pteropus "narrow"
02 Microsorium pteropus "windeløv"
15 Cryptocoryne wendtti "brown"
15 Cryptocoryne wendtti "brown / green"
15 Cryptocoryne wendtti "tropica"
05 Cryptocoryne balansae "narrow"
05 Cryptocoryne balansae "wide"
10 Hemianthus callitrichoides ''Cuba''

 

[Edward]

Hi Biffe

What kind of substrate is it?

 

[biffe]

buttom layer is peat(20%), red artclay(30%), and sand(50%), the middle layer is JBL Aquabasic, and the top layer is very fine gravel from the Danish west coast (1-2mm).

Regards Kenneth

 

[pineapple]

Biffe's in Denmark, if my memory does not deceive me. So those boxes from www.aquartica.dk probably contained ultra-freshly-picked Tropica plants. How nice to be near such a good source.

Andrew Cribb

 

[biffe]

Found a picture of the cabinet.

The hardware is:

Eheim 2028II pro
JBL Proflora Co2 system
Aqua Media Bubblecounter
Aqua Media 1000 Reactor

 

[biffe]

Andrew:

Yeah they left the nursery same day, plus they gave me a growguarantie, if any plant die within four weeks I get em replaced.

 

[pineapple]

"Green" with envy here ;-)

This is going to be a nice project to watch. I'm interested to see how the substrate does and look forward to the updates.

Andrew

 

[trenac]

Very nice first tank, great job :razz:

What plant is that in the left rear?

 

[Raul-7]

What plant is that in the left rear?

It's E. marcophyllus.

This tank is starting to look great right from the start, it just needs more time to fill in. But I have to ask, is the 2028 even enough for this huge tank?

 

[biffe]

Seems to be enough, there is a good waterflow, if its not enough, then i guess ill have to order one more.

 

[biffe]

Ok after two days i got some more pictures for you guys, the growth has just been amazing, yet i can't seem to belive this is possible, but i guess the pictures will tell their story. I still fight some with my water values, Kh7 and I can't seem to dissolve enough Co2, atleast the Ph is at 7.5 :/

I know that the angle aint the same, but try match the first picture with this one, especially if you look at the rightside you can see some very nice growth, atleast I think that i can

This is a better close up from the rightside

The Sessilflora are doing great too, I was kinda scared with all these steem plants, allways seen em as fragile plants for experts only, but that seem not to be true

Last picture in this round is my Heteranthera zosterifolia

Regards Kenneth

 

[pineapple]

That's quite astonishing. Growth at that rate must mean nutrients are used up quickly. I imagine that it might be difficult to figure out how much NPK to add.

Fresh plants, straight from the nursery have good internal stores of NPK - correct me if I am wrong in this assumption - but when the stores are used up, the demand for fertilizer from the water will be fairly large and with rapid growth will increase.............. Presumably, the game is to make enough nutrients available all the time (I think that is what Tom Barr recommends, is it not?)

Andrew Cribb

 

[dennis]

Well, 10ppm NO3 woul dmean adding 12.5 grams of KNO3 or .75 tablespoon, 4x a week is 50 grams.....

 

[niko]

E. macrophyllus loves CO2 and will get more than 2 feet tall if given enough light. It grows insanely fast - one new leaf per day is not unusual.

It's a beautiful plant and I hope yours will not try to get out of the tank

--Nikolay

 

[Sir_BlackhOle]

Very nice tank! You have some great looking plants there!!

 

[Roy Deki]

WOW...great start. I can't wait to see an update. I wish we could get plants like that here.

 

[guppyman7476]

What is the plant in the last photo?

Ken

 

[turtlehead]

Can you give me like 2 days to get back to you?

John

 

[depthc]

guppyman - the last plant is Heteranthera zosterifolia. It said it right above it :-s heh so yeah read first.

biffe the growth is amazing. It looks so much different than the initial setup pics. Great job.

Andrew