[Tihsho]

Splitting off my emersed section from my Mr. Aqua thread that I migrated over from TPT. I'm sorry for the load times some of you may experience.

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I'm splitting off my emersed growth project that I have that will be feeding my Mr. Aqua 6.5 as well as providing space for general collectoritus.

Because I was waiting on hardware for my 6.5 and I knew I'd have to start some plants soon I restarted a setup I had used a year back for emersed growth to propagate UG as well as other Utricularia species and a Nepenthes that would later be moved.

While I had the emersed tank up I felt like I might as well let collectoritus kick in and start some other grow outs from the ever so common in-vitro packs I'm seeing in chain stores these days.

Hygrophila Pinnatifida

I spent a lot of time with this clump. There was a lot of die off that needed to be cleaned as well as the nasty nutrient/hydro gel. All in all it didn't turn out two bad. I got 2 2.5" pots full, here is one of them:

Pogostemon Helferi

After trimming it back I had a pile of waste but a ton of stems. I have a feeling I'll be getting rid of a lot of it again locally. I forgot to take a shot of it with my DSLR prior to placing them in the tank, so here is a last minute attempt of equality:

Is it just me, or is it looking a bit crowded in the grow out already?

Was able to pick up a few more in-vitro plants.

Staurogyne Repens

One of the three pots it filled:

Kicked up the emersed game with an ultrasonic fogger. They make all the difference in these setups. Used one before but the old one broke. This cheapo one off Amazon has done great!

Moved out the Nepenthes and the dwarf sphagnum moss I was growing in the emersed tank to make room for more stuff. Now they have their own 2.5 gallon that is an extension of my emersed grow out.

Sadly lost a pot of P. Helferi because of an Excel experiment. Oh well. Where one falls two more shall take its place.

The ultrasonic fogger was a good purchase. I can't rant about how much I love it!

More on the expansion of grow out tanks:

First big plant order from a user on TPT (Bartohog) if you ever get a chance to order from him, you'll never be upset!

'Blood *****' Trithuria Sp.

Riccardia Chamedryfolia 'Mini Pellia'

Marsilea Crenata

Caloglossa Cр. Beccarii

Rotala 'Mini Butterfly'

Rotala Mexicana 'Goais'

Dug around the basement to find a light fixture I had retrofitted two grow light T-5's into years back. Picked up some new bulbs for it on the way home and got the stems submersed setup going for a grow out.

Thanks to a RAOK some more plants showed up

NLJF (Non mini as you can see)

Lilaeopsis Sp.

Fissidens Fontanus

Subwassertang is what he said he was shipping, but it looks more like Monosolenium Tenerum

And finally... All the floaters! A mix of RRF (Phyllanthus Fluitans), DWL (Pistia Stratiotes), and Frogbit (Limnobium Laevigatum)

Met up with a local member of the old forum and traded some Osmocote tabs I had made for some of his trimmings

Sagittaria Subulata

Ludwigia Sp.

Blyxa Japonica

Pistia Stratiotes

Moving the plants into their temp homes:

As you can see the plants do well in the fogged home:

Finally got more species of in-vitros in to get ready for a dry start of my Mr. Aqua 6.5.

Rotalla "Bonsai" AKA True Rotala Indica

Ranunculus Inundatus

Utricularia Gramnifolia

Alternanthera Reineckii 'Mini'

 

[Tihsho]

I'll update this more tonight with pics of the emersed stuff. It's in need of a good trim on the AR 'Mini', S. Repens, and P. Helferi 'Downoi'. The floaters I added in there to perk up also have taken over so I'll need to start thinning those out it seems.

I'm strongly considering upgrading the half 10 to an ExoTerra so I have more space and I can integrate a misting system with said space. Problem I have and why I have a feeling I'll hold off is the space I currently have the half 10. It resides on a wire rack stand that has the dimensions of 24" x 12" which limits me on the 24" x 18" ExoTerra's unless I can find a wire rack that is 24" x 18" which I would LOVE as I can fit that where I have my current rack. I have this rack against my desk so it matches perfectly with the 24" length and all of the other rack stands are 30" or 36" which I don't want.

 

[Tihsho]

As promised here are some updated pics from tonight.

Lets start out with the 'not so emersed' grow out since I don't feel like making a thread for it:

Rotala 'Mini Butterfly' and Rotala Mexicana 'Goais' have taken off. I've trimmed back the Java Fern since the last pic it was in. I'm not sure you can see all the algae that exploded in here... I need to deal with it.

Now onto the emersed goodie tank, the half ten in all of it's mess...

I didn't take pics of everything, so if you have any questions on what stuff is that I didn't post, ask. But, with that said I'll answer these before someone does ask. The terracotta dishes in the back hold Mini Pelia (left) and Subwassertang (right).

Onto a few personal shots of a handful of the plants:

S. Repens:

Pogostemon Helferi 'Downoi':

Ludwigia Sp (guessing Repens?):

Ranunculus Inundatus:

Lilaeopsis Sp.:

Ammania 'Bonsai' AKA True Rotala Indica:

Alternanthera Reineckii 'Mini':

Utricularia Gramnifolia:

Hygrophila Pinnatifida:

Trithuria Sp. "Blood *****" (started with 5 and now have 19):

 

[Tihsho]

I'll keep tonight's update short and sweet.

Time for some trading/selling to thin this thing out!

 

[kyle2088]

Hi Tihsho loving your work. Great growth

Sorry if I missed it

What are the sizes of your tanks?
What lighting are you using?
and
what fert regime are you using? (Water column or spray substrate)

Thanks

 

[Tihsho]

kyle2088, thanks!

The top tank on the shelf is a half ten. No, not just a 5 gallon tank, but a 5 gallon with the floor print of a 10 gallon tank. These are made by glass cages. The three below it are just your standard 2.5 gallons.

The half 10 is running 4 CFL's in your old school 10 gallon light strips. I change these out every 6 months with whatever bulbs I can get on sale. I'm going for growth over aesthetics, so price here made more of a difference for me. As for the 2.5's I just have a DIY dual T5 strip thats retrofitted into an old AGA plastic T8 shell.

As for ferts, some plants I have my home made Osmocote+ tabs in, others are just the soil. Some plants are in the Brightwell Aquatic FlorinVolcanit that I'm using in my Mr. Aqua tank, and others are just using Fluval Stratum. I mainly have the O+ tabs in with the Fluval Stratum as I've noticed it's lacking in macros.

I do some other fertilizing, but I won't get into it just yet. It's something I'm experimenting with as I'm considering upping the scale of my emersed setups to produce plants when I move.