[Coralite]

Hi All,
My name is Jake Adams, I am a full time marine aquarium hobbyist. I started keeping planted aquariums back in 95 when there were only 2 dozen plants available and a whole lot of pretty nature aquarium books but not much else. I have a mostly reefing background, I give talks to reef clubs and write articles for print and online reef publications. Within the past year I have been revisiting my aquatic gardening roots and dabbling in plant tanks more and more. Currently I maintain a 180 gallon, 60"x24"x30"H South American themed planted tank. The layout started out very ducth but I am trying to blend it a little more towards the japanese style and eventually more Tonina style.

Here is a video of the tank as of a couple days ago.

 

[Tex Gal]

Welcome! What beautiful plants! You have some of my favorites in there. I love the Ludwigan senegalensis you have in there. I just stuck some in my big tank to try to get a nice stand of it like you have.

Sounds like you have a lot of knowledge you can share with us all!

 

[gravy9]

Welcome to the forum, Jake. Looking forward to your adding to the already strong knowledgebase.

 

[supersmirky]

Welcome to the forum. We are glad to have you here and it sounds like we could learn alot from you as well!

 

[JanS]

Welcome to APC!

I agree, you do have some beautiful plants and the tank looks amazing.

 

[Jeff.:P:.]

Excellent Erio's and other plants, fellow reefer!

 

[Coralite]

Thanks for the kind words guys, here is a link to the High Quality version of the video.

 

[supersmirky]

whoa....finally got to watch the video now. Amazing! Good job. Also, what plant is in the second slide?

 

[Coralite]

The plant in the second image slide is Ludwigia sp. Guinea. It is one of the deepest red plants I grow.

 

[Tex Gal]

What plant is in the back middle? Is it wisteria?

 

[Coralite]

The plant in the back is not "wisteria", it is Ceratopteris richardii. A weird sibling species which was brought to me from a botanical grad student who claimed his research lab collected it in the Amazon and grew it from tissue cultures. It is a very weird plant with leaves that can do a dozen different things depending on even the slightest micro environments. Its kind of annoying because the leaves last about 1 week so there is a very high turnover of this plant. I try to keep it down to 2-3 leaves because even one frond casts a big shadow on everything below it. A closer look.

 

[ferris89]

It is a very weird plant with leaves that can do a dozen different things depending on even the slightest micro environments.

this would be an interesting plant to study in terms as an environment indicator, just as many frogs are used all over the world.
oh and welcome to APC, oops it's nice to see someone else from my neck of the woods on this site

 

[Coralite]

this would be an interesting plant to study in terms as an environment indicator,

it's nice to see someone else from my neck of the woods on this site

The funny thing is that C. richardii is used for exactly that, albeit more in the realm of genetic expression. See this paper.

I dont know if you've ever been to Aquamart in Lakewood but that is where this tank is at. We have also begun a sign up sheet to start a freshwater plant club in the central Colorado area, so check it out.

 

[Tex Gal]

That is one neat plant. Hope you can grow some and sell it in the For Sale Forum to spread it through the hobby.

 

[Minsc]

You are doing an absolutely amazing job with that tank! Could you please share the specifications: dosing, filtration, light, CO2 method, etc.?