7 replies to this topic

[Blakey]

I am looking at setting up a Medium size aquarium - Around a 3 x 2 x 2 - and i want to plant it out with some discus.

 

I am visualising a certain layout though and something along the lines of the photo below.

 

 

What I would like to know is;

 

What novice species of plants would work to replicate this setup?

 

How would i set this up? Is CO2 a must? Do i need Soil / Laterite?

 

Is better lighting required to hit the ground cover or are these plants adapted to lower lighting?

 

 

[Graeme]

The plants on the wood look like Java Fern, easy to keep

The carpet could be glosso or HC ( bit small to tell ) But harder to grow without high light and co2

 

[tunagirll]

You can replicate this somewhat with java fern on the wood and extensive amounts of flame moss instead of glosso - would take a long time to establish though without good lighting and CO2

[Mattymak]

http://www.perthcich...ic=39613&page=8

Check this out

Have a read/look through here. There's some good tips/ideas on planted even a bit about glosso covered the bottom in 3 & 1/2 weeks (:

[Michael the fish fanatic]

The plants on the wood look like Java Fern, easy to keep
The carpet could be glosso or HC ( bit small to tell ) But harder to grow without high light and co2

You can replicate this somewhat with java fern on the wood and extensive amounts of flame moss instead of glosso - would take a long time to establish though without good lighting and CO2

You guys are both wrong, that carpet is riccia moss

[kane29]

I am looking at setting up a Medium size aquarium - Around a 3 x 2 x 2 - and i want to plant it out with some discus.

 

I am visualising a certain layout though and something along the lines of the photo below.

 

 

What I would like to know is;

 

What novice species of plants would work to replicate this setup?

 

How would i set this up? Is CO2 a must? Do i need Soil / Laterite?

 

Is better lighting required to hit the ground cover or are these plants adapted to lower lighting?

 

 

 

Do you have the link to that picture? It is a bit too small to comment on which plant the ground cover is. I would guess it would be HC. If it is HC and you do want to run with that, you need a very fine substrate and very high lighting with Co2 being a must.

Another alternative and as Graeme mentioned (it could be), is Glosso. Much cheaper and is very quick to carpet. In my experience Co2 is necessary as well as decent lighting (moderate - high).

 

Plants that do not require special attention to stay alive: pygmy chain swords, blyxa japonica, moss, hair grass...

 

I reckon you could get a pretty good low maintenance foreground which would not require high lighting, fertz or co2 with Java Moss. You could dry start it as well, allowing for the Java Moss to take hold of the substrate, you also would then not need a 'special' substrate, anything would work. I have done dry starts on wood with moss and the end result always is much better than if tieing the moss to wood.

 

Then tie on some Java ferns, anubias etc. onto the wood. There you go, a very very low maintenance tank!

 

Edited by kane29, 01 September 2014 - 02:19 PM.

[MrLeifBeaver]

Do you have the link to that picture? It is a bit too small to comment on which plant the ground cover is. I would guess it would be HC. If it is HC and you do want to run with that, you need a very fine substrate and very high lighting with Co2 being a must.
 

 

Yeah I think this is what has inspired Blakey. That photo I think is one of the AGA Finalists 2013.

I think they grow the tank out, prune it, add the fish, turnoff off the filters to get all the sedement to float to the ground, specially place the lighting and do a pro photo shoot

http://showcase.aqua...2013/index.html

 

I am sure the tank still looks great without all the special lighting though.

Blakey - Looking forward to seeing planted Discus! They might be a bit hard to get them to sit still.   My imagination is running wild with how you make them sit still

"and i want to plant it out with some discus."

[kane29]

 

Yeah I think this is what has inspired Blakey. That photo I think is one of the AGA Finalists 2013.

I think they grow the tank out, prune it, add the fish, turnoff off the filters to get all the sedement to float to the ground, specially place the lighting and do a pro photo shoot

http://showcase.aqua...2013/index.html

 

I am sure the tank still looks great without all the special lighting though.

Blakey - Looking forward to seeing planted Discus! They might be a bit hard to get them to sit still.   My imagination is running wild with how you make them sit still

"and i want to plant it out with some discus."

That is the thing about all the competitions and that website in particular, besides the obvious use of photo shop. These tanks would only look like this for a very short period of time. All the stem plants would need pruning once a week, so timing of the prune would be an extremely well measured process.  The hardscapes they come up with are amazing. We are very unlucky in the sense that WA is very limited in plants and hardscape materials. I could look at that website and this one: http://fuck-yeah-aqu...ing.tumblr.com/ for hours, same with Mr Amano's book.