'Practice' planted tanks (easy types)

Alright, practicing some planted tank techniques that I've never used on my two small home tanks - before I go and use them on Tues on the 55 and 29 reconstruction.

2G 'demspey juvie' tank - threw some moss balls, a piece of water hyacinth(?), dash of Moneywart and the last couple of small bamboos in there. Held them down with some smooth river rocks. Added in a handful of duckweed. Juvies are now having a blast ducking in between the pigpog sized moss balls and seem more secure now that the surface is 'covered'. (bright light - it's in the window)

10G 'living room' tank. (This is the tank that will be REALLY wildly aquascaped when everything shows up in the mail) Decided to tear it apart and replaced the old sand with this stuff called 'Flora Max'. Don't believe the bag about 'light rinse' - no this cr@p needs rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse and rinse some more! And you'll still end up with a slight haze that you must wait for the filter to clean it out. That's the one complaint I have with it. But the guys on AquascapeWorld said it was a good beginner substrate and would really make the plants I'm choosing grow fast.

So now the 10G is back together. Got it sloped up towards the back on both sides. Custom planted back drop. (Fern's idea) Four big mondo grass clumps along the back, grapevine w/JF and rock w/JF at both back corners, three big sections of flat Java Moss in the low area on the front. And a bunch of moss balls swirling around in the current. Threw handful of Duckweed for finishing touch. (3 watts light per gallon.

I'll get my friend to take pictures when she comes on Tues. They should be all cleared up then.

sounds simple enough cant wait to see pics

sounds good, bring back the mondo grass.
it will die in your tank.

Floromax never comes clean man ...lol usually let you water settle for a day...you can do a water change 3 years later and that stuff still kicks up clouds.

I tried floromax and in 6 months needed to replace it as all the plants were dying in the tank. Nutrients seemed to be dead so I needed to increase nutrients for the plants after about 4 months of use.

alanjt - what happened to your mondo grass? I've always had decent luck keeping it going - untill I made the mistake of putting mondo grass loving fish in that particular tank....

Hmmm, decided to look it up. Realized why I had luck with it. I had the tops above water like a bog, and it's a bog plant. Guess I can't use it in the 29T, and I'll have to add more substrate to the 10 and get it at 'bog level' like I did back then. Thanks for making me look alanjt.

If you want to put it into a 29 gal tank I have had luck using pots to get grass towards the surface (plus upside down pot makes a good place for angels to spawn), or I have hung netting filled with coconut husk across the top giving the tank a grass top look

Good ideas! I'm actually going to use those with the bamboo I'm recycling into a 55G panfish/crayfish setup I'm constructing today at work.

The 29T I'm redoing today - well, I've decided against using the mondo in it. I've got Japanese marsh rushes that are the perfect height to surpass the water line in it. I'll still get the grassy backdrop look with them.

So keep some fertilizers handy in four months? Thanks for the heads-up ya'll

Great ideas are coming from this thread keep it up I like it. Never thought of the net idea that could be useful in the 44 gal hex that is 24" deep

just as a heads up, from what I've gathered, the ecocomplete/laterite/floramax type substrates are not enriched like something like ADA aquasoil. Some may include a bit of nutrients but their main purpose is to retain the minerals that the plants need. That means that they still need root tabs and/ or dry dosing micros/macros for best effect.

i have used turface pro league. the same stuff on ball fields. great stuff! and only 12-15 bucks on a 50lb bag!!! it almost identical to aquariumplants.com stuff.

The Carib-Sea product for planted tanks actually has a base infusion of elements needed for plant . When I contacted them they recomend still using ferts. Their product is a clay base that holds minerals in the soil so rooted plants can easily access nutrients. Swords, Vals, and other rooted plants supposedly really benefit from this. Still cannot see spending $25 for 16#.