My ever-evolving tank (picture heavy)

[Learner]

Originally Posted by Amandas tank

Hello fellow Alaskan! Thank you for your offer. Very nice of you. My package hasn't arrived yet. I am hopeful when it does arrive nothing will have frozen being that the temps have dropped to the 20's. It has been interesting trying to get plants over the past year. We are so limited on what is sold at the LFS and then there is Petco. Blah. Their plants are stuffed in little tubes and look like they are decaying. It's too bad.

There are a lot of fabulous people here at TPT. I have found some to be above and beyond kind! What a great bunch of people. I am glad to be a part of this group.

I agree! I cant even imagine where I would be in this hobby without these guys. Probably not even in the hobby to be honest! Good luck with the order. Mine just came in today, 1 week in the mail and they were the most foul smelling, melted waste I have ever seen. Amongst the wreckage were three tiny jungle val sprigs that I am going to try and work with. I am so frustrated! Not the senders fault I'm sure, just hard being up here when it comes to aquarium plants. Anyways, if you have good luck and your plants survive, please let me know how you did it. I am $40 in the hole with 2-3 dying jungle vals to show for it.

Best Fishes

JD

[Amandas tank]

Originally Posted by Learner

I agree! I cant even imagine where I would be in this hobby without these guys. Probably not even in the hobby to be honest! Good luck with the order. Mine just came in today, 1 week in the mail and they were the most foul smelling, melted waste I have ever seen. Amongst the wreckage were three tiny jungle val sprigs that I am going to try and work with. I am so frustrated! Not the senders fault I'm sure, just hard being up here when it comes to aquarium plants. Anyways, if you have good luck and your plants survive, please let me know how you did it. I am $40 in the hole with 2-3 dying jungle vals to show for it.

Best Fishes

JD

Ah no! That's a bummer! I am sorry. Mine probably will be in the same shape. They will have been in the package for 1 week tomorrow. Found out today they have been processed and are sitting here in the PO. Will have to wait till tomorrow to get them. Mine were apparently here on Saturday, but just hadn't been processed yet. No one works at the PO on Sunday, and this morning at 7am they were marked as here on the tracking site. Ugh! If only they would have processed the mail when it arrived Saturday I would have live plants!

[AUvet14]

Originally Posted by Amandas tank

Ah no! That's a bummer! I am sorry. Mine probably will be in the same shape. They will have been in the package for 1 week tomorrow. Found out today they have been processed and are sitting here in the PO. Will have to wait till tomorrow to get them. Mine were apparently here on Saturday, but just hadn't been processed yet. No one works at the PO on Sunday, and this morning at 7am they were marked as here on the tracking site. Ugh! If only they would have processed the mail when it arrived Saturday I would have live plants!

That's super frustrating! Hope you are at least about to save some of them.

[Amandas tank]

Originally Posted by AUvet14

That's super frustrating! Hope you are at least about to save some of them.

I tell ya it really is! I hope I will be lucky and there will be a lot of survivors!

[Amandas tank]

Okay. Plants are here in my house! Finally!!! They are currently soaking per directions from the sender.

Here are some pics. I grouped them by color and health...those that are melted pretty bad are in a bucket for the time being and the others are seperated by color because I only have limited buckets and thought they all need to get unpacked ASAP.

Here they are



and...

and...oh..the leaves to the plant above were melted at the base of them stems and fell off. At least there are two left.


and...

in the "red leaf" box, the plant on the bottom right is pretty soft and smells terrible, so I am not certain if it is okay or not.

and here's the plants that are not doing so well after the 7 days of being in a box.

[Sethjohnson30]

They look horrible

[OVT]

Please see comments below pictures

Originally Posted by Amandas tank

Okay. Plants are here in my house! Finally!!! They are currently soaking per directions from the sender.

Here are some pics. I grouped them by color and health...those that are melted pretty bad are in a bucket for the time being and the others are seperated by color because I only have limited buckets and thought they all need to get unpacked ASAP.

Here they are



Brazilian Pennyworth (green middle left) - let them float on top of the tank. Some leaves will melt, but it should survive.
E. tenellus (my weird plant) center, 'spikey' plants: separate the plants, cut the roots with sharp scissors, leaving about 1", remove some outside leaves and plant.
Water Sprite (top with long roots): take the 2 largest ones and put the roots on substrate and put a stone on top to keep the plants down. Let the others float. Check tomorrow for branches that look translucent and pinch them off at the roots. I give them 75% chance of survival.



and...

and...oh..the leaves to the plant above were melted at the base of them stems and fell off. At least there are two left.

Hygro (palnts with larger leaves): separate the plants and plant as is: make hole in substrate, insert stem, cover with substrate.
HC (small leaved plants): plant as is: just shove the bottoms into the substrate so that they do not float up: leaves on the stems will melt, new leaves should grow from the stem's tops.




Water Sprite: roots on substrate, stone on top

and...

in the "red leaf" box, the plant on the bottom right is pretty soft and smells terrible, so I am not certain if it is okay or not.

Red tiger lotus: (large laves): pinch off the largest leaves at the roots: leave odd number of laves (3-5), cut the roots, leaving about 1.5" and plant.

Ludwidgia repens x acurata (long and short plants on top): starting from the bottom find part of the stem that feels firm, cut the stem above that right under the leaves, remove 2-4 sets of leaves above that and plant. This plant will drop a lot of leaves, just give it time.

Limnophilia aromatica (bottom right): please take a separate picture, they might be ok.

Trash everything else below this picture.

There should be more plants that I do not see on the pictures.

There are 2 melted plants in the pictures below: Rotala roundifolia and Limnophila sessiliflora

and here's the plants that are not doing so well after the 7 days of being in a box.

[Amandas tank]

Originally Posted by Sethjohnson30

They look horrible

Some do, but I am thrilled that a lot of them survived the failure of USPS!!! Goes to show the sender really has awesome plants! Very healthy to pull through 7 days in a dark box without water lost in the post office. Amazing!
I am so happy right now!!!!

[Amandas tank]

Thanks OVT! I will be back when I finish following your lovely instructions You rock!!!!

[OVT]

Couple of more:

The plant in the last 2 pictures (Limnophila sessiliflora): find 2-3 plants whose tops look the best, cut the stems leaving 2-3 set of leaves, let them float.

Important: Increase your water surface aeration by either turning filters' outlets more toward the surface or by adding an air stone/wand/power head. Plants consume o2 at night, the process of decay uses up even more o2. The last thing I want is to suffocate your fish.

[Amandas tank]

Originally Posted by OVT

Couple of more:

The plant in the last 2 pictures (Limnophila sessiliflora): find 2-3 plants whose tops look the best, cut the stems leaving 2-3 set of leaves, let them float.

Important: Increase your water surface aeration by either turning filters' outlets more toward the surface or by adding an air stone/wand/power head. Plants consume o2 at night, the process of decay uses up even more o2. The last thing I want is to suffocate your fish.

Thanks! I did not know that! I ran over to the LFS and grabbed a pump and some tubing with a large airstone. Will take some of the water out to allow for the HOB's to waterfall ontop the surface. Also, I will aline the penguin powerhead at the water line.

Still working! Took better pictures of the individual species grouped together.
Will be sharing them momentarily

[AUvet14]

Sounds like you've got a busy evening Nurse those plants back to health. It makes you feel great when they pull through

[Sethjohnson30]

So when do we get pics???

[Amandas tank]

more plant pics:
and...

AND...

AND...

AND...OVT, I trimmed these below as you described. Does it look right?

[Amandas tank]

Do these look okay? The leaves are so tiny, I have tried to remove melted ones, but it seems they all are melted. ?? Help me with this group please.