[AaronT]

This one's for you Don Boyer!

I've tried and tried, but I just don't do aquascaping. It's valuable real estate and I just love collecting. I have collectoritis and I am NOT looking for a cure. :biggrin:

Even so Mr. Boyer has been bothering me for some time now to actually see what my current tank looks like and how I have it setup so here it goes.

Tank: ADA 90-P

Lighting:

4 x 39 ATI Sunpower fixture hung 8" above the tank with 2 Giesemann midday and 2 Giesemann aquaflora bulbs.
2 bulbs on for 8 hours a day and all 4 bulbs on for 4 hours in the middle of that "day"

Filtration:

CPR90 Overflow into an old ProClear Sump
Taam Rio 2500 return pipe into vertical spraybar

CO2:

Pressurized CO2 at more bubbles / second than I can count fed directly into sump return pump.

Substrate:

Mineralized topsoil capped with 2 bags of ADA Amazonia

Fertilization: All autodosed via DIY peristaltic pumps.

10 ml / day Metricide diluted to 1.5%
3.0 ppm / day K dosed using a mix of KCL and KHCO3
8 ml / day Flourish Comprehensive
8 ml / day Flourish Iron
2.0 ppm / day NO3 via KNO3
0.8 ppm / day PO4 via KH2PO4

Fauna:

2 Green Neons
1 Ottocinclus
1 Corydoras habrosus
200+ Ramshorn Snails

Flora

Sagittaria subulata (the real thing collected locally)
Sagittaria calycina
Elatine gussonei
Elatine minima
Lilaeopsis chinensis
Gratiola viscidula
Hygrophila sp. 'Araguaia'
Crypt bullosa 'Bario'
Crypt ideii
Crypt affinis 'Pahang' metallic red
Crypt usteriana x walkeri
Crypt albida
Crypt nurii 'Pahang'
Bucephalandra motleyana
Bucephalandra sp. 'Narcissus'
Echinodorus Uraguayensis 'Minor'
Ludwigia senegalensis
Ludwigia curtisii
Ludwigia simpsonii
Floscopa scandens
Rotala macrandra 'Japan'
Rotala mexicana 'Green'
Bacopa innominata
Bacopa madagascarensis
Bacopa salzmanii
Proserpinaca palustris (local variety)
Syngonanthus anomolus 'Madiera'
Piptospatha parakensis

This picture is just after a major trim "rescape." I'll post in update in 2-3 weeks when things fill back in.

 

[crazydaz]

Now Aaron....collectoritis is NOT an excuse to not try an aquascape! I had tried to imply that someone of your.....mmmm...."stature" in this hobby should be able to churn out scapes with their eyes closed. Seeing how you were a Mod over on APC, and seemed to have at least grown almost every known aquatic plant at some point or another, I found it a bit strange that scraping, or taking pics of your tanks just isn't a priority to you like it is to some of us. I don't know why it's strange......I just was going on false assumptions. Like how you would expect Walt Disney to be a master cartoonist, though he wasn't. Lol! Make sense, kinda?

I find your dedication of this thread to me honorable. And ridiculous. :hihi:

 

[Centromochlus]

Nice tank Aaron! Any close-ups of the Ludwigia curtisii and L. simpsonii?

 

[antbug]

Nice plant list Aaron. Look forward to seeing it grown in.

 

[plantbrain]

Aaron, scaping and collectoritus can be blended without that much pain.

If my monkey butt can do it, ooh, ahh ah ahh!!!!

You can use a number of things to keep the plant beds ordered, hardscaped, structure.

You do not have to follow any rules other than one species per section.
I simply used wood branches as dividers, but rocks, slower growing hedge species, straight branches or curved can be used, even the branches/rocks themselves can become real Estate, add moss/liverworts to them.
This works out well for collecteritus. And .....curing the "itis" is difficult.

You have a good tank and dosing. So lots of shrimps and feed them the Ken's sticks once at night, then not much else will be needed. If you farm and move stuff around a lot, 2x a week water changes sure helps. You cannot over do them. 40 Gallon, you can change 20-30 gallons in a under 30 minutes and do any other needed care.

The Rest is just learning what each plant's best trim methods for selling and keeping it looking nice might be. you honestly do not have to give anything up. It's like selling Ludwigia sphaerocarpa, you have a nice well scaped picture, suddenly everyone want's it, if you have a lone so os pic of a stem looking so so in a farm tank, well, the selling point is not so good.

When I put up some nice pics, the stuff sells, if not, not so much.
So the "farm" will sell better if you have a nice scape also.
I've found this to be very true. If you ask ADA, they will tell you the same thing.

 

[AaronT]

It is scaped somewhat in that plants are all grouped together and appropriately place in the background, midground, and foreground where they belong.

I tend to rely on pictures of groupings to get people's attention and turn them on to new plants.

For instance, I don't even have Rotala 'Sunset' anymore, but I wish I did because I get PMs asking for it just about every other day.

I have space for another tank, but not the time to devote to keeping one as a farm and one as an aquascape.

AZFishkid - no closeups yet. They need to grow in some more.

 

[AaronT]

So here's an update from today. I've since removed all of the aroids and other rosette type plants and started a 30 breeder farm tank dedicated just to them. More on that later...

I also added 7 more C. habrosus and 18 silver tip tetras.

 

[AaronT]

Another long overdue update.

Updated Plant List:

Alternanthera reineckii 'Mini'
Bacopa madagascariensis
Cryptocoryne sp. 'Flamingo'
Cuphea anagalloidia
Diodia virginiana
Eriocaulon aquaticum
Eriocaulon compressum
Eriocaulon lineare
Eriocaulon parkeri
Eriocaulon sp. 'Goias'
Glossostigma cleistanthum
Gratiola ramosa
Gratiola viscidula
Juncus 2 ???
Juncus ???
Lilaeopsis carolinensis 'North Carolina'
Lilaeopsis chinensis 'Maryland'
Littorella uniflora
Ludwigia ???
Ludwigia alata 'North Carolina'
Ludwigia inclinata 'Red'
Ludwigia linearis
Ludwigia octovalvis
Ludwigia simpsonii x repens
Ludwigia sphaerocarpa 'Maryland'
Ludwigia sphaerocarpa 'Texas'
Myriophyllum tenellum
Rotala mexicana 'Green'
Rotala ramosoir 'Florida'
Rumex ???
Sagittaria ???
Sagittaria montevidensis sub. calycina
Sagittaria subulata 'Maryland'
Sagittaria teres

 

[ThatGuyWithTheFish]

So... Elatine minima. How did that go for you?

 

[AaronT]

So... Elatine minima. How did that go for you?

Not well. It usually doesn't go well. It will grow great for some time and then it just melts completely without warning.