[tattooedfool83]

Nice. You have a nice set up and an ever growing collection.

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[GMYukonon24s]

You have some beautiful plants growing in there.

 

[johnson18]

Nice. You have a nice set up and an ever growing collection.

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Thanks!! I think the collection has slowed in growth for now. Although I will be keeping an eye out for other plants to add as time goes on.

 

[johnson18]

You have some beautiful plants growing in there.

Thank you! I hope I can provide them with the correct environment so they will flower!

 

[johnson18]

Well, the plants I was looking at last week will be on the way Saturday. The seller hooked me up with a really good deal. I'm pretty excited to add these plants to the mix.

Here is the list of what I'm getting.

C. pontenderiifolia
C. moehlmanii
C. albida
C. ciliata
C. undulata version 2, its from a big crypt guy in the US and its not very common. slender waxy green leaves with red underside. <---seller's description.
C. usteriana x walkeri

This will round out the collection for now. I'm sure as time goes on I will be adding more species, but it certainly won't be as frequent as it has been for the last few weeks.

 

[Barkington]

Great collection. Started a much more modest setup myself not too long ago. Look forward to watching your progress. Especially on those buces and anubias in the hydroton. I'm having a hard time deciding if I should give some a try or not.

What do you think the benefits of hydroton are over say...just a rock? I'd assume the roots would be easier to free from the hydroton than a rock but thats the only real difference as far as my unexperienced self goes.

 

[johnson18]

Great collection. Started a much more modest setup myself not too long ago. Look forward to watching your progress. Especially on those buces and anubias in the hydroton. I'm having a hard time deciding if I should give some a try or not.

What do you think the benefits of hydroton are over say...just a rock? I'd assume the roots would be easier to free from the hydroton than a rock but thats the only real difference as far as my unexperienced self goes.

You've got a nice little collection started too. I thought about using the plastic totes like that but didn't have any that were quite the right shape for the area. I went for these two tanks mostly because that's what I had sitting around. Heck, the 55 I got for free just by posting an ad on CL asking about larger tanks(55-150 gallon) for free or cheap. I had to sort through many emails from people who thought they were offering their empty tanks for "cheap".... lol... I don't know how many offers I got for a 55 gallon tank by itself for $100-$250.

As far as hydroton goes, this is really my first time using it. It is very light and porous, it actually floats when first placed in water. I could see where this could be nice, as it might retain a little moisture. I've got no experience removing attached roots from it, I don't expect this to be a problem though. The main reason I am using it in this set up is because I was purchasing some for my aquaponics set up, keeping me from having to buy two substrates. I think you could easily achieve the same growth with plain old lava rock. Unfortunately, I was unable to find any locally that had not been dyed/colored that I didn't have to have the bed of my truck filled by front loader to purchase. Actually the Anubias in my 20L is in a substrate mixture rather then rock. It's currently putting out new leaves from three place at a rate of maybe one every few weeks.

 

[johnson18]

Most of the plants seem to have adjusted to their new environment. Many are already putting out a new leaf or maybe two. The last order of crypts will be here tomorrow!

I swapped out the heater between the 20 & 55, putting the adjustable heater in the 55. It's already more humid in the 55. I will monitor the humidity level in the 20L over the next day or so to see where it ends up with the new heater.

 

[tattooedfool83]

Is the heater due to the amount of space between the light and plants?

 

[johnson18]

Is the heater due to the amount of space between the light and plants?

I put the adjustable heater into the 55 so I could crank it up which will create more humidity. The non-adjustable heater wasn't keeping the temp up high enough to create the humidity I want in this tank.
I think the non adjustable heater will be fine in the 20 as there might only be 3-4 gallons of water max. From what I've read about the non adjustable Tetra heater is that in under five gallons it keeps the water too warm, mid to high 80's, for a normal tank. That should be just fine to keep the humidity up in the smaller tank.

How is your set up coming along? I see you used those same cheap green pots from lowes.

 

[tattooedfool83]

I did. And after looking at this thread again it appears I copied u. Hahaha. Considering using 3" mesh pots with coco tek liners and soil would cost me around $20 for 20 pots and I could fit more in my 10 gallon. I'm gonna get a piece of glass cut for the top of the tank to so I can set a 10" dome light set on it and not worry about warping. This is the plan though so ill but what I need this week and set it up when I get back from my trip. I'm pretty psyched

 

[johnson18]

Well I've got my first spathe!! It is on one of my Cryptocoryne nurii plants! There is a small discussion with lots of pictures here: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=391041

I will post more pictures as it continues to develop!

 

[johnson18]

So I was wrong!! .........I've got not one but two Crypt. nurii spathes! Two separate plants have a spathe! The one I found last night seems to be farther along then the one I found today, but I'm not 100% on that.

Here are both plants! The bottom plant is the one I found the spathe on first.

Here is more of the first plant!

Plant #2!

 

[johnson18]

The rest of my emersed plants have been doing very well too!! The last batch of crypts I received have been doing well! I did lose one plant. They weren't labeled and some looked very similar so I'm not 100% sure which plant I lost! :/ oh well... Hahaha...

C. griffithii has been doing very well! I don't know if this plant just has a quick growth rate, if it just rebounded from shipping really well, or if it didn't have to transition from submersed to emersed like some of my other crypts. Could be all three...

Here are a few of the other crypts & buce in the 55!

The four Buce varieties I've got almost all lost their leaves while transitioning from submersed to emersed growth. They were also replanted once I got the hydroton. I'm guessing most Bucephalandra do better submerged, thoughts?

The 20L is growing like crazy!!

The Bacopa caroliniana is obviously doing insanely well! It has been blooming like crazy! I did a large trim and totally replanted my no-tech vase! More on that later though!

B. colorata has seen a steady increase in growth rate! Finally had some to share with another member, also replanted some in this tank! You can also see the Rotala rotundifolia has been growing a little better too. The A. reineckii doesn't seem to like the lower light level as much as the high light it was originally under.

This thing is growing leaves from several areas of the rhizome.


Here is my vase that I just replanted today. It's a little cloudy. I accidentally dosed way too much Flourish yesterday morning, which lead to what I guess is the start of an algae bloom. This vase is a no-tech tank! It only gets natural sunlight, diffused by a closed set of white blinds. So I replanted the whole vase, adding a ton more Bacopa caroliniana, some rotala rotundifolia, some glosso. The vase already had some small java fern plants: a large crinkled leaf version, a crypt willisii x lucens & a bit of dwarf hairgrass too!

Here are a couple pictures! These don't look to awesome, I think this vase needs a week or so to grow. This will allow all the Bacopa stems to straighten up some. What do you think? I will eventually dig up the journal for this vase, from when I first started it!

 

[johnson18]

I also added containers of Subwassertang and Christmas Moss! The sub is in a small Tupperware container. Xmas moss is in a wine glass/goblet, both are behind my 55!

 

[tattooedfool83]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Im totally envious of your tanks. They look phenomenal

 

[johnson18]

So I'm going to try to start this coversation here, but if I don't get much of a response I will ask this same question in either the Crypt Club thread or Plants forum.

What steps can I take to encourage these C. nurii plants to make seeds? I've really not thought much about this process prior to today, so I've not done much research yet. I also don't mind being directed to a specific page or a link, if you know where this process has been detailed. I have already found a couple posts about the subject on Ghazanfar Ghori's blog, just haven't had much of a chance to read them thoroughly. I've got a massive Biology test today that I've been trying to focus on!

I feel like part of owning and keeping these plants is to learn as much about them as possible. It just seems like this information and process should be an important aspect of that!

 

[tattooedfool83]

I just looked up that guy, I had never heard of him but man did that open up a world of questions and reading I must do.


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[johnson18]

I just looked up that guy, I had never heard of him but man did that open up a world of questions and reading I must do.


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There are several pretty good Cryptocoryne blogs out there! Lots of info to read!

Have you checked out the crypt section over at apc?

 

[tattooedfool83]

I have checked it out. That's actually a site I visit frequently as well


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