my first paludarium attempt

[Stussi613]

Plants aren't affected by the cycle, I'd add them in right away. Have you thought about using an Ikea desk lamp with a better bulb in it for your tank?  Lots of people get good plant growth with them. Unless you're planning to put in something that could get out of the tank I'd say leaving it open would look amazing.

[76brian]

You can add plants before it finishes cycling even - dont see why not. It might even help cycle if there are beneficial bacteria on the plants themselves (might be negligible amounts though).

Plants aren't affected by the cycle, I'd add them in right away. Have you thought about using an Ikea desk lamp with a better bulb in it for your tank?  Lots of people get good plant growth with them. Unless you're planning to put in something that could get out of the tank I'd say leaving it open would look amazing.

This is going to be my first "real" attempt at aquatic plants, so I don't know much about starting them up. I had them before, but I didn't have a proper substrate or proper light, so they didn't do too well. A couple people at the stores have told me to cycle it first, because right now there's no nutrients for the plants. It made sense to me but I dunno ?? Thanks for letting me know.

I was hoping for either poison dart frogs or firebellied toads eventually... or maybe newts? I dunno yet. What kind of environment I end up with will determine my path as far as that goes. I want the whole thing to be well established before I add those... So yeah, I want the top enclosed for this one. An open top tank is on my radar already though!

So if I find a good light on saturday or before, I guess I'll start adding plants right away

[exv152]

I would even take it a step further, by adding plants early it helps reduce ammonia and nitrites by soaking a certain amount up. Plants are not affected by ammonia and nitrites like fish are. At first most of the necessary micro nutrients are already in the water like iron, magnesium, calcium etc. You may need to add macro nutrients like - nitrate, potassium and phoshorus. Here is an excellent list of plants that would do well with low to medium lighting and can be easy to incorporated into a paludarium. http://www.tropica.com/en/plants/difficulty/easy.aspx

[76brian]

Here is an excellent list of plants that would do well with low to medium lighting and can be easy to incorporated into a paludarium. http://www.tropica.com/en/plants/difficulty/easy.aspx

That's an awesome link, thank you! I will put that to good use!

[Jeff1192]

Definitely no harm in adding plants before it's fully cycled! There's never a bad time to add plants....haha

[zoom111]

You might benefit from 1 or 2 led flood lights on eBay. I would opt for the 10w as that would be plenty. At 15$ ea. you can't go wrong, just be sure to get the 6500k model.

[76brian]

I planted an emersed Anubias Angustifolia ...the dude at the store told me it only gets 8" tall, but after planting it (THEN looking it up... duh!) I found out it gets 12". I'm going to have to move it into deeper water I think. I do like where it is though. Once I get some moss on top of the filter housing it will look nicer in that area.



I also picked up some microsorum windelov, which I didn't know at the time is actually a java fern. The guy said the same thing, only 8" or so... but I know java ferns get HUGE, so I ended up buying way too much of it... I put it all in the tank in random places anyways, I'll figure out what to do with it later. I didn't have any wood to tie it to so I stuck some between rocks... it will be partially emersed as well. I just put the rest of it in the substrate. I'll see what happens. I don't think I want this much of it scattered. One little bunch would have been fine. Maybe it will grow nice and I can give some away to someone.



I'm completely frustrated right now though. How the hell do you guys get roots to stick into this flourite crap? I had a hard enough time with the java fern, never mind when it comes time for little strands of hairgrass or something. This crap is as bad as gravel. BLAH. Did I mention I'm a complete rookie at plants? Hopefully as I gradually add plants, the huge amount of foliage will eventually cover up my lack of aquascaping skills? I dunno  

[sas]

Take it easy, we've all been where you are at the moment as far as growing plants although not taking on a paludarium project.

I'm no plant expert but found I just had to try plants out and experiment.
Everyone's.
water, lights etc., are different .

One thing right off I can tell you is the java fern does not like to be planted, tie it to drift wood, rocks or whatever, it likes its' roots exposed.

Check out this website,

http://translate.google.ca/translate?hl=en&sl=da&u=http://www.tropica.com/&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dtropica%2Bplant%2Bcatalogue%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26hs%3DWRt%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26prmd%3Dimvns&sa=X&ei=tcRbUK68NcLzyAHFgoC4BQ&ved=0CD8Q7gEwAg

I'm trying to find the tropica book that I had online but I'm on a secondary computer and it's not here so.........maybe another member has the better link than I provided. If not I'll keep trying.

[Greatwhite]

In the past, I knew nothing about planted tanks, but I had a 20G fresh tank with some tetras and danios... and a pleco...?  It was a long time ago.  When I got a plant, I would tie it to a rock and bury the rock in the substrate... That held it down nicely, and it rooted around it.

[exv152]

I wouldn't burry the roots/rhizome of either of those plants because they tend to rot. Attach them to something using string, and tie to driftwood or stone.

[76brian]

Thanks for the link, sas... that might help out. Also, I already pulled up the microsorum and made 2 bunches, each tied to a rock.

As for the anubias, it's wide open water underneath there, the roots will go through the false bottom and just hang in midwater, no? There's not much substrate there. Not sure... I can tie it to a rock too I guess.

[Stussi613]

Thanks for the link, sas... that might help out. Also, I already pulled up the microsorum and made 2 bunches, each tied to a rock.

As for the anubias, it's wide open water underneath there, the roots will go through the false bottom and just hang in midwater, no? There's not much substrate there. Not sure... I can tie it to a rock too I guess.

The roots are okay in the soil, it's the rhizome that needs to be exposed. It's the thick horizontal "stem" at the bottom of the plant.



I hate to say it, but you almost have to envision what the tank will look like when the plants grow out rather than the way it looks first planted.

You've made tremendous progress on this tank already...and to my knowledge you're the only one who has attempted a tank like this in the club, at least as long as I've been here.

[76brian]

More plants... I'm still not really happy with how it looks.

[exv152]

Have you thought of any marginal pond type plants for the water edge? Or some terrestrial plants behind the filter output? Looks good so far.

[76brian]

Have you thought of any marginal pond type plants for the water edge? Or some terrestrial plants behind the filter output? Looks good so far.

Definitely, just haven't made it there yet I want something that will crawl... not necessarily carpet, but crawl, across the surface of the water too. Maybe a philodendron or pothos, but not quite as big? I dunno... I could really use some suggestions for that!

[exv152]

Check some of the best paludariums imo, from the annual AGA aquascaping 2011 contest...might give you some ideas for flora and fauna...

http://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2011/show143.html

http://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2011/show332.html

[76brian]

Those look good, I like that they have "floor plans"... awesome, thanks!

[Biulu]

This is lovely! With regards to 'creeping plants' what about staurogyne repens or hydrocotyle (pennywort)? Both will do well completely submersed as partly emersed, so I would say they are ideal for this kind of setup.

Did you see the use of anubia barteri nana and petite in the second link of 'creeperland'? The picture of the left hand side allows you to see their use in great detail. This might also be something to use.

All the 3 species I mentioned are available in the club in case you can't get them in a store.

[76brian]

This is lovely! With regards to 'creeping plants' what about staurogyne repens or hydrocotyle (pennywort)? Both will do well completely submersed as partly emersed, so I would say they are ideal for this kind of setup.

Thank you!

I've never heard of the repens, but funny you mention pennywort, I brought some home tonight I also stuck a clipping of philodendron (it might be pothos?) in there, but it will likely get too big.

I have anubias angustifolia. It appears to be growing well, and will almost completely emerge through the surface of the water eventually, which should be nice.

The more and more I'm thinking about it, I'm tempted to tear this down and start over. It's very hard to make it look nice when there's so little room to work with and it's open from both sides like this... I'm still going to tinker with it and see if I find a layout I like. I might end up using entirely  foreground type plants. I also regret the choice of flourite... it's next to impossible to plant in close proximity without un-rooting something else, especially the more delicate plants (ie: foreground). I should have used sand

[Stussi613]

I don't find sand any easier to plant in. What you are experiencing is the exact reason many planted folks start their tanks emersed to allow the root systems to build up before they add water.

Patience and a good pair of planting tweezers are your friends now!  Keep at it, you're making such great progress.