"Exotic Roots" Standard 55 journal

Dennis Singh

SynKing!
May 5, 2013
2,423
639
113
40
Orange County, CA
iNwQCu4.jpg



Oyq3Ijg.jpg



Y83oszT.jpg



rLCIuUq.jpg



ryFnJI5.jpg
 
K

kb27973

Guest
Looks like plants are growing :) Is the only difference between africana and amazonia just color?
 

Dennis Singh

SynKing!
May 5, 2013
2,423
639
113
40
Orange County, CA
kb27973 said:
Looks like plants are growing :) Is the only difference between africana and amazonia just color?

No sir.


Ada amazonia has a lot more NH4 leech over africana. Africana barely leeches much. Malaya a little more. Amazonia has a higher nutrient content as well. I recommend the africana and malaya for beginners and amazonia for the intermediate and up. Its pretty much simple Water changes or cycling for a month to 2 vs. not doing as much work. The buffers of both africana and malaya are lower as well. I like to get my pH as low as i can get. Just do, for syngonanthus mainly.


So amazonia you got the buffer at 6.8 drop pH 1 co2, around the 6


Africana will buffer to i believe 5.5 i forget whether with or without the co2


Either way, i love the ada soil line over any other brand or knock off.
 

Dennis Singh

SynKing!
May 5, 2013
2,423
639
113
40
Orange County, CA
I can almost confirm now that major water changes will kill off s grade syngonanthus. Nothing but meltage on a major water change. Perhaps is something in my water, i also do not dechlorinate. This goes against spoken words but every time I've done a major one, not minor one i get melting. This sucks because I need the WC for algae, however when it comes between picking you know my obvious choice. I'm not going to water change for a week or maybe two or so, or just do minor 5 gallon water changes daily or every other day. These seem not to affect the plant. So now I am stating with these types, Large water changes will damage. I could probably send a side shoot to Barr and he'll HELL do it anyway with the water changes. And grow the snot outta them. and prove my statement wrong. but this is what is going on in my tank.
 

Dennis Singh

SynKing!
May 5, 2013
2,423
639
113
40
Orange County, CA
I am also doing a trial and error with trimming hacking plants. So I got two giants side by side, one hacked up and the other is a bigger stem. Nothing wrong with the stem, just hacked it to see if I can increase growth speed. From what I have learned, the plant is to respond quickly by this attack. So I'll keep photographing and updating.


Buces are a whole nother plant. Melting and leaves falling off. Colors are amazing. Potential for each and every individual species. The patterns and shine of variation of glowing spots is very nice. They all seem to mostly get them too. Each individual species can provide different hues and shades of colors from leaves to stem/rhizoid to flower. These are a plant that should of caught fire before it caught fire but prices and such were ridiculous. Now importing is getting ridiculous, people flipping the plants, I don't know many actual growers. Whether its on a rate to extinction i do now, I saw a video in indonesia where there literally everywhere they couldn't pass without stepping on them. I wish I had gotten into this plant sooner, the potentials and variations are incredible, its an easy plant, and just patience is all it takes with these.
 

Dennis Singh

SynKing!
May 5, 2013
2,423
639
113
40
Orange County, CA
see the pictures, no one seems to trim like this or i haven't seen documentation over this massive vast internet. Its all about pulling sideshoots or trimming tops or....u know.


bLrkC8Y.jpg



fDUSIgR.jpg
 

Dennis Singh

SynKing!
May 5, 2013
2,423
639
113
40
Orange County, CA
If we could go back in time where we started with t12's, there'd be a lot more growers now. I cannot emphasize downing the lighting enough. Here we have people buying ray2's and bml's (good if you dim) and scorching that we're seeing algae. If you check out how shaded these crypts and buces are without any imperfections compared to ones in higher lighting, its pretty unbelievable how little light you actually need to grow certain plants. If you really want to grow, just get shop lights, cheap, ugly, and all you need to create something beautiful. Nowadays every question, is this lighting enough for this size tank. The answer is probably of course it is. What we should be asking, is is this overkill for the tank. Or should i hang the lighting higher, or lower my intensity.


WHAT IS THE HIGHEST LIGHT PLANT ØUT THERE?


my opinion is tonina, or pantanal, syngonanthus go lower than tonina.


Everyones' not trying to grow those plants. I see blasted light on anubias and or just about everything, it's utterly ridiculous. I want reds! Well i also want reds, but first i must learn to grow first. Grow first, then scape, keep things algae free. I am not a pro on that. Algae seems to come and go, i can only reach the sweet spot for so long. Then another problem arises and I must fix that. But I myself am not following my own advice. Leds save a lot of power, i don't have a chance at a dimmer $, lazy to to hang, so why not reduce the photoperiod only, plus i need for my syngonanthus. Thats my current situation/problem right now.


Spread is more important than intensity. As long as your plants get the slightest of light should photosynthesize. I started on shop lights, might go back with a new tank and show the real beauty with so little. On a standard 55g, you can do a nice moss tank with two t12's, and a nice erio/tonina tank with 3-4 not hung, straight on the tank. If its aesthetics your going for, wait wait, look at your tank haha with your nice beautiful fixture on top.


nicpapa


seems to have it down with cheap lighting.


I say cheap cause, expensive usually means more intensity in which is where you do not want to go unless you really know distance levels and PAR/umols to hang your lights.


Do it like Barr? High lighting dutch tank. We all can't be gurus.


I'm trying to help here, as well give a spark in it as well.
 

Dennis Singh

SynKing!
May 5, 2013
2,423
639
113
40
Orange County, CA
The best way to tell syngonanthus apart is the roots, yes syngonanthus roots.

 


Syngonanthus roots


is one of the main ways to tell em apart especially when most of your syn. look like belem yet have slight leave differences or are not fully grown yet. For example, belem will grip the soil and root in well, madeira will root in well but its roots are very whispy and you easily uproot without removing much soil with. I have two syngonanthus that look exactly like belem, one is, one isn't because its roots are completely different and they're not fully grown yet.

 


I keep learning through observation



So you wonder why I title all my tank with the word "Roots"? Coincidence? Yes actually ya it is a coincidence. hehe
 

Dennis Singh

SynKing!
May 5, 2013
2,423
639
113
40
Orange County, CA
Disregard the first sentence above, i reread and was like what, other ways you can determine differences in syngonanthus is bushiness, leaves, leave structure, variations


Countering @plantbrain 's advice, I trimmed syngonanthus bolivia 2010 planted the top emmersed. Even though it is very warped, the plant looks pretty incredible still.


Instead of letting it grow and grow and grow.


iF72bGu.jpg



Ev456IW.jpg
 

Dennis Singh

SynKing!
May 5, 2013
2,423
639
113
40
Orange County, CA
The Rio Negro Giant

 


The beauty of this species is that you can almost cut it to the bone of the stem and it'll grow side shoots. Just like ludwigia white, the giant can grow sideshoots from the smallest of stem left over.


 


I am in mad propagation mode on this plant, as soon as i get chances to trim i trim. Whether be sideshoot or full stem.


 


The problem with trimming the mother, is you lose a lot of stem to the soil when you replant as it floats up very easily unless you trim down the bushiness towards the bottom of the stem.


 


So i am 5 stems now, and + 3 bottoms, one bottom already forming another sideshoot.



Pp5HPTj.jpg



lSvHhnA.jpg
 

Dennis Singh

SynKing!
May 5, 2013
2,423
639
113
40
Orange County, CA
Guess these syn.


MVjASCS.jpg



bvsyMpb.jpg



TfpquoP.jpg



Ml6zoXp.jpg



Jv4UdKN.jpg



They actually all the same. See this is why, (besides mother stems), determining by leaf structure is so hard as its different morphology at different stages of life look different. Better to buy a mother than a sideshoot. Way less chance of survival


Crispino Ramos right?