My HC is finally carpeting nicely!!

DaveSurfer

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Mar 14, 2005
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Just thought I'd drop a few pics of my HC growing out in my emersed setup in my 33 gal. THanks for all your help and suggestions and especially Tom who planted the idea in my head about growing emersed carpets!!

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PJtree23

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Mar 16, 2009
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VERY nice!

What was your starting distribution of HC?

How long have you kept the emersed configuration?
 

DaveSurfer

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Thanks! It's been a huge learning process.

I broke up 6 pots of HC into 3rds and planted them.

It's been about 6 weeks since I planted them. I think things would of progressed quicker if I had split the HC pots into much smaller bits. The bigger clumps did seem to take a while to take off. Also I had to uproot some that weren't doing well to find out that leaving ANY rock wool in the roots is bad and needs to be removed entirely.
 

SuperColey1

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Feb 17, 2007
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Not sure about the rockwool assumption ;) Thats what I grow HC in as do most commercial growers :)

I just lay a small 1cm circular piece on top of the rockwool and then 4 weeks later I have a nice ful 5cm pot which is overflowing :)

1 pot to 10 in a month. I am now teetering around with Anubias, Ferns and Crypts which are a much harder task :)

AC
 

DaveSurfer

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SuperColey1;35752 said:
Not sure about the rockwool assumption ;) Thats what I grow HC in as do most commercial growers :)

I just lay a small 1cm circular piece on top of the rockwool and then 4 weeks later I have a nice ful 5cm pot which is overflowing :)

1 pot to 10 in a month. I am now teetering around with Anubias, Ferns and Crypts which are a much harder task :)

AC

I made that assumption because all the HC that were not growing well had some of the wool attached to the roots. I think what was happening is that the roots were not able to reach the substrate underneath and prevented the roots from growing further. This stunted the growth and propagation.

I am doing anubias right now...problem I had initially was that the leaves were drying out and browning on the tips. Now I mist them a few times a day and they are doing fine. I'm getting lots of new leaves now which is good. The coffeefolia is growing the quickest with lots of new leaves. The nana and angustafolia are a little slower. I have a nana petite but the leaves rotted off as I accidently planted the rhizome on the substrate---now I upgrooted it and it has very long healthy roots and replanted only the roots.

I can't imagine java fern as the leaves dry out pretty quick. I think the combination of being in one of the most driest places around here and the heat from the lights limits the humidity in my tank somewhat.
 

Tom Barr

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Wait 1-2 week more before flooding, consider the fish and othe rlayout issues carefully, then flood etc.

I'm about the same stage now.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 

PJtree23

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Mar 16, 2009
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DaveSurfer;35751 said:
I think things would of progressed quicker if I had split the HC pots into much smaller bits. The bigger clumps did seem to take a while to take off.

I split mine into smaller clumps and they died off just the same. I now have 3, 2" clumps growing and I am going to see if there is a difference.

The small clumps that turned brown did not actually die, rather new HC is growing from them. My hypothesis is that the browning is part of the conversion process to emerged form.

I am concerned that after filling, the HC will under go a second change back to submergent (ie green -> brown -> green). Post your progress.

PJ
 

SuperColey1

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It probably will go brown and die off before coming back in sumerged form however.....

.......you will have 3,4,5x the amount of roots, already rooted and therefore it will come back bigger and better and quicker.

AC
 

DaveSurfer

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SuperColey1;35770 said:
It probably will go brown and die off before coming back in sumerged form however.....

.......you will have 3,4,5x the amount of roots, already rooted and therefore it will come back bigger and better and quicker.

AC

Hmm. I don't think there would be any change from emerged to submerged in HC if you have a decent amount of CO2 and nutrients pumping in. If that were the case then Tom Barr's emerged HC would of turned all brown after filling and new different leaves would of formed. I do agree that most plants have different forms but HC and Glosso stay pretty much the same, and Anubias from what I'm seeing.
 

DaveSurfer

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PJtree23;35768 said:
I split mine into smaller clumps and they died off just the same. I now have 3, 2" clumps growing and I am going to see if there is a difference.

The small clumps that turned brown did not actually die, rather new HC is growing from them. My hypothesis is that the browning is part of the conversion process to emerged form.

I am concerned that after filling, the HC will under go a second change back to submergent (ie green -> brown -> green). Post your progress.

PJ


Nawww...as long has you have good CO2 and nutrients there should be no change when you fill it. I had a few leaves that went brown but those were higher up on my substrate slope and weren't getting enough moisture--I had filled the tank to just below the lowest elevation substrate level. The stuff towards the front did and is doing the best compared to the higher stuff.

Until it starts sending lots of runners and taking off and getting bushy I would make sure you have enough moisture in the tank and possibly mist them. With me, I'm letting the tank dry out more because most of the HC is doing excellent and I was seeing algae crop up on the moisture on the glass down by the substrate and some on the substrate.
 

Gerryd

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Dave,

Ok, I have to try this.....

Can you provide some details on YOUR setup? Substrate, lights, etc?

Or a link to a thread where this info may already exist?

I am familiar with the DSM methodology, I want YOUR specs, mostly substrate and lighting........

Very nice job. I am envious of that HC!

I have some coming this week that I will add submersed to my display tank, so will have some for this experiment.

Thanks,
 

DaveSurfer

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Tom Barr;35762 said:
Wait 1-2 week more before flooding, consider the fish and othe rlayout issues carefully, then flood etc.

I'm about the same stage now.

Regards,
Tom Barr

Yeah I'm going to wait several more weeks for sure. Layout is an issue I've been battling about in my mind though. I keep noticing that I have way too much foreground stuff going on without thinking about what I'm going to plant in the mid to background for bunch & stem plants.

Recently I uprooted a pile of glosso and replanted lower down to make more room for the stem plants after I fill. I know glosso can grow like a weed so I'm concerned that it will go nuts and crawl over everything. I mean, if you look at my pics you'll see that nearly half the front of the tank is foreground planting...

Tom, any suggestions for some good stem plants? I was thinking a nice bright pink red plant like wallachi. I'm going to mount some java fern narrow leaf on the tips of the driftwood.

It is starting to look fairly cool just with no stem plants. I wasn't going for that look but it could be an option. I just think there wouldn't be enough plant mass to sustain such high light levels though for that. (2x55w CF over 33g)
 

Homer_Simpson

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Oct 11, 2007
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That is very impressive growth DaveSurfer. I am trying the same on a 3 gallon tank, and hope I experience the same success as you. Sorry, if this has already been asked or if you posted this and I missed it, but how long did it take before you saw a noticeable increase in growth?
 

DaveSurfer

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Gerryd;35785 said:
Dave,

Ok, I have to try this.....

Can you provide some details on YOUR setup? Substrate, lights, etc?

Or a link to a thread where this info may already exist?

I am familiar with the DSM methodology, I want YOUR specs, mostly substrate and lighting........

Very nice job. I am envious of that HC!

I have some coming this week that I will add submersed to my display tank, so will have some for this experiment.

Thanks,

Thanks!

Ok no worries. It's a 33 gallon so you have an idea of lighting and space. I have 2 x 55w CF lights in there--with the amazing reflectors from AH Supply (www.ahsupply.com). From the start I have been doing 12 hr photoperiods.

At first I threw in black Onyx sand. Then I realized that I wanted a good sized slope so I had to get more substrate. I scraped most of the Onyx sand back from the forground towards the back to start the slope. For the top layer I added Eco-Complete. The forground substrate content is nearly all Eco-Complete instead of Onyx...and towards the forground and it's about 2 to 2.5 inches at the front. I would've gone towards 1 to 1.5 inches at the front but when sloping it's tricky if you want to fill the tank up below substrate level at that low and have HC and glosso at higher elevations get close enough to the water level...

I seperated each HC pot into 3-4 bunches, poked depressions in the substrate and layed in there. (I think now however, looking back, I would've seperated the HC pots into 6ths or so) Make sure ALL rock wool is removed as this hampers the roots from taking root into the substrate and will stunt the growth. I then used fertilized water (Miracle-Gro multipurpose terrestrial fert) and filled the tank up just below the substrate level.

I sealed the tank off completely. Even taping off the holes in the canopy where pipes and stuff came through. One should have lots of condensation on the glass to tell if humidity is at good levels.

For the first week I misted the HC twice a day with water that was mixed with a bit of TMG and some macro ferts (not sure if the ferts were important, in fact I don't know if they would start to burn the leaves if used a lot?). When the HC started to take off and nearly doubled in size I stopped misting and reduced water level.

In the last week I've been airing out the tank more as I noticed a bit of mush pressed up in the front glass in the HC that was probably getting a little too wet.

You will get some algae growing on the glass in the front pressed up against the HC. I just mop it away with a paper towel and then with a paper towel soak up extra water and condensation around the bottom front. Also watch out for algae growing on the Eco-Complete. I just rough it up a bit. But now that I'm drying it out it should be fine.

As Tom Barr says, once it takes off it's a good idea to dry out the tank some so it's not so humid. I've started drying it out more after 6 weeks or so from planting. I'm still misting the Anubias because I find the leaves dry out and start to brown otherwise.
 

DaveSurfer

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Homer_Simpson;35932 said:
That is very impressive growth DaveSurfer. I am trying the same on a 3 gallon tank, and hope I experience the same success as you. Sorry, if this has already been asked or if you posted this and I missed it, but how long did it take before you saw a noticeable increase in growth?

Probably after 4 weeks it was considerable.
 

DaveSurfer

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SuperColey1;35988 said:
I fill up my 'mister' bottle from fresh tank water every water change. will provide ferts without burning then.

AC

Good idea. I didn't have an existing tank however.