10g needs floating plants and advice on covering wood

[reiverix]

Here is a 10g that I just planted about a week ago with various crypts: willisii lucens, parva, undulata, and one other kind I don't remember. 2 x 13w light. No Co2. Currently no ferts. various crypts, nana petite, mini moss. 5 American-Flag fish, 1 otocinclus, MTS snails.

While I'm waiting for the crypts to grow in, I'd like to start adding some floating plants. What do you recommend?

Also, what would be the best plant to cover the wood with? I'm afraid covering it with moss will be too redundant with the foreground moss.

Any other comments apprecaited. It'll be interesting to see how the crypts grow in.

 

[reiverix]

Since you asked for help, I'll try to give you a useful response!

If I were you, I would really try to strengthen the mid-ground and make the scape more dynamic (more and stronger lines for the eye to follow, a lay out with the sense of "movement"). I would give the foreground less room-- move the moss to the very front, and devot more space to the midground with rocks and wood. I would also consider elevating the background. Crypts grow best when grown really densely so plant lots of them and plan for a lot of space to be owned by them. If the crypts grow really densely, there will be less need for epiphytes on the wood. If you stil need epiphytes, consider some of the mosses that look really different like fissidens (which seem to be ever-more available.

Oh, and my favorite floating plant (though I've not had much chance work with it) is frogwort. Not popular outside of Europe, but it should be readily available (and cheap). It grows fast, has a nice color, and is much bigger than duckweed. I've heard it's very easy to remove from aquariums so some singapore hobbyists I've talked to use it to suck up nutrients in a newly set-up moss tank. The roots might not be satisfyingly long enough though-- water lettuce and eichornia have longer roots if that is what you want.

 

[reiverix]

I shifted the moss forward and that definitely looks better. I also moved some of the crypts so that the back left corner is planted densely with taller crypts in back and parva mixed into the front to give it a grandual fade into the foreground. It has much more of a triangle design now. I'll go through my rocks and see if I have anything I can use in the midground.

I'll let it grow in for a month or two and then we'll revisit it.

 

[nursie]

If you are looking for a contrasting shape/texture of leaf for a plant on the wood, you might try securing some lace leaf or wendilov java fern. I use small staples. I've never been able to successfully tie anything down, but have had good luck with staples.