Hey guys!!! It's been a little quiet around here so I thought I'd start a post on my new undertaking.
I had recently torn down my 15 gallon tank to make room for a taller 20 in the hopes that when it's up and running I'll have more dissipation of light and have less algae in the tank.
So here's what I did.
1. Gathered up what was left of my HC (hemianthus callitrichoides Cuba) that was sort of melting away and trimmed all the dying sections off. I then rinsed out the 20 gallon tank that was being stored outside at the side of my house. Spray painted the back glass with a high temp black spray paint. Filled the bottom with black fine flourite gravel. I also thought I would try growing some other plants using the same method.
2. Divided the gravel up into smaller sections for all the different types of plants (I'm working on 5 different types), using some thin plastic sheet protectors that were cut in to strips about the height of the gravel. These were then pushed into the gravel and the gravel was patted back down tight.
The reason for dividing the tank like this is because all of the plants I'm using spread with runners to this sheeting will block the plants from encroaching into other sections, I hope!
3. I planted individual stalks/bunches of each plant into the gravel using a pair of precision tweezers
4. Once all the plants were planted I mixed up a 2L bottle of water, appropriate dose of Flourish Excel and liquid fertilizers... shook the whole mixture up really well and added some to a misting bottle. I carefully poured the mixture into the tank trying not to disturb the gravel until it was almost level with the gravel.
5. I placed a glass lid on top of the tank to keep the moisture in set up a double T5 lighting unit to the back of the tank and a single T5 ho lighting unit to the front of the tank. Placed both on a timer and am giving the tank 12 hours of light a day.
The whole thing has been running for just about 2 - 2.5 weeks now and the HC has almost doubled in size!!!! Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures from when the tank was first set up but here is what it looks like at this point. I'll be trying to get new pictures up on a weekly basis. Hope you all enjoy this process with me!
Plant ListEleocharis montevidensis (Giant Hairgrass)
Glossostigma elatinoides (Glosso)
Hemianthus micranthemoides (Baby Tears)
Eleocharis acicularis (Dwarf Hairgrass)
Hemianthus callitrichoides Cuba (Dwarf Baby Tears)Here is the page with the pictures of the tank and plants...
http://s529.photobucket.com/albums/dd340/hyperfin/emmersion/
