Plant Diary

Here I want to note down my experience with different plants. 

Right now I am growing Anubias Barteri Nana Petit, S. Repens, Ludwigia Glandulosa, hair grass, Myriophyllum Matogrossense, Pogostemon Erectus and Peacock Moss. All bought in tissue cultured pots. 

The S Repens needed a lot of nitrogen to remain green. The older leaves had initially turned yellow. Charging nitrogen somewhat helped them regain their colour. Cropping from the top and replanting promotes better growth but I cannot bring myself to do that. I find it hard to chop off leaves that grew in my tank. But I guess I will have to do that.

Reviving The 2 Footer

The two-footer on Day 1

Monday 22, 2019

With two TC cups of plants (Eleocharis Parvula and Cryptocorene Wendtii Pink Panther) and nowhere to plant them, I decided to revive my two footer today. The plants were bought yesterday from Buro. I chose the evening to do the tedious job.

First I removed the old Amazonia from the tank. I kept it in a plastic bag, meaning to use it in some other tank. Next I cleaned the tank, particularly the four glass walls - inside and outside. After this I put the substrate which was lying with me for a long time - perhaps two years - in a new, sealed bag.

Flooded the tank a few inches and then planted the grass. Eleocharis Parvula. A few clumps in the foreground. Next I planted the six crypts. Two in the Nano (read about reviving the Nano here), behind the drift wood and four in the two footer - two on either side.

I found a clump of Ludwigia Glandulosa, that I had planted in the nano yesterday, had come out while I was trying to plant the Crypts. I took this as a signal and planted in the two footer, right in the middle. (On Wednesday I transplanted one more from the Nano to the 2-footer for the same reason)

Setting up the Eheim and the Hailea was a bit scary. But it was an unfounded fear. I could quite do the job without spilling any major water. The full flow disturbed the substrate a bit towards the back. I reduced the flow a bit. The problem was solved. The chiller has been set to 26 degrees.

I will get some moss for the chilled tank.

Wednesday, 24th July, 2019

Yesterday I had gone to Buro to get the desired plants. None of them was there. I had selected the plants based on the list from Ripples. But didn't realise Buro hadn't lifted these particular plants. Instead I ended up buying a new light for the 2-footer. Buro pushed it in saying I could pay later. It's Rs 2,500. 

It's a Sunsun LED light. Model number ADS 500C. Quite a blast and ideal for high light plants. My old twin T5 light seems inadequate now. 

Fitting the light up wasn't a problem at all. You just enter the four L shaped rods in the plastic stand and attach it to the tank. 

The light's colour temperature is between 6500 too 7500K. Ideally suited for planted tanks. It consumes just 24 watts of electricity. I saved the box to keep all the technical details for posterity. I might just forget these details. Not might. I will :-)

Today I brought home three cups of plants for which I had gone yesterday. Buro procured them from Ripples for me and phoned me saying that he did. It's not for nothing that he has made it so big in life from extremely humble beginnings. My three plants are as follows - Pogostemon Erectus; a reddish cabamba like plant which has a fancy name (some code word is written on the cup and I quite forget the name right now) and a cup of Peacock moss. I will post a picture here first of the cups. And then the tank as it looks after planting them the very first night.

NB: The plant is named Myriophillium Matogrossense. It apparently originates from Mato Grosso in Amozon. Here is a link to more details on the plant.

I tied the Peacock moss to the small Fluval fake driftwood. But it was too small for the entire supply of moss. Will tie the rest of the stuff to a piece of old driftwood. I will chop down a piece from my old stock of driftwood (originally bought from Splashing Meadows).

Wednesday, 25th July, 2019

Today I chopped one of the drift woods into two to tie the moss. Had to buy a special wood cutter blade (DeWalt - Rs 180) for this. Cutting the wood was surprisingly difficult as it was very hard. It even produced some sparks. Tied the rest of the moss. But the wood wasn't staying sunk in. Tried the glue to fix a sucker on the back. Didn't work. The glue is perhaps too old to be usable.

Finally dug it into the substrate and it has stayed on so far.

Betta Diary

Today got myself a couple of betta females. The guy is a banker with Yes Bank and lives in Chetla. His name is Abhi (8334823337). His facebook id is Betta Bhasu Abhi. He trades in imported bettas that he brings in from Chennai. He has nice healthy looking tanks at home. He charged me Rs 100 for each. 

I have housed them in the betta tank I had in my room. When the male comes I will have to shift them to the smaller partitioned tank I have.

The females in his stock were all multi-coloured. I don't like that colour but if I can breed successfully from this stock, I can bring out the solid coloured ones selectively. Getting female bettas was very difficult a few years ago. Now looks like it has become easily available. 

I will now wait for the males. Any solid colour will do for me. I love them all.

Reviving The Nano

Before sinking it in

Day 1 of Nana

Last Tuesday, that is 9th July 2019, I started setting up the nano tank once again. All this while it had some water and the filter used to be on. No fish. No plants. Just kept it on so that it wouldn't get mosquitoes breeding. Due to fluctuating water levels in the tank for extended periods of time, it has picked up white marks at various levels. I have cleaned them as much as feasible. Will have to do a more professional job soon.

On Monday I started with a TC cup of Anubias Barteri Nana (Rs 650 from Buro). There were six small stems with tiny little leaves. I attached them to the driftwood and sunk it in the middle of the tank. Didn't push it inside the gravel but just let it sit on it. I bought the plants on 8th July and planted them on 9th July.

The plants look lovely. I don't know how soon they will grow or the root will entangle the driftwood. But I am not in a hurry. I just hope that the leaves don't grow bigger than what they are now.

Day 1. Immediately after planting

Next day, that is 10th July 2019, I bought another cup of S.

Day 3. Some growth is noticeable 

Repens (Rs 170 from Buro). This is supposed to be an easy carpet plant. The plants didn't look too healthy. Possibly it was sitting on the shelf for a long time and would've melted in a couple of days. I also bought one tablet of Ada for planting under the substrate (Rs 120).

I planted the stems in the foreground right away. They didn't look anything great on day 1. But the stems seem to have already started producing new leaves in two three days. I think the Ada tablet is good. There is no other food for them. The light is pretty strong. I have been a little erratic with the photo period and time. Have to be more consistent with the time at which lights are turned on and off.

As of now, I am switching it on at around 5 pm and switching off at 12 midnight. This will probably change on working days. During the day some light comes through the window in front. I wonder if I should put a black cloth during the day to protect it from the sunlight. Plants need to sleep too. 

There is some cloudy material on the glass. That's why photography is not great.

I intend to put some grass like plants a little behind the driftwood. Perhaps Dwarf Grass. But in Calcutta it is not easy to get all the plants you want right away. Right now Buro or Ripples has no stock.

Sunday, July 14, 2019

Today did quite a few things. First added some plaster of paris thinking it was KNO3. Changed about a bucket of water after this disaster. Plaster of Paris is added to bump up the GH of water. In layman's language hardness. After this I prepared a Nitrogen solution using this method. I already had a jar of KNO3. I intend to add this solution now - two tea spoons (10 ml) every other day. Added just a bit of Potassium from my old Seachem stock to the tank. Added a bit of Excel also in the tank.

The CO2 cylinder

CO2 being pumped in

Next went to Buro's shop with the old CO2 cylinder and the diffusers. Buro said there was enough CO2 in the cylinder and it does not need to be replaced. Cleaned the diffusers and tested them out. They are working fine. Back home I set up the CO2 and it's working fine.

I placed the diffuser just under the hang-on filter so that water pressure from the water fall keeps the bubbles inside as much as possible. I hope this leads to proper utilisation of CO2.

At Buro's I also bought a pair of black mollies, a pair of sword tails and two assassin snails. They have been since released in the tank and are running around looking pretty happy. I bought about 5 feet of thin tubing (for using the drip method to acclimatise the more sensitive fish when I buy them) and four suckers for the diffusers. Total damage was a princely sum of Rs 120.

The plants are quite thriving it seems. Several of them are beginning to show new leaves at the base. The distance between the nodes being very short, which is excellent for a bushy growth. Leggy and long inter-nodal distance means low light. That means my light is adequate. I saw some minor pearling under the bigger leaves of the S. Repens. Almost all the stems now have new growth on the top. I feel very happy with this initial success. I hope this carries on.

I am now keeping the photo period at 8 hours. Should switch off at around 12 mid night. I have ten more minutes.

Monday July 15, 2019

The Seachem iron micronutrient I bought from Amazon for Rs 1310 yesterday was delivered today. It's a 500 ml bottle. Dosed 0.5 mil right away. Intend to do it twice a week.

One of the red mollies went missing as of this morning. :-( Felt very sad due to this. Can't really help it. The assassin snails are just sitting tight. Couldn't find any of the tiny little snails for which I had bought them in the first place.

Have half a mind to do a dry start method HC carpet in the other tank. Let me see.

Sunday July 21, 2019

I bought three cups of different plants from Buro. Total cost came to Rs 500. A cup of Eliocharis Parvula, Ludwigia Glandulosa and Cryptocorene Wendtii Pink Panther.

I planted the Ludwigia in the background. It filled the background of the nano. I decided to revive the 2 footer to plant the other two cups tomorrow (Monday). Here is the link to the revival of the 2 footer. 

Nano with the Ludwigia and Two Crypts

Week 4. Time To Flood

Pearling on Cuba on Day 1 of flooding. 

Today is Monday the 9th May 2016. It is just a month since I started the Nano. This evening I flooded the tank. Basically, the other plants were melting away. I flooded the tank more for them. I had brought three stems of AR Mini from Sumit-da. I had planted them in any case. I also planted the eight Parvas. One of them had melted away with no leaves. I have planted that too. Let me see what happens to it. 

In terms of equipment, I set up the Aqua Clear 20. It works flawlessly. I set up the CO2 as well. I am a little confused about how long a photo period to have for the flooded tank. The plants are used to 12 hours. But with the water in the tank, it might need to be reduced. I guess I will step down slowly. Like 10 hours for some days. Then 8. Otherwise I shall soon have to deal with an algae bloom. 

The pearling that I see in Cuba is perhaps a temporary phenomena. They always do when freshly planted. I think it is faux pearling. I mean it is not oxygen breathing by the plants. If it happens tomorrow as well then I will know it is real pearling. Till then I shall continue to harbour my doubts. 

Week 3. More Growth. More Browning

Week 3 Growth

The Cuba's growth story continues. But there is some signs of the browning spreading. Two clumps in the left and one small brown spot in a clump near the front glass. Otherwise the growth is decent. 

I had planted 5 clips of AR Mini. Two did not have any leaves. Those melted away. But the other three are thriving. New leaves are seen. A little greenish. But I am glad that they survived. 

Week 2 - Growth Has Started

Week 2. Some growth is apparent

Today is week 2 completed. I can notice some growth now. The green is also more intense. The gaps are closing. One particular clump turned brown a few days ago. I am not removing it because I have seen them bouncing back from zero even after two months. So there is hope.

I think the growth started from day 10. I am thinking of keeping this DSM state for eight weeks.

Meanwhile, I planted two Crypt Wendtii Tropica in the main two-footer yesterday.