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BWG's emersed ambitions

36K views 245 replies 14 participants last post by  peachii 
#1 ·
New project time! My aquariums are all doing well and I ran out of room for more. Well there is room in the house, but only in places that I'm seldom in. Not a place I want fish. So what does that leave? Plants. I like plants. I like getting a whole bunch to try out. One thing I've never done (well two) is emersed plants and terrariums.

With that in mind I started looking into terrariums a few months ago. Some really nice plants out there for them. Some really artistic people. That those is not me. I can plan and research like a crazy man. I can find lots of interesting plants and fish for good prices. Making a scape look pretty? Soooooo not me. Hate doing it, get frustrated, redo it, get really annoyed, redo it, give up and let it go. It's how all my tanks came about and usually shows. So making a terrarium might not work well for me.

I still kept looking up the plants though since they were interesting and I'm nerdy like that. That's when I stumbled onto the journal that made me not care if I could do it, I wanted to do something similar. Want to see? Borneo Stream Biotope Go ahead and look, I'll wait.















Back again? Most of my fish and plants are Southeast Asian. I'm obviously in love with the floral and fauna of that region, so a terrarium like that really inspired me. Thing is I can grow aquarium plants. I've never tried to go anything else though, let alone all those. Plus the artistic touch.

A plan started to form though as I researched. Start off slowly and just try emersed plants for now. This won't be a nice looking emersed setup like aokashi has. Nope! This will be plants in pot in an aquarium! If this goes well then look out!

I could do stems plants. I have lots from that area of the world. Not feeling it though. I'm anal I guess, just like restricting myself to one geographical region. The plants I have in mind are aroids, carnivorous plants, mosses, ferns, and orchids. The rarer the better, within reason since some costs hundreds of dollars or are poached. No way am I going to do either of those options. I do have a wishlist though that I'm working on if anyone wants to see.

First step after plenty of hardcore research was to pull the empty 55 gallon out of the cellar and clean it up. Yeah you read that right. 55 gallon, I'm going hardcore from the start. I'm laying 50/50 odds on this either being an epic failure of epic proportions or epically epic.

So now the 55 is clean and sitting on a dresser. I was making a long shopping list of things I thought I'd need. A fan, light, heater, eggcrate, pots. Research going like crazy. I even had the order of plants I wanted to try. Crypts, moss, and ferns first. Then jewel orchids and Nepenthes. Last Buces and Phals (if I made it that far).

It was a decent plan. Then I found a good deal on some plants and the whole plan went out the window. I couldn't resist the hard to find plants at a good price. I ordered some, quick threw together a ghetto tank in a 10 gallon. Those plants arrived today, but more on them later. For right now go look at some pictures of some Southeast Asian streams in nature. Corymad and Jungle Mike

I'll post some pictures and info on the new plants tonight. I would do it right now, I'm I'm frustrating a certian mod by not posting them. Something I think is massively fun.

PS-Follow along while I kill plants. No lurking. I will name names and place the blame.
 
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#4 ·
Don't know about amazing, but it will be something.

I think my 10 gallon throw together runs about 88-90% humidity. I dropped the hygrometer in the water (the second one I did it to for a total of four times...yes four times!). What else have I done wrong? Well turns out that Miracle Gro runs right out of the bottom of a pot. Who would have guessed? I never would have expected this. No what else? Pots with soil float...yeah.

Guess I'll take some pictures now since I failed to get a frustrated reaction.
 
#8 · (Edited by Moderator)
My new plants which I'm uber excited about are buces! There was a guy selling off his collection before he headed off to college. I bought five different ones. Honestly if I felt more comfortable with my ability to keep them I would have bought more. Normally these little plants run at least $20. They are said to be easy, but at the normal price finding that out for sure gets hard. I was planning them much later, but really couldn't resist. lol Already I wish I had snagged a couple more. The entire collection sold out in hours. Bonus for me? They were emersed grown.

Note on what buces are for those that don't know. If you know skip this part. Bucephalandra is a genus of aroids (like Cryptocoryne and Anubias) native to Borneo. They grow similar to Anubias and have a rhizome. There are three recognized species, but possibly over 200 varieties/unnamed species. Some are named after a location, while others have a seemingly random name. They are new to the aquarium hobby, not sure how long we're talking but I want to say around five years. That might just be the US though. That and the slow growth explains the price. Poaching is an issue. I made sure that mine had been from someone that cultivated them.

I was told they like acidic soil. I mixed up a 60/40 blend of peat moss (I know, I know about the badness of it) and MGOCPM. Hoping that works. I also stuffed a paper towel in the bottom to keep the substrate in. I'm waiting on some three inch net pots and cocotech liners so this only has to last until then. No cap, although I think I might use sand when I repot. Otherwise I might run the risk of fungus?

So without further ado...my ghetto setup.

Bucephalandra 'kir royale'


Bucephalandra 'artemis'


Bucephalandra 'green chile'


Bucephalandra 'gunung sumpit'


Bucephalandra 'mentarang kal-timur'
 
#9 ·
If you have a no lurking rule, then we bind you into no holding back!
We alllll want to learn about the pretty little Bucelings, and. . . *looks around* a few of us have been doing silly things with plants and less water this summer. ^.^

DUDE! You should totally do stems in the 10 after you move into the 55. You DO have some really nice stemmies. . .

*tempts*
 
#14 ·
and. . . *looks around* a few of us have been doing silly things with plants and less water this summer. ^.^
Pics or it didn't happen!


Drools~
You really couldnt resist huh XD Is the gunun sumpit putting out a new leaf? I'm sooo Jellly! *wobbles*

Edit: I just read that you have paper towels in there, did anyone recommend this to you? I think they may restrict water flow and that tends to make things rot D: I usually let the humidity do its thing... as long as the humidity is up there, the buces shouldn't suffer >.<
if you really want to hold the soil in but promote drainage you can always use aquarium gravel :D
Yep that is a new leaf on the gunung sumpit. The artemis and mentarang kal-timur have new ones forming too, but I don't think they could be seen in the pictures.

I didn't even think of stones. Do you think the paper towels will suffice until I get the new pots? I ordered them last week so hoping they are here this weekend. I know people sometimes use coffee filters. Didn't have any so I just improvised.

I have net pots coming with these cocotek liners. They were recommended to me for crypt though. Hoping it will work. Your the forum expert on this stuff. (Hey mods when are we getting an emersed section?)

Dangit.. I want no blame! Not lurking..now officially watching (Thank you Chesh for squeezing those pics out of him lol) Now WANT MOOOORE PICS!
I would have posted them right away, but I thought I could get her to complain. What else should I take pictures of? lol I have an empty tank I could show.
 
#11 · (Edited)
Drools~
You really couldnt resist huh XD Is the gunun sumpit putting out a new leaf? I'm sooo Jellly! *wobbles*

Edit: I just read that you have paper towels in there, did anyone recommend this to you? I think they may restrict water flow and that tends to make things rot D: I usually let the humidity do its thing... as long as the humidity is up there, the buces shouldn't suffer >.<
if you really want to hold the soil in but promote drainage you can always use aquarium gravel :D
 
#15 ·
Huzzah for new leaves, grow, babies, GROW! Too bad they grow so slowly - I'm sure we'll have fun waiting for each new woobie leaf to unfurl ^.^

I'm up for pics of an empty 55! Been hoping to see one of those for a while now, actually :/

An emersed section would be fun for all the other kinds of 'arium lovers out there.

. . . pretty sure you know it happened.
 
#16 ·
Two whole days and I haven't killed any plants yet. Of course now that I said that I just jinxed myself.

Opened the front of the lid today to air the terrarium out. Twenty minutes and all the condensation on the glass was gone. My dunking of the hygrometer might have broke it. While the airing out was happening it said the humidity only dropped a couple percent. It is right above the heater though so maybe it is right. Doubt it though.

That seemed like a good time to take pictures because I was demanded full tank shots.





After that little airing out I wasn't sure if I should mist on not. I haven't done that yet. I decided to just close the lid and see how long it took for the glass to get foggy. In about 20 minutes it was back to where it had been (and the hygrometer rose a couple of percent if that helps). Seems the light and the heater are enough. I'm not using a bubbler so didn't know if it would go that quick.

The tanks are in a bedroom turned guestroom turned storage room. I'm only saying all that to explain the next picture. This one was harder to take. I had to shoot from the doorway just to avoid my reflection in the mirror behind the empty 55 gallon. Can't let Bekah go seeing an image of my face and thinking she won.



TL:DR version-Nothing exciting, but people wanted pictures.
 
#17 ·
I got mine today! such a tiny unimpressive thing! haha

I'm totally not an expert on emersed plants. I am sooo unscientific on every single level. But I do know through experience that new soil is more of a pain in the butt as there are a lack of micro organisms to do the breaking down work and keep the soil fresh~ Ive never done an emersed tank with so much water (mine are all dry dry dry!), so I'm super excited to see how yours go!


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#18 · (Edited)
There will be pictures right? Not like most of mine are big, but I'm still excited to finally have some. Have been wanting them for a long time.

I'm pretty much using the Zapin method, just with an aquarium and flowerpots instead of plastics bins and trays. This way I can keep a heater in the water and the humidity and temperature stay nice and high. The substrate stays wet like I want (think I need) without any standing water on top. If I cap it a bit that should help prevent fungus and be somewhat like my soil tank. I'm hoping anyway. Some experimenting for me yet.

Plus I can keep them separated and labeled...well once I get those plant label thingies.
 
#24 ·
Oh there will be animals in there. But they will just be food!!! Mwahahaha :twisted:

I'm sending everyone (including myself) to your thread to ask CP questions. Be afraid!
Send them! I'll be waiting with my flytraps!
(and a copy of Savage Garden).
 
#28 ·
Haha that picture is perfection! You should totally make that your new post signature Cory ;p It'd be great. I'll even put it on a t shirt for you. And everyone else. Though I'll need some convincing, I'm torn between Buces and The Hungry Bog. *taps chin*

Also, when you least expect it, I'll be putting a (land) snail in that 55. It's going to happen :twisted:
 
#30 ·
I think I need more buces before I cn use that as a signature. I need to go pokemon style and collect them all. Winning the lottery would help. Donation accepted!

That competition is so not fair! I keep trying to get my plants to say "Feed me, Seymour!" but they just won't do it. I show them videos of the piranha plants in Super Mario Brothers, but again nothing. So unfair!

I thought you were going to so some other species of neps, too. You're going to have the room...


Pure. Genus.
I maybe, kinda, sorta, possibly lost your list of easy Nepenthes. Problem might be finding them for sale. I saw info on a couple of naturally occurring N. ampullaria hybrids I'd like to have, but looked all over the net to try and get a rough idea of price. Couldn't find any for sale, but did find people saying they bought them...which helps me not in the least.

Not sure if the comment for the picture was a typo, a deliberate pun, or a typo that lucked into being a pun. Either way *slow clap*
 
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