Plants producing O2 bubbles...

I was very busy recently and will be for the next few days working on my project.....anyway here's a quick video showing my plants producing O2 bubbles in my nursery tank...check it out...it's a quick one, capture it using my mobile phone, so sorry for the quality :)

The plant seen in the video is Vallis, Vallisneria sp. known to be a good oxygenator, watch the video again, and try to measure the rate of the bubble.....:D

A friend of mine, after watching the video, asked, did I inject any CO2?.....and I replied "Yes, a DIY CO2." I bet he already know what is DIY CO2, as we sometime discussed about this topic. And he ask again, how I diffused the CO2 into the tank?.....and I just simply reply him a video of the diffuser....

Say....I'll spare the infos of the diffuser in the next post...but if you want to watch the video of it...hop on here>>>CO2 diffuser in my nursery tank

Till then....watch out for my next post....cheers :D

Glossostigma elatinoides and Dwarf Hairgrass Tank specs...

I've received some enquiries and private message from forums that I joined regarding my tank specs. Instead of replying everyone individually, I decided to make a post on it, so you guys can just pop on to my blog anytime to look at the specs. Here's the following specs ask, and if you need further specs (which I can't think of any at the moment), just leave a comment, and I'll add them here...

Specs of this tank below...

Tank size:
2ft x 1ft x 1ft (L x W x H)
approx 15 US gal or 56L

Lighting:
2 x T5HO 24W 10000K (unknow brand and not sure of quality)
1 x T8 20W red spectrum
all lighting under my DIY reflector

Lighting duration:
Lighting period is extra long from the recommended duration of 8 to 10 hours. For now, mine is 16 hours, no particular reason, maybe I thought that extra light duration could speed up growth. Will reduce the lighting duration when I'm satisfied with the growth.

Lighting is controlled with a timer 12hrs light + 4hrs rest + 4hrs light + 4hrs rest = 24hrs a day and 16hrs of light...LOL

Watt per gallon, WPG:
If according to my light wattage, it should be around 4.5 wpg when the tank is fully filled. But lets say if the T5HO capacity is not up to it's stated wattage, the standard wattage for T5 bulb of the same size is 14W, so the total wpg is 3.2 wpg, which is still enough for the plants :)

By the way, I think the wpg is much higher, as the tank is partially filled (not even half of the tank height)

CO2 and Ferts:
no CO2 yet
no ferts accept for the potting soil I used as the based, which I assume does contain organic compound which serves as fert. You can watch my first video of this setup here:
5 Easy Steps To Grow Glossostigma elatinoides and Dwarf Hairgrass Emersed

Inhibitans:
yeah...plan to keep red cherry shrimp in it, and maybe some smaller fish, undecided yet. Probably some small rasboras, like boraras brigittae and sundadanio axelrodi which I plan to collect them in the wild someday....

So please keep the comments and enquiry coming....thanks alot :)

P.S. going to setup a nursery tank for my extra plants....

Step By Step DIY Java Moss Wall Update (63 Days Later)

Hah.....finally after all the waiting, I did a video update on my Moss wall. Oh boy, I didn't know that the moss wall is already 2 months old. Watch the video....

Not an impressing growth, but it grows anyway.....some part of the plastic mesh is not covered up. So let's wait till I do my next update....

Oh, by the way, a friend of mine told me, that they require cooler water, ask me to consider adding fans....well, I might look into that....could be an interesting experiment, so stay tune for more updates to come......Cheers :)

5 Easy Steps To Grow Glossostigma and Hairgrass Emersed Update (2 weeks later)

Its week 2 after the setup of this project. Go watch the update video, and tell me what you think...

I thought of filling the tank up with water maybe after week 3.....but anyway haven't actually decided when yet. Probably once I found a suitable deco for the empty space in the tank...I was thinking of some rocks with moss attached on it...

I guess that's it for now, I can't think of any reason to explain further, I bet the video has done the job. Anyway....I'm open to question and comments.....cheers:)

Dammit!

I had an old unused 2ft x 1ft x 1ft aquarium....it was abandoned for sometime after I shifted to my new house last year, had a crack on one of it side. I thought of using it to grow my aquatic plants, so whenever I need plants, I have them handy.

So few days back, I brought the aquarium to the glass shop for repair....they charge me RM25....damn, almost the price of a brand new tank. Anyway I didn't want to buy a new tank, and keep a broken 1, so repair is my option. SO that's it, 25 bucks....gone :(

Now here's where I got frustrated, since the aquarium was abandoned, naturally it was covered with dust. Until yesterday, when I cleaned the aquarium full of high spirit to start a nursery tank, Dammit....another crack at the bottom...so will be visiting the shop soon, this time, I will try another shop....

Red Cherry Shrimp, (Neocaridina heteropoda)

So glad that the Red Cherry Shrimp, Neocaridina heteropoda I ordered online arrived today. Paid about RM50 for everything including shipping fee and got a total of 26 shrimps.....:)

Plan to add them into my Glossostigma tank...


The best pic I manage to capture

Common name: Red Cherry Shrimp or RCS
Scientific name: Neocaridina heteropoda (var. Red)
Former Scientific name: Neocaridina denticulata sinensis (var. Red)

So far so good, the parcel arrived without any dead shrimp :)

Let's see how they do next time.....cheers :D

New Glossostigma elatinoides and Dwarf Hairgrass tank - 1 week later update

After 1 week the tank was setup, I decided to flood the plants. But before anything, just see how much the Glossostigma elatinoides has grown in 1 week...

Picture took after setup


Picture took after 1 week, just see how fast they grow...

Now go watch the video update I made, before reading the rest of this blog

Now you have seen the video...here's my opinion to why some of the Glossos grow upwards...

If you find all the facts about Glossostigma elatinoides, you see that Glossos need strong lighting to grow horizontally and that will make a very nice foreground plant. On the other hand, with poor lighting, they will just grow upwards, just like my case.

However, in my case, this little experiment is not about lighting. It's more about the environment they are in. In my opinion, no matter how much light I give, if they are grown emersed, they won't grow horizontally.

For those plant that are slightly cover with water, they will grow horizontally, sending out runners to grow new plants. However, those that are exposed to air, will grow upwards....here's Why..."In my opinion"

I believe water plays a role in the growth of the runners. So for those that are exposed to air, they can't send out their runners, and instead grow upwards. And some even look like a tree, growing branches. That's it...anyway this is just one of my simple observation on this plant, so the simple conclusion :)

Here's a quick idea or reason why I started this project to grow them emersed...

• to observe the growth behavior (the vertical Glossos might assist me sometime in the future)
  
• to setup a Glossos tank different from conventional tank setup

What I mean by different from conventional tank setup is that, with this kind of setup, I'm actually growing the plants first before adding in other decor, in my case, I'm planning to add in some rocks in the empty spot later on. This kind of setup is also more of a step by step process, where once the plant are grown, next will be filling the tank with water, then comes the filter, and so on till animals are added.

So that's a little of what I can say about Glossostigma elatinoides growth behavior. Stay tune to see how much the plant have grown when I update on them next time....Cheers :)

Glossostigma elatinoides grows pretty fast...Update Day 5

Oops....forgot to update the Glossostigma elatinoides on Day 4....anyway here's the update after Day 5.

What you can see here is, the runner has sank into the sand, and there don't seem to have new runners, probably it's gworing beneath


This plantlet grows really fast, root and leaf twice since the day I follow their growth


Same goes to the last plantlet that I'm following, start leafing and going to root anytime soon

So...I hope this blog as well as the previous ones do show how fast Glossostigma elatinoides really grows. They multiply so rapidly, that I think it will carpet a well setup Glossostigma elatinoides tank in no time.

I think that would be for now on following the growth of this interesting plant. The next update would probably be a week or two or maybe more, just to show how much they have grown. Till then....cheers :)

Glossostigma elatinoides grows pretty fast...Update Day 3

Day 3 of Glossostigma elatinoides growth observation...

Here's what I have to say..."This plant grow pretty damn fast!"

Just look at the updates of the pics...the plants that I'm following, now grow new leaves and start rooting, check the pics...

Plantlet 1


Plantlet 2


Plantlet 3

Amazing plant, about double the length in 3 Days....

Glossostigma elatinoides grows pretty fast...Update Day 2

Okay the Glossostigma elatinoides grow pretty fast....check the update pics...

I place a marker to mark the point of growth on Day 1, just see how much they grown the next day.

Plantlet 1...


Plantlet 2...


and Plantlet 3

Just look at the runners, they grow so much within 1 day....interesting :)

Glossostigma elatinoides grows pretty fast...

Ever since I started to plant Glossostigma elatinoides about two weeks ago, I'm quite curious to see their growth.

After planting and observing this plants, they do grow pretty fast after they start rooting. Here are some pics of Glossostigma elatinoidess growing...what I'm trying to do here, is to follow the growth of this plantlets, especially the runners. I will take pic of the plantlets everyday to show their growth.

So I will consider this as Day 1 of this small experiment starting on the 8th July 2009.

Look at where the arrow is pointing...see the tiny bud?


Here's another tiny bud of runner growing...


the 3rd plantlet bud I'm watching...

If you may ask, the substrate material is the same as the ones I used in my Glossostigma elatinoides and Dwarf Hairgrass tank setup. The only difference is that I'm planting the plants submerges in plastic rectangular basins, and some of the basins used sea sand as the top layer. In fact the plants in picture 1 and 3 are growing using sea sand.

So lets wait till tomorrow to see how much does the runners grows....

Stay tune

New Glossostigma elatinoides and Dwarf Hairgrass tank

Okay, finally found a suitable spot to place a tank for Glossostigma elatinoides and Dwarf Hairgrass. This is partly going to be an experiment, and if it turns well in the near future, it will stay at that spot as part of deco in my house :D

This project started on the 5th of July 2009....this is part my of experiment to try grow both plants together is emersed condition. I've never done this before, but I think it might work, as I've seen people planting them emersed. The only thing that makes me different from those planted tank guys is that I'm not using those substrate specially for aquatic plants, I'm using my own substrate recipe, just some potting soil and sand......LOL, those aquatic plant substrate are expensive!

So here's the simple step by step process video...enjoy :)



For more pics of the whole process, please check out my photo album below

I hope this experiment work the way I want it to be....Will be updating bout them soon...

Cheers :D

Glossostigma elatinoides and Hair grass updates...

Oh man, was busy recently till I forgot to upload my Glossostigma elatinoides and Hair grass pics.

Here as promised....

This is how the pack arrived, A big pack containing 11 smaller packs of plants...(10 Glossostigma elatinoides and 1 Hair Grass)


This small pack contains a alot of Glossostigma elatinoides....enough to keep me awake to plant the whole pack


Same goes to the hair grass....couldn't plant the whole pack at night


Started planting with this 2 pack into my aquarium...


Here's how the hair grass looks like after planting...


And this is the glossostigma elatinoides....(planting each plantlet separately)

Actually I didn't plant the whole pack that night....I planted just some of them, and spare the rest for the next day.....it was already 3.30am in the morning and I haven't even planted half of the Glossostigma elatinoides and hair grass pack.

Both plant are tedious....I have to cut the plants (especially Glossostigma elatinoides) into smaller plantlets, before I can plant them into the substrate. But anyway it's good experience :D

And for the rest of the plants.....I planted them into basin......And I plan to setup a new tank totally for Glossostigma elatinoides and Hairgrass.....still considering where to place the tank....I will update on that soon.....cheers :)