Here’s my 40G tank after being setup about 3.5 weeks ago.

The Blyxa aubertii is still plagued by some hair/staghorn algae, but that’s because I still haven’t gotten a powerhead to add some more flow to that part of the tank. The Rotala macrandra var. ‘green’ is looking fantastic in the back middle, as is the Blyxa japonica.  I’m still trying to determine whether or not I’m able to use the Potamegeton sp. from Florida as a scapable plant. It’s to the right of the R. macrandra ‘green’ below.

It grows a bit too fast to easily time for a photo, but in a huge mass of stems, I think it would look like a stand of crypts with red/browns/yellows/greens throughout. When we first collected it, it looked very much like a bed of crypts with the leaves coming straight from the substrate, where the roots spread by runners. I’ve yet to replicate that growth in my tank, where the plant grows much more as a stem with a few long leaves coming off at alternating nodes. A foot long stem to the surface might only have 3-4 leaves, each of 4-5″ in length. I guess that’s why they called Potamegetons “pond weeds.”

I’d love to hear comments about how the tank is progressing, and would welcome any suggestions for the future.

At one of the past GWAPA meetings, I won Hygrophila sp. ‘Sarawak’ in the mini-auction. One of our members had obtained seeds for this plant, grew it up emersed, and finally started propagating it for other club members. When I obtained this plant, it was in its emersed form which has much larger green leaves than the reddish submersed form. In the picture below you can see the contrast of the larger leaf form at the bottom verses the leaves at the top.

Most of us know the plants of the Hygrophila genus as weeds that require frequent trimming and care. For this reason, I usually avoid plants from this family. I’m pleased to report that Hygrophila sp. ‘Sarawak’ does not share this same trait. It is much slower growing than say, H. polysperma, and so it requires much less upkeep. I’m still reserving judgment on how apt this plant is for aquascaping, but my first impression seems to indicate that it will bush up, making it viable. Watch future posts of my latest 40G aquascape to see how it progresses along.

I promise that this is going to be my last post about Pogostemon yatabeanus flowers for awhile! I previously showed how the flower pod itself grows from the top of the plant. Now, that pod is bursting open with these very feathery, purple flowers. They’re very pretty with multiple plants starting to burst open.

And, the flowers are attracting plenty of nectar-loving insects to the pond. If you hold your nose close to the flower, you can smell a very sweet aroma that’s much like the flowers in your typical grocery store bouquet.  (Sorry, I don’t know which flower it smells like, but it’s familar.) I may try to collect seeds at the end of the season, just for the sake of growing them again indoors in my very small emersed setup.

Last night I went over to my friend Aaron’s house to help him get a good photograph of his aquascape for the Aquatic Gardener Association’s aquascaping contest due in a few days. I promised him that I wouldn’t post any pictures of his actual aquascape until after the contest is over, but these are some individual plant shots I took.

The first shows HC, Hemianthus callitrichoides, pearling with a nice fat oxygen bubble on its’ leaf tip. If you look closely you can see some of the downoi reflected in the bubble. Below is a picture of a very healthy looking Rotala macrandra var. ‘Green,’ also pearling away. I’m going to have to go back and take more pictures because Aaron’s got some really awesome plants growing in his tanks. Good luck in the contest Aaron!

You may think that lately this has been a flower blog, but I guess it’s just that time of year because today, I noticed several stalks of the Pogostemon yatabeanus have produced flowers. I’ll admit that this is the plant I’ve most anticipated seeing flower because these stems were the first to eagerly shoot above the surface in emersed growth this past spring.

Each P. yatabeanus seems to produce a single flower, coming directly out of the top of the plant. The flower itself looks very much like that of an anubias flower, except that it has purple sections alternating throughout. I suspect that those purple sections will eventually become seeds.

Currently, the flowers are all still mostly hidden by surrounding leaves. I’ll be sure to post new pictures if it grows into anything more than a larger version of what’s in this post.