Kind of by accident (and as a product of my lazy trimming habits), I managed to find a plant combination that I really enjoy. Glossostigma elatinoides and Utricularia graminifolia appear quite nicely together once they become interspersed. The Utricularia adds a nice softening effect to the Glossostigma, both in shape and color. I’m currently attempting to replicate this look throughout the entire foreground of my 75G tank.

Another added benefit of this combination is that the Glossostigma helps to pin down the Utricularia so that it doesn’t become uprooted from the substrate. I have a large whip-tail catfish that loves to lounge on these plants, and has yet to caused any damage, whereas he always tends to pull up the Utricularia when planted by itself.

What’s still left to be determined is whether the Glossostigma will ultimately overtake the Utricularia, leaving just your standard “glosso mat.”

GWAPA’s order of ADA goods came in this week, so after a long trip through traffic to pick it up, I’m finally ready to redo a few of my tanks. The first tank that I have redone is my 40G breeder tank that’s been quite the jungle of plants for more time that I care to state. This tank already had aquasoil in it, but I was never satisfied with the depth of the Amazonia I had previously added, so I’m basically just going to add another couple inches on top of the old stuff. So, like any new tank project, I move all of my buckets, hardscape materials, and tools into the room. I try to bring in more rocks than I could possibly use so that I’ll be able to choose the best rocks for the particular aquascape.

So, from here on out, I’m going to describe how to setup a basic tank using the ADA system, as I understand it. The ADA substrate system is composed of minerals, powersand, and then aquasoil. So, I scraped out the existing substrate to add more Tourmaline BC to the bottom of the tank. Only a tiny bit of this is needed. Then, I added the powersand (left), finally topping it off with aquasoil. These picture show a soupy mixture because I didn’t fully drain my tank, but this didn’t seem to be a problem. One thing to note at this point is that I reserved about 1/2 to 1 bag of Amazonia to add after I’ve established my hardscape.

So, now that the substrate is intact, it’s time for my personal favorite part of aquascaping — the hardscape. In this particular scape, I wanted to try to accomplish a sort of mound aquascape, with aquasoil in-between some of the rocks so that I can actually plant on the “mound.” The first step is to build up the mound with the rocks. Try to envision what the tank will look like with more aquasoil and plants filling in the gaps.

Then, after the rocks are in place, I add the remaining 1/2 bag of Amazonia on top of the rocks to soften some of the gaps in-between them. At this point, I also try to correct of the slope of the substrate to gradually ascend up the mound, and to the back of the tank.

Finally, fill the tank up about 1/3 way, and begin planting. It’s helpful to have a spray bottle handy, so that none of your plants dry out while you’re still busy working. When you’re done, fill up the tank with water, and hopefully you’re happy with what you’ve accomplished. In this scape, I ran out of plants that I wanted to use, so I still have a little bit of work to do, but when isn’t that the case?

When your aquascape has a glosso foreground, just about every 6-8 weeks, you glosso will look like it does in this picture. The glosso will have formed a mat that’s about 3-4 inches thick, with portions of that mat floating up away from the substrate. Underneath the substrate, you’ll have a nice thick mess of mulm sitting there. And if you’re lucky, you’ll have from fry using this thick mat as a refuge from much larger fish.

Too bad for those fry, when this happens, it’s time to replant! I have to do just this, this week. In about 6 weeks, I will be hosting the GWAPA meeting. Hopefully, by that time, that new glosso plantlets will have matured into a nice 1″ thick glosso mat.

Timing is one of the key things to keep in mind for every aquascape. Whether you’re planning to show the tank to friends, club members, or take that perfect photograph for sharing online or to submit in an aquascaping contest, timing is everything. I generally tend to play things by ear, but one of these days, I’ll spend a little more time counting backwards. What I mean by that, is the advice of another GWAPA member, Ghazanfar, who suggests writing down every time you trim a plant. Then, whenever that particular plant looks “perfect,” note that on your calendar too. If you subtract the “perfect” date from the date you trimmed, you should know exactly how long it takes for each group of plants in your tank to reach its ideal look. Then, anytime you want to show your tank, you just need to count backwards from that date for each plant, and trim accordingly. By the tank your friends are over, every plant in your tank should look “perfect!” (Of course, YMMV.)

Previously, I’ve posted pictures of my Blyxa aubertii flower. Now, I’ve noticed that some of the Blyxa Japonica, that has been floating toward the top of the surface for some time, has also flowered! From my untrained eye, it’s quite difficult to tell any difference from the two flowers, but I suppose that why the two plants are so closely related.

In any case, it’s always nice to open up your aquarium hood, and see a pretty little flower waiting there for you.

What may be even more incredible is that this is flowering under 1.5 year old normal output flourescents that are being overdriven. I have a mix of 6500k and 10000k temperature bulbs. I’ve noticed in other tanks that 10000k bulbs have caused flowering, so I’m guessing that these bulbs are holding up okay, even though they’re being overpowered.

I haven’t blogged in a little while due to an unexpected trip out of the state due to a family emergency. When these things happen, they don’t always fall conveniently right after a water change, or when your CO2 tank is 100% full. As happens, the timing for my 20G high was quite unfortunate. I had kind of let this tank go a little bit anyways because it seems that some kind of algae spore is embedded in the bogwood, and won’t go away. I didn’t want to pull out the wood because it makes a great shelter for the Apistogramma viejita in this aquarium. So, with an algae outbreak already creeping up, no water change for 2 weeks, and my CO2 tank running out, I came home to this mess.

I’m not really sure what I’m going to do here. I think I may just tear the whole thing down and start it fresh. I could make this a non-planted tank, specifically for the purpose of breeding apistos, using Rain/RO water and peat to lower the PH down to ridiculous levels. Or, I might rescape the whole thing, without this bogwood, once my ADA order of Amazonia comes in.

Eitherway, I guess this shows that while there are a lot of low-maintenance planted tanks, some of these higher light, nutrient dependant, CO2 sucking tanks can really go south in a short time if not tended to. This isn’t a terrible thing because I love the constant change of this hobby, but it’s a good headcheck that there’s more at work in these little biocubes than might meet the eye.