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I spent more hours than I dare admit yesterday finally planting out my 150U (no photos yet, I got a bit absorbed in what I was doing). This morning over coffee I have some thoughts.

The first is someone please start a scaping store with me, a la Horizon or Aquarium Gardens!? I am not anxious to delve into retail, but between hardscape sourcing struggles, and access to fresh healthy plants, this hobby feels more challenging than I remember. It is really frustrating not having a local resource for plants here. Being at the mercy of online vendors, purchasing plants sight unseen, can be an exercise in frustration, and buyer-beware.

I know that packing and shipping is expensive, but so are plants! What on earth is up with live plant shipping practices in the US? Maybe I have watched too many Tropica, Dennerle, or AquaFlora plant unboxings online, but shipped direct from the grower, their plants seem to arrive at their destination in an organized, contained manner, either in trays, or packed in layers. Not that well-packed plants can’t get jostled in shipping, but the number of what had been healthy plants I received tossed loose in a box with upside down cultures in gel (really appreciating the trend toward liquid media for just that reason), or pots literally thrown in bags and smashed together arriving with their leaves torn off, is BS. (I am looking at you specifically, west coast). How on earth is a plant supposed to arrive in good shape when the pots are crushing the delicate leaves and stems of the plant next to it? I think shippers need to spend a day with FedEx/UPS/USPS and see the abuse these boxes have to endure during a journey.

I do now have vendors on my ‘no buy’ list based on plant condition on arrival this past week. I also judge vendors of potted plants based on how wretched the box smells when I open it!

Some plants were smashed to oblivion when I received them, but technically not ‘dead’ so not eligible for a refund. Also not eligible to go in my tank until I wait and see if they survive, and are ‘recovering’ in a tank. Others arrived entombed in algae, or had rotted at the roots in their rock wool and smelled truly awful. Ultimately, I resorted to planting mostly tissue culture plants in my 150U build yesterday. It’s just difficult to get much plant mass that way.

One vendor has taken over two weeks to even ship plants out, and they are supposed to arrive today after being delayed by USPS for two days. Every other order at least arrived before I drained the tank. As they are epiphytes, they will have to wait now until a water change.

In hindsight, I should have started a large farm tank first, to have access to healthy plants on demand, and already CO2 adapted. If you are new, and lurking on Scapecrunch, looking for inspiration, and wondering where to start, build a Dutch-style tank (as it keeps your plants organized), as a farm tank. If you then want to move on to something with hardscape, you will already have robust, healthy, and adapted plants ready to go, and it’s an excuse to have more tanks. Otherwise, the following were my best plant buying experiences for this build.

Aqua Forest Aquarium (AFA) in San Francisco. Hindsight being 20/20 and all, I really wished I had jumped back into the hobby while I was still living in the Bay Area. Everything AFA shipped was in perfect condition on arrival. ADA Bio Mizukusa No Mori plants were pristine. No soup. Nothing broken. Granted, their shipping costs were also the highest, but it’s cheaper than throwing out plants.

My BurrAqua plants were in excellent health, and were packaged great, and I am grateful for having that resource available here on Scapecrunch! If Joe has a plant you are looking for, go for it!

Aqua Rocks Colorado's (ARC) Tropica tissue culture plants were the healthiest Tropica brand plants I received, and I ordered Tropica plants from several vendors. Packed well, and shipped at light speed. Everything from ARC was fresh, vibrant, and healthy.

The Tropica Marsilea hirsuta, and Eleocharis I purchased from someone else arrived as brown rotten soup (those are being refunded). Tropica needs to pay attention to who is vending their plants. It is clear that some are sitting on them way too long, and although Tropica has no control over their vendors, those vendors are acting as Tropica representatives, and it doesn’t look good for the brand when plants arrive rotten. Especially to people new to the hobby. I wonder how many failed, rotten, soupy plants chase new people out of this hobby at the start? I think starting with healthy stock, plants or fish, is important for success in any new setup, rather than it being an uphill battle from the start.

As I probably can’t start a scaping store this week, I would rather see at least one vendor online taking grower pre-orders, receiving plants directly from the grower, and then immediately dispatching plants every couple of weeks, than buying a bunch, sitting on them, and hoping they sell on Etsy or Ebay before they die.

I totally understand now how some aquascaping stores get started. Dave Pierce at Aquarium Gardens was interviewed several years ago, and admitted he started his store out of frustation at not being able to have the access to plants and hardscape he wanted. I feel you Dave. He now has one of the most successful operations in the UK. Maybe I need to fully retire from my day job?