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The theme for this month's contest is: Best Stem Plant

Please take a picture of one of your stem plants. Be as artistic and creative as you like.

The rules:

• Submissions are allowed between May 9 and May 22.
• Voting will start on May 22 at 12:01 am Eastern time.
• Voting will end on May 31 at 11:30 pm Eastern time.

The prize:

A $50 store credit from BurrAqua thanks to @Burr740 and @JayP for contributing his win into this month!


Please post your pictures in this thread starting now. Good luck!

The adventure begins...again. After a substantial absence from the hobby, I dunked my toe back in last fall with a small 60F shrimp tank, a Chihiros WRGB slim, and a Chihiros CO2 (citric/baking soda) system. A lot has changed since I started this hobby in the 90s, and it's been about 20 years since I tore my last tank down. 'Aquascaping' per se wasn't as much a thing back then. I didn't know anyone running CO2, and LED lights didn't really exist. The 60F was fun, and the shrimp seem happy, but I have been itching to get to building something with more elbow room.

I did happen to find a pic of my old 75 gallon bowfront tank a few weeks ago that was taken just before I tore it down prior to a big move. It ran great for 7 years. Was a simple low tech setup, with one hunk of driftwood, no rocks, plain gravel (no soil) a lot of simple plants (the sword plants did great), and some peaceful fish. Algae wasn't an issue, filtration was pretty subpar by current standards, but the tank did well despite that, and algae wasn't really an issue. Aesthetically blah by today's standards, and certainly not my goal for this build, but I remember being proud of how well this tank ran back then, and wasn't too demanding. Important as my life was very hectic back then.



So, the tech plan so far for the new 150U:


I ordered the tank and stand from UNS, and to my amazement, despite the worst mid-January winter storm we had in some years here, it was delivered on time by the freight company. I do not recommend trying to move a 5ft wide 400+lb tank and stand across snow and ice, down a slope, into to basement. Very thankful to have a tractor with forks, but still was a bit stressful getting this into the house. Miraculously we got it in the house in one piece, and I seriously questioned ever getting a tank larger than this in the future!



It did require disassembly outside the basement door to actually get it into the house around a berm of snow, along with some extra muscle from a few friends. (This was originally meant to be a 120P, until I realized the hardscape plan I had wouldn't quite fit. What's a another foot in length? )



Just getting the tank through the snow and ice was enough, and the base cabinet and tank just sort of landed in the room, and stayed there for a few days while devising a strategy for the next step. After recruiting a tall and strong friend, and sourcing some of those giant suction cup handles you use for moving shower glass walls, a few days later the tank was finally hoisted up onto the base.

As there is a dropped ceiling in the basement my plan was to hang the lights directly above the tank from the ceiling, rather than using a light stand. A few tiles were removed to investigate the structure above, and with some 2x4 extra bracing for the anchors, as none of the joists were in quite the right spot, two Chihiros Vivid 3 lights were installed directly above the tank. At this point I discovered that none of the electrical circuits in the basement were GFCI protected, so obviously that was immediately remedied. Too much gear and too much water to mess around with unprotected circuits.




With the ceiling open, I decided to run the lighting cables over the top of the wall to the left of the tank, and down into the mechanicals room there. The advantage being that the power cords are hidden from view after going through the ceiling tiles, and it's two less large power sources cluttering up the cabinet under the tank. Had to add an outlet in that closet, but I like how it turned out.

With the tank in position and leveled, and the lights finally installed, the next big issue is water. The well water here is liquid limestone. That was the initial mistake I made with the shrimp tank. Sure, neocaridina like hard water, but not THAT hard, and I quickly had to shift to remineralized distilled. I knew before even getting serious about planning this tank that the only reasonable option, for any future tanks here, is RO. The well water might be fine for Malawi Cichlids, but that's not my plan for this tank, but it will be great to have flexibility going forward. It's a big glass box, at just over 140 gallons, and it won't be the only one here (I hope), so the water part I want to get right from the start, and to make it easy to do water changes. The basement is a walkout, so draining water during water changes will be easy, and I would like to make filling it just as easy. I sourced two 70 gallon storage tanks for the RO water from Northern Tool, and ordered a Vectra S2 pump which will help with transfering water between tanks, as well as pumping it out through a hose to the aquarium(s) during water changes. Forgot to take a pic when I was done, but the pvc is all glued up now. I will finish installing the RO unit this weekend.



So, aquarium set up, lights in, and RO system with storage in progress. Next up? The exciting part. Hardscape! I have been hoarding Manzanita, Hakkai stone, and substrate for several months, so I'm excited to move on to the next step! Tank so far pictured below (although I have already removed the privacy film on the back in favor of adding the ARC RGB light screen in part due to the stair rail being visible and distracting. First screen was damaged in transit, so waiting on a replacement).

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?

This is the future home for the announcements when someone obtains an achievement badge. Let the games begin!

Looking to rescape a 60x40x40 tank with a triangular layout with trident java fern attached to the drift wood. Is there a big difference between the trident java fern and the mini version ? Anyone with experience in using both - please comment.

I'm in a bit of a quandary. I have a 4 yr old low tech 20g tank. Despite being an experienced aquarist of decades it was my first successful planted tank.

It has inert 2mm gravel (with small amounts of aquasoil underneath, injected in boluses, instead of root tabs) and amazingly most plants have done really well for most of its life. It has also housed a variety of shrimp and small fish, who have also generally thrived. It has been a lovely planted mixed display tank.
Here's a pic of it in its past glory


Sadly over the last 6-12 months some of the plants (definatley not all) have got harder and harder to keep going nicely and many of the shrimp have also been getting cloudy and passing away. GH/KH have remained rock solid stable. In fact nothing measureable has really deviated.
A real measure for me has been some Myriophyllum mattogrossense, which has lived in this tank for its entire life, growing superbly like a weed providing a lovely background stem jungle. However, recently even it is struggling, with dull colour, weak, thin stems and slow growth. I also used to have lovely Crypt wendtii, but the last couple now are simply holding on for dear life it seems. Growth is VERY slow.

Here's are recent pics


Its not a disaster. The java fern and buces are doing well but the crypts and Myriophyllum are hanging on (the pics don't really show the colour differences compared to earlier generations). However, the clearest indication for the Myriophyllum for me are the delicate, thin stems, which are definately a new thing.

The only things that have actually changed over the last year or so have been firstly (and possibly obviously) that the tank has aged another year, and secondly that I have converted to a new fertilizing schedule. Literally nothing else has changed.

My thoughts are ..................

1/ Maybe the build up of mulm and detritus in the substrate has become so much that it is increasing toxic dissolved organic compound levels, increasing the growth of nasty suspended bacteria, with negetive results on delicate shrimp (these are mainly softwater Caridina that are suffering. The Neos seem to battle on regardless). Maybe this same detritus build up is also affecting root growth and function in the rooted plants. Note - it certainly seems that my rhizome plants are still growing really well. Does this substrate and tank just need a jolly good clean out ? if I take all the substrate out and rinse it with clean dechlorinated water I should hopefully not completely wipe out the substrate microflora.
THis pic doesn't show the build up in the deeper substrate well but it does show that the substrate surface is really nice and clean. No detritus at all.


2/ Maybe this tank just doesn't get on well with the new fert schedule. This would be very surprising to me, as I use exactly the same chemicals and ratios (scaled up) for my large CO2-injected tank (again similar inert substrate with aquasoil injection) and the plant growth for virtually all in that tank is outstanding.

In this low tech tank I use weekly doses of 1.1g KNO3, 1.1g K2SO4 and 0.22g KHPO4. My micros are provided by a weekly dose of 0.21g of Solufeed Sodium-free TEC, which claims this composition ....

Element	Soluble in water (%)	Chelated by EDTA (% min)
Boron	(as polyborate)	0.92	N/a
Copper	(as CuNH4EDTA)	0.23	0.23
Iron	(as FeKEDTA)	8.4	8.4
Manganese	(as Mn2KEDTA)	2.00	2.00
Molybdemum	(as molybdate)	0.15	N/a
Zinc	(as Zn2KEDTA)	1.16	1.16

I change around 30% of the water weekly. Water is RO, remineralized to 6 dGH, zero dKH. COnsumer nitrate test kit tested levels in the tank seem fairly stable around 10-15 ppm.
I see no obvious signs of copper toxicity in the shrimp (any variety of movement disorder or spasms).

It will be a royal PITA to wash out the substrate and I don't want to do it unless its necessary.

If anyone had some words of wisdom I would be very grateful. I would love this tank to start thriving again

Another post in the "selfies" thread got me to thinking about this hobby's demographics. A quick google AI search provided this: perhaps a bit surprising that freshwater aquarium keeping is not quite as male dominated as it used to be or one might think, but saltwater YIKES!

Demographics in aquarium keeping skew slightly male, though this varies heavily by specialization. Industry and academic surveys—such as the MDPI Wildlife Attitudes Study—show the core hobbyist base consists of middle-aged individuals, with a strong concentration of participants between the ages of 20 and 45. [1, 2]
A breakdown of demographic trends within the aquarium hobby reveals the following patterns:

Gender Distribution

• Freshwater & Community Tanks: General freshwater and community aquarium keeping generally approaches an even split, with some studies recording a near 53% male to 47% female distribution. Female participation often leans toward beginner-friendly, community-style setups. [1, 2]
• Marine & Reef Keeping: Specialized niches heavily skew male. Historic and contemporary data on saltwater reef keeping reveal that 85% to 90% of dedicated reef hobbyists are male. [1, 2]
• Commercial Aquaculture: In the broader commercial aquaculture and ornamental fish value chain, men hold a significantly higher percentage of production, input, and operational roles, particularly among married or middle-aged participants. [1]

Age Distribution

• The Dominant Cohort (20–45): The vast majority of active aquarium keepers—roughly 73% according to profiling in ornamental fish communities—fall squarely into the \(20\) to \(40\) age bracket. Middle-aged individuals (ages 36–45) are consistently identified as the primary drivers of the value chain. [1, 2]
• Youth & Senior Participation: Younger demographics (under 18) account for a solid baseline of entry-level hobbyists (around 20% to 30% of participants depending on region). However, hobbyist retention drops off notably as participants age beyond 55. [1, 2]

Hobbyist Profile & Motivations

• Education & Income: Ornamental fish keeping is closely correlated with higher education and mid-to-high income brackets. A majority of keepers hold university degrees and earn above-average incomes, as the hobby requires baseline expendable income for tanks, filters, and livestock. [1]
• Stress Relief: Regardless of age or gender, human-animal interactions during aquarium keeping produce significant psychological benefits. Studies, including those analyzing hobby trends during the COVID-19 pandemic, confirm that aquariums provide reliable stress relief for over 80% of keepers regardless of demographic. [1]

Good, the click bait title worked. Hallo all. I find myself sometimes at a disadvantage as my face is commonly found on social media and yet I can't match name or face to many of the aquariums I see here. So many folks use funny acronyms, as if growing plants was some undercover ops. This has lead to some awkward moments in real life when I meet people I should have known or have talked to for a long time with no idea who/what they are. Pls upload a picture of your aquarium with you so that we can make this forum thingie a more personalized experience and it will be easier to remember who is who. Life is short, don't let people just forget you. In a world where internet troglodytes hide behind anonymity so that they can make irresponsible remarks, be a man and post your face.

I’ve been wanting to do a tank for a while that focuses just on finnicky plants -erios, lud. panatal, tonina and the sorts. So this is my detailed journal of how I start my planting process all the way from cycling to planting, fertilizing, water changes and the pitsfalls, lighting and what processes work best for me.

Equipment:
Oase biomaster2- 350
Fluval Visi-white 60P tank
Fzone CO2 regulator and a 2.5lb CO2 tank
Week aqua L600Pro Series Light
Fzone Brite60 Light
Yugang reactor made using a 375 mm PC cooling reservoir - will post another journal detailing this.

CO2:
1.3 pH drop from a baseline of pH 6.8.

Aquasoil:
Three 5L bags of APT Feast

Cycling:

APT Feast being a high organic content soil - I like to cycle it for a full month at least using the dark start method before planting anything. This is even more important for me as I almost exclusively use tissue cultures for my plants. Because I will be injecting CO2, the tank was also getting injected with CO2 during its dark start. I know there’s opinion out there that it’s a waste and what not, but I think CO2 levels in the water might affect microbial ecosystem development in the long run, so I like to start off by exposing the microbial community of the tank to CO2 levels it will be seeing in the long run.
The water parameters 2 weeks after start dark cycle were as follows:
Total ammonia : 10 ppm+
Nitrite: 10 ppm+
Nitrate : unreadable as the nitrite levels were interfering with the API test. I eventually used a 25% dilution to read 30 ppm+ nitrates.
At this point I did a large (100%) water change to remove some ammonia and speed up the leaching process. The steeper the diffusion gradient between the soil and water the quicker the ammonia leaches, hence large water changes facilitates that.

After 4 weeks I did another water test and the parameters were similar as above. Proceeded to do another 100% water change.

After 5 weeks I did another water test and this time the parameters were:
Total Ammonia: 1 ppm
Nitrite: 2 ppm+
Nitrate: 40 ppm+
Decided to give it another week to see if the nitrites would drop to below 0.5 ppm.

One week later the nitrites had vanished. I did another 100% water change.
So it takes about 6 weeks to fully cycle a tank with APT Feast if you don’t use any old media or cycling aid.

Next step is to plant the tank. I wanted this tank to focus on mostly uncommon species:
1. Ludwigia Pantanal
2. Ludwigia Arcuata
3. Tonina fluviatilis
4. Rotala Macrandra
5. Macrandra Mini Red
6. Mayaca Fluviatilis
7. Rotala Florida
8. Rotala Bonsai
9. Ludwigia Cuba- white edge
10. Ludwigia Senegalensis
11. Lysimachia Parv. red
12. AR mini
13. Bacopa compacta white
14. Erio Vietnam
15. Erio Quinquangulare
16. Crypt Flamingo for my centre piece

Here’s a photo after planting. Not all the species listed above are present in the photo but I did eventually add them once I was able to acquire them.

I’m also trying to make a carpet with buce needle leaf on the left side, we’ll see how that goes. I plant on planting clumps of ratnagiricum in the carpet once the carpet has settled in.

OK, so parameters after planting:
1. CO2: 1.3 pH drop from a baseline pH of 6.8. About 55-60 ppm possibly. The verify by making sure my drop checker is yellow before lights on. I turn on CO2 4 hours before lights on and turn it off 1 hour before lights off.

2. Lighting at 80% strength. I hadn’t hooked up the week aqua yet at that point so it’s just 80% on the fzone which would amount to about 60 umol of PAR at the substrate. After a week, I installed my weekaqua L series and increased the PAR to around 100 umol at the substrate. I’m a big fan of using high light (80-110) umol from day 1 of planting, I think this gives plants the best chance at fast growth. The faster the plants grow adapt and generate mass the higher my chances on skipping the diatom/GDA phase. Here’s an 8 gallon tank below where I used a 100W grow light from Day 1 of planting and you can see how the tank is algae free and growing rapidly at the 3 week mark.


This method has worked really well for me, although the key to this method is to maintain very stable nitrate levels. Your nitrates could be anywhere between 0-30ppm, and it won’t matter as long as it is kept stable. A common mistake is to not replenish nitrates after a large water change.

3. Fertilizers:
APT 1 - 1.5 ml per day

4. Water parameters:
KH - 0dKH
Nitrate: 10 ppm
Phosphate: 0 ppm

Here’s the tank now after 4 weeks of growth:


The macrandra on the left had been trimmed last week and replanted, they had almost reaching 80% of the tank height. The tonina at the back has settled in well, some diatoms on the lower leaves which I’m not worried about. Although I don’t think that’s where I’ll kepp the tonina long run. I might use it as a midground plant and maybe move the panatal where the tonina is. You can barely see the quinquangulare behind the AR mini, but they seemed to have settled down as well. I planted 6 crowns and lost 3 within the first 2 weeks. I suspect damage from transportation - they smelled like cooked spinach when I received them.
So as is evident from above, even though I’m supplying higher levels of lighting, diatoms and GDA haven’t really taken a hold yet. The key has been regular water changes to remove detritus produced by the ramshorns, keep a stable nitrate level of 10ppm, stable CO2 at 50+ppm and good plant husbandry. I always make a point of trimming away older and emersed leaves so they don’t attract algae. The ludwigia white is actually emersed. I have removed all of its emersed leaves except the ones from the top 2 internodes and as soon as I will see sideshoots grow and develop past the 2nd internode, I will trim them and replant them and uproot the emersed stem and toss it. The plant arrangment is a little “block-like” as of now, but this isn’t really the final arrangement. I prefer to grow the plants out in a rough layout before I arrange them once they’ve all taken off.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. I will add to it as the tank develops in the upcoming weeks.