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I'm wondering if a plant I got from Aquarium Plants Factory is true limnophila aromatica (i.e. not hippuridoides) and what to expect from it.

I got several stems of emersed limnophila aromatica and the transitioned growth has started coming in, but I've been surprised that leaves are broader than I expected, fewer than I expected, and no trace of any pink/purple/red hues on the undersides. The leaves might be narrowing out a bit with this latest generation budding now. Is it possible the leaves are still mid-transition and will change more, or I possibly just got a very yellow-green variant?

So a graphic designer that we use for some of our site's work suggested that ScapeCrunch should have a mascot like Reddit's Snoo. They sent me their suggestion for us to consider which was very kind of them.

Please meet Doc CO2:


Like Reddit's Snoo, the idea would be to include this cute little guy into the site but not to replace our current logo. He would be around in images, upcoming badges, etc.

While being kind (we didn't pay for this), what do you think? Should we start to use Doc CO2 or does it not fit our site? Please vote and comment.

Hello all, my name is Mike and I just found this site by accident. I think @gjcarew told me @GreggZ had moved here but some how I failed to remember; so I'm glad I found this site today. I am a fan, as you can tell, of GreggZ. He taught me just about everything I know (through his journal on that other site) and I was also banned over a 0dKH discussion . So you know, I kind of feel close to the guy. Joking aside, I was able to go from this.
To this within a short period of time just by reading his journal.
And as time passed I was able to get this nice scape that made my wife happy.


Then I had the pleasure to meet @gjcarew over on a different site and I reached out to him with questions and such; through those conversations he motivated me to make an attempt at the 2022 AGA Dutch competition. Unfortunately, I messed the tank up right when I was about to take my photos and I couldn't recover the tank in time. Here's that tank. Obviously, there are tons of problems with it, but I was proud of it regardless. I believe it had a shot at a top 10. Not really.
I messed up the Myrio and started to get algae because I wasn't front loading properly and I didn't realize it. I believe I went too lean and thought the Landen would cover the difference.

I won't lie, I felt completely defeated and I kind of slowed down on all my tanks and didn't put my full attention into them anymore. Also, my wife and I were getting a bit burned out with so many tanks to maintain. This is where my journal begins.

I wanted a solution to reduce our work load, and I definitely wanted a bigger tank to house my livestock from the other tanks. I was also sick of lugging canister filters around the house then plugging them to realize I forgot to connect a tube. Fountains of water on our walls wasn't working out so well! I also wanted absolutely no water outside of the tank. By chance, I found the Innovative Marine SR Pro2 120 and bought it.

Now here's the cool thing that happened. I was using a 20 inch RO housing for my reactor, but the tank is only 16 inches high. Four inches of Cerge's reactor was incredibly ugly. And again, by chance, I found the solution. Enter the Yugang Horizontal reactor. I affectionally call it by his forum name because I couldn't be happier with how amazing this thing is. It's so simple, yet so brilliant. I reached out to Yugang and asked if he got the reactor to work. He replied with "my CO2 spray bar works so well I never tried it". I then asked if anyone else got it to work and he said no one has tried it. So I told him I would and apparently, I really am the first person to run this thing through some trials. I think that's pretty cool honestly! Yugang made some calculations for me and on the second build, we nailed it. I get a 1.5pH drop and the design makes it so no additianal CO2 can be added. It's seemingly impossible to gas my fish as the reactor has safety built into the design length. Amazing! I'm so glad there are so many people smarter than I am. It makes my problems so much easier to manage .

The reactor is nothing more than cheap PVC with a gentle stream of tank water flowing under a pocket of CO2. Add a cheap bypass and a method of injection and you now have a Yugang reactor. This success has energized me enough to have another go at the AGA. I bought new lights (Weak Aqua P600's), jammed as many plants I could into the tank and I'm starting my plant selection now. I have a long ways to go but I'm hoping to achieve my goal. The tank is nothing to look at right now; getting plants here in Albuquerque is quite the challenge so I'm mostly waiting on submerge growth and to get them propagated. I also have way too many species but the selection process has begun. I just need to see which ones will grow in Ace Hardware pool filter sand. So far, all seem like they are coming along fine in the sand.

Oh, here's the reactor.

And here's the really ugly tank in it's current condition.


I promise, it will look much better soon. It's been a scramble to pull everything together so quickly.

I hope some of you follow along; I know I will have tons of questions soon enough for all of you!

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

Has anyone had much experience with this plant?
A local shop has just received stock of this version of bacopa, and I’m struggling to find many reports of people’s experiences growing it.
I’m a bit gun shy when it comes to white variants of plants that seem new to the hobby, and it’s not cheap so hoping to hear from someone whose grown it before I take the plunge!
Does it hold it’s white form? How much more sensitive than regular bacopa is it?

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?

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

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!

Hello, starting up a journal for the second tank. It's totally for my fiance because she wants a betta fish, it's definitely not just a thinly veiled excuse to get a 2nd tank going. No way.

Originally this was planned on being a low tech tank. However I ended up receiving some money from family, so I decided to upgrade it to more of a mid tech.

Equipment:

• UNS 45U rimless tank
• Oase 100 Filtosmart Thermo, with an extra valve stop
• Chihiros WRGB Slim, set to roughly 33% overall power
• A poppy lily pipe and an inlet skimmer
• CO2Art Regulator & Solenoid

Plants:

• Anubia broadleaf
• Anubia (no clue what other kinds, small ones)
• Various Crypts of various types and sizes (I'll dig later in my email receipts to find the types)
• Creeping Jenny
• Limnophilia Heterophylia
• Hygrophila Angustifolia
• Red Root Floaters

Fertilizing:

• 1 pump of APT 3 daily
• Root tabs from Aquarium Co-Op

I wanted to make this a sort of island-ish setup, where the main focus would be the elephant stones and the large anubias. I knew that my other tank would be right next to this one, so I focused the stems on that side since they would be getting the higher light. I did have some challenges getting the stones and aquasoil into a proper shape, and fitting the huge anubias was an obstacle.

Overall I think it's in a good state, starting to get a few diatoms but not much, and I just added the CO2 today, so the tank is officially fully setup. Now, just waiting to cycle and mature a bit before I add in some shrimps, and then a month later, the betta.



Also, if anyone has advice on the placement of the Poppy Pipe + CO2 diffuser, that is appreciated. Part of the problem is that the Poppy doesn't send water in a straight current, it's just a flurry around it, so I cant just place it on the opposite side of the diffuser like I normally would. Where I have it now, it forms a current that manages to draw some of the CO2 bubbles in, but not all.

Final ask, if anyone has better fertilizer recommendations that is appreciated, specifically how much APT3 would be appropriate for this. So far I've been doing 1 pump/day.