New house/ new tank

[Mitch]

Hi every one, just moved house but before the move i was given orders by the wife that i could only take one take. She didn't specify anything else so i bought a brand new 5ft tank. It made moving my discus so much easier having a new tank to slowly move them into. Well they are all in now and the plants have adjusted. This is my first tank with eco-complete and the signs are looking good. Here are some pisc of the tank a week 4. :D
http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w258/baggedphotos/381.jpg
http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w258/baggedphotos/388.jpg
http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w258/baggedphotos/389.jpg
http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w258/baggedphotos/390-1.jpg

[ILLUSN]

Nice work mate!, youve got some nice fish in there, any chance of a plant species list? keep an eye on the sword in the left corner, looks a bit like cordifolius with emersed leaf growth, also is that E.bleheri planted on driftwood & in the center? also looks like emersed growth.

[Top_Bhoy]

looks a bit like cordifolius with emersed leaf growth

I've never heard this expression before, what does it mean? Is it problematic?

Cheers

[ILLUSN]

when plants are grown comercialy they are grown Emersed (above water) with only their roots in rockwool and a hydroponic nutrient mix. growing them this way means, no algae, no snails, stronger tougher leaves which transport better, plenty of co2 (there's more in air then in water).

problem is emersed leaves dont do well Submerse (below water). unless you have VERY HIGH (3-4w/us gal or higher) light and co2. The emerse leaves will decay under water and submerse leaves will grow, basicly when this happens your plant growth rate slows, and you end up with a plant half the size of what you bought. they do always recover, they just take a good 4-6months to look as big as when you bought them.

[Mitch]

Nice work mate!, youve got some nice fish in there, any chance of a plant species list? keep an eye on the sword in the left corner, looks a bit like cordifolius with emersed leaf growth, also is that E.bleheri planted on driftwood & in the center? also looks like emersed growth.

Thanks mate. Im not sure about the "Cordifolious with emersed leaf growth", not sure how it was grown. All the plants currents in the tank are plants or trimmings from other tanks of mine, all of which have been in other tanks of mine anywhere from 4yrs to a year minimum, so i hope that if they were going to decay they would have already done so. The substrate is a little bit high up around some of the plants, but my peecock eel is having a ball as it is his first time in the nice soft Eco-Complete. As for the E.bleheri on the driftwood, long story but they are offshoots that shot up through the pieces of driftwood that are now inseperable, but they seem to like where they are.

[ILLUSN]

Well done Mitch, the only sword I've ever grown sucesfully on drift wood was a bleheri, thats why i asked, not the sort of thing you see too often, you should be very proud of it.