# New to emersed, checkout my setup/soil and comment please : )



## Green Thumb Aquatics (Jan 1, 2012)

So I will be posting more pics as this goes on, I have ~ 20 species I plan on starting with and ending up with 50+ after a few club meetings and one joint meeting with the GWAPA

here is the soil I plan on using, bought it from the local hydroponics store in PA










also I was thinking about laying the bottom 2" with this stuff and possible putting some sort of a screen so the soil doesnt fall down into it, and just keeping the bottom 2" submersed in water so it stays very moist but does allow more oxygen in the soil

its generally used for hydroponics and aquaponics










this will be in a 75 gallon I will be using with hopefully 4" pots, however all I have now is 5" square ones, I will probably setup a few smaller ones as well and play with water levels and soil levels to see what works, also I want to use different humidities and amounts of air/openings to tank....

will try to keep this journal up so other can learn from the mistakes I am sure I will make 

and also hopefully see what works for me too


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## Green Thumb Aquatics (Jan 1, 2012)

3 of these are the exact same plants, just different levels of the stuff underneath, want to see what the difference in growth is
plants are glosso, HM, and DHG belem, will see if it makes a difference, just filled with the foxfarm soil overtop, they were all both from emersed and submersed with about the same amount of each, I also stuck another plant in there I dont know what it is, and didiplis diandra and some microsword


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

Interesting. I think you're the first one to try bat guano as a nutrient source in their emersed setup.


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## FreedPenguin (Aug 2, 2011)

I also find this very interesting! 
I am planning on doing one myself!
Please keep updating!


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## Green Thumb Aquatics (Jan 1, 2012)

so so on the startup, a few of the plants were already converted over, and some were not, so when I saw a little white fuzz pop up after 2 days, I decided to give it some air, possibly a little too much, playing around with how much of a gap to leave so I can keep in humidity and keep out fungus/mold...


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## Window7 (Feb 23, 2012)

Here my setup, 55g I just put up couple days ago.


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## Green Thumb Aquatics (Jan 1, 2012)

looks good, what are you using for a cover? how much light? what kind of soil? how high a water level?

I am using strictly RODI in mine as I have no clue what is in my well water, only the general TDS... dont know if I already mentioned that


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## Window7 (Feb 23, 2012)

Cover are just clear plastics roll about 3mil
Light is just shoplight I got from walmart t8 with 2 65k bulb.
Soil is just top soil.
I'm using tap water without being treat.
I'm also using shake and feed from mirco grow.
Water lvl is 1-2 inch below soil lvl.

I get a reading of 66-70F with 99% H.


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## Green Thumb Aquatics (Jan 1, 2012)

I got some elatine triandra

planted a new foreground in one of my tanks and had alot left over so I setup a 5 gallon emersed, one of the planters is mineralized worm castings on top of hydroton with a little UP aquasoil in between to close up some of the large gaps in the hydroton

I did this in the ones with lower hydroton levels to keep the soil a touch higher..


























here is some emersed growth on my 20 gallon


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## 954baby (Feb 8, 2008)

Looks cool, I tried a fox farm soil once. It defiantly grew my crypts without any problems. I currently use their grow big hydroponic fertilizer on my plants. Best of luck, should be interesting to see how this mix works.


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## WeedCali (Mar 6, 2010)

Grow Big is a great hydro nute for sure, along with GH nutes. My crypts and anubias love it!

And Green Thumb, I love that last pic. Growth looks really good!


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## Green Thumb Aquatics (Jan 1, 2012)

Thanks WeedCali, got my start on gardening doin hydro out in Cali, ran ~ 1700 watt setup with a buddy, now I'm back in PA and a daddy so I only grow stuff in in the fish tanks, I forget what we used for ferts out there, picked up what was recommended by the owner of a place called Funny Farm Hydroponics I believe... since its PA there are not many hydroponics businesses around, however a guy put a store up in the town I live in, since I like to buy small business/local I have been tryin to give him some biz and figured I would get all my emersed stuff from there.. hence the foxfarms : )

Lived in the bay area, Santa Rosa and then Petaluma, spent a short short time in LA, a little up Venice Blvd ~10 blocks from the beach....

miss it...


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## Green Thumb Aquatics (Jan 1, 2012)

here is a better pic of that emersed growth










I dont have the most current pic of that tank, but here it is about a 2-3 weeks ago when I was first putting the moss/riccia around wood to get emersed growth a place to start, I was still finishing up battling a diatom/red algae outbreak at this time.










and here is my son helpin me out


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## mythin (Sep 2, 2007)

I was wondering how your e. triandra was growing as emersed, plan on doing a dsm with some triandra, and i wanna make sure it survives when i go from immersed to emergent


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## Green Thumb Aquatics (Jan 1, 2012)

it grew well at first however it pretty much stopped growing after initial month of growth, it was only about the same size as when it started, because of the die off of the old growth

I am tryin it in my new setup tho, this is same basic setup for the pots of soil, however some used miracle grow organice potting soil instead of the fox farm

question for you guys do you use hydropic ferts along with the soil? I was thinkin the soil would be enough

I also have fish in my new emersed setup and am hoping to use them like a little aquaponics self contained thing, if it works I am going to use it to grow out batches of cichlid fry, if I lose a couple no big deal as I dont pull them out as it is now so only a few survive from each batch anyway

here is the new setup part way through










it has 17 tetras in the bottom from this tank










lights will be moved up soon to allow for more emersed growth in it, right now I have about 8-10 nice stems of myrio, alot of B pennywort hanging over the back, and thats mostly wide leaf water sprite in the middle, I took the tetras out the other day for a little rescape and to do a little algae killing

I needed more room for plants so I took out the smaller piece of driftwood that used to be on that side

here are a couple pics of the emersed growth and some from the new 55 gallon setup with the fish in the bottom




















































it has a small submersed filter, soon to be 2 one on each side, also it has an airstone running at all times, and a small heater as it sits on the floor and I dont want it gettin cold.... the tops are designed to keep not much escaping in the front and the back part lifts up easily to put in food or spray plants, eventually it will not have the saran wrap on it, but for now I want it super high humidity while the plants transition


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## Seattle_Aquarist (Mar 7, 2008)

Hi Green Thumb,

I'm not sure that 'bigger is better' when doing an emersed set-up. For most of my species I have gone with individual humidity domes. I have two 16" X 11.5" X 7" containers that I also use. I like coir pots, typically 2" or 3". I started with ADA Amazonia, then tried Turface Pro League grey, now I am doing Miracle Grow Potting Mix (not organic) covered with 1/4" montmorillonite clay to keep down the mold and fungus growth. In the two containers I use the Hagen Mini Elite A-130 filter to keep the water circulating. For ferts, I use a very dilute solution of Miracle Grow General Purpose water soluble which I put in a watering can and water into the individual pots. I do not water the entire container.


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## asukawashere (Mar 11, 2009)

Seattle_Aquarist said:


> Hi Green Thumb,
> 
> I'm not sure that 'bigger is better' when doing an emersed set-up. For most of my species I have gone with individual humidity domes. I have two 16" X 11.5" X 7" containers that I also use. I like coir pots, typically 2" or 3". I started with ADA Amazonia, then tried Turface Pro League grey, now I am doing Miracle Grow Potting Mix (not organic) covered with 1/4" montmorillonite clay to keep down the mold and fungus growth. In the two containers I use the Hagen Mini Elite A-130 filter to keep the water circulating. For ferts, I use a very dilute solution of Miracle Grow General Purpose water soluble which I put in a watering can and water into the individual pots. I do not water the entire container.


I wouldn't necessarily agree with that. For species that stay fairly short & compact, or plants that are just converting, individual domes are great. Not so much for stem species once they get established, though - most mid-to-large stems will quickly outgrow a dome once they're established (several of mine would gladly fill bins of their own given half a chance). Even among slower-growing rosette plants, there are plenty of species that easily outgrow a small tank, given time. Having enough room to anticipate future growth is a good thing, IMO.

I gotta say, though, that the little soda bottle domes are pretty cute.


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## Green Thumb Aquatics (Jan 1, 2012)

my reg and dwarf hydrocotyle are flowering



































































these tetras will soon be replaced with red tailed hap fry to grow out in bottom of tank, providing nutrients for the plants


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