# Neil's Emersed setups



## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

Been a while since I've posted pictures of actual plants and my tanks ehehe but that's because they're not in presentable condition, certainly not picture worthy. I have to say the best thing about going emersed and my tank setup is that it literally is maintenance free. I've been super duper busy with school lately and since the beginning of last summer I have not paid much attention to my tanks. 
Here are some tank specs:
46 gallon odyssea bowfront (overgrown and needs to be redone so I won't show pictures )
2x36 watt PC bulbs that I DIY'ed with a terminal block, gorilla glue, and a fulham workhorse ballast that Roy (Seattle Aquarist) graciously walked me through how to wire 
substrate is 90% Miracle Gro topsoil and 10% brown turface. 
The tank is completely overgrown with plants and I really need to find the time to hack them down and redo the whole tank.

My new emersed tank that I set up couple of months ago is a 6 gallon bowfront that I've used for my zappins style emersed tank before but now I'm using sphagnum moss capped with brown turface which I supplement with seachem comprehensive and oscomote when I have time. 
I modified a clamp on worklight from walmart so it's a clip on hanging light fixture :3 it runs a 23 watt cfl bulb and it's strong enough to grow HC like a weed (i stuck a few dying stems from my 46 gallon and they took off)

anyways time to cut the chit chat
*Disclaimer* I use a decent point and shoot camera and don't have any kind of fancy camera or w/e so bear with me here LOL
These are mostly picts of my 6 gallon setup since I'm growing my more demanding plants in there.
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*Here's where the purple in Staurogyne 'Purple' came from *
I've always wondered why the plant was called purple because the submersed and emersed pictures I saw never showed a hint of purple! I've been growing this plant for well over a year and now it shows its true colors!




Funny thing is that all of the plants turned this deep purple at the same time. the picts don't do the colors justice but believe me, it's purple LOL

Here's a front tank shot of my 6 gallon setup


The lamp was the one I modified from the clamp worklights from walmart, I just used wire and made that arm thingy to hang the lamp over the center.

Marimo balls! I keep these cute things on top and they pearl away happily ^-^ im actually giving them to my girlfriend haha since she thinks they're soft plushy and cute


Here's a container of trimmings I didn't have a place for in the tanks so they just go in here. They either make it or they die here LOL. Since it's not covered or anything, those plants are grown in super low California humidity. Some of those plants are: Persicaria Sao Paulo, Persicaria Hydropiperoides, Bacopa Lanigera, Hygrophila Brown, Hygrophila Lancea


1 gallon tank I setup for hygrophila brown and couple stems of ludwigia red because they were growing like weeds. H. brown is super hardy, grows an immense root system in a short time and tolerates low humidity




now for some more interesting plants!

Some of my anubias nana 'variegated' this variant isnt like stardust where the variegation is always in the middle of the leaf but rather this one is random splashes
I used to sell this plant but this is my last plant that i kept for my collection and it split into 3 rhizomes 1 of which has very little variegation while the other 2 are strongly variegated. 




Here's my buce collection.... with 2 buces LOL Amanda infected me with the buce bug. I've ordered lamandu purple wavy, some dark/pearl grey, melawi, and sendaku. so hopefully i'll have those to share soon
Pictured here is a B. sp 'Kanowit' (from amanda), B. belindae, 2 anubias 'stardust', ludwigia pillosa (i know it has a new name but dear lord it's too long to remember! LOL), anubias 'micro', and Lillaeopsis 'Mini'




And finally... in the back here we have Alternanthera reineckii var. 'ocipus' and Rotala singapore (also from amanda LOL, you'll notice I have a lot of plants from amanda )
The alternanthera was just planted but it's already converting to emersed, so that's why the leaves look like a mess . I used to have neseae pendicallata golden but it died so I'm very sad  will be getting another stem from her soon though 

The Alternanthera is a robust grower, converts easily, and the colors are very beautiful. As coined in this thread (http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=171595) it's a salmon red versus the maroon red of the regular althernanthera. 
The rotala singapore is also becoming very red so it's one of my new favorites!




I will have many new additions soon so I'll post pictures of them sometime soon! 
some of what i expect:
l. atlantis
l. senegalensis
hemianthus sao paolo
b. melawi
b. sekadau
neseae pendicallata golden


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

I've never really had a problem with growing l. pillosa and it's always been a robust grower for me, but as soon as it gets shadowed it's game over and it dies. 
As for the staurogyne purple, a possible theory as to why it's purple may be because it just recently went to seed? Any thoughts? I'm content with purple plants LOL


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## asukawashere (Mar 11, 2009)

neilshieh said:


> (also from amanda LOL, you'll notice I have a lot of plants from amanda )


Don't worry, a good number of people feel this way...

I may have to hit you up for one of those variegated Anubias one of these days. Variegated anything = awesome. I've got this little allegedly-variegated Anubias that I resurrected from a tiny little cutting with one root and a leaf and a half, but it never actually shows any variegation. I know it's random, so some plants might not really show it, but you'd think after a year it would at least cough up a single white fleck along the way...

That buce bug is a menace, isn't it? A hazard to innocent bank accounts everywhere...


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

Got some new plants!
p. helferi
n. crassicaulis
the n. crassicaulis is HUGE I expect to have some fun with that one haha
Added a cryptocoryne rosanervig from my 46 which i'm in the process of tearing down and I hope it'll do alright, hasn't put out new leaves since I got it many moons ago :/
H. araguaia in my 46 is flowering and producing seeds like a mad plant
Found some weird bits and pieces of plant in my 46 so I stuck them in my tank to see what they grow into LOL. Emersed tanks are always fun because small random plantlets pop up for you to play with.


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

as for variegation it is indeed very random. I had a mother plant of anubias variegated that I split up. 2 of the rhizomes have nice variegation as pictured and the other has almost no variegation!
My anubias stardust is doing well though, and I can see definite variegation on the leaves. Can't wait until they get much larger!


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

update! 
removed some HC and got some new plants. murdania sp. red, ludwigia atlantis, downoi (pogostemon helferi), c. kota tinggi, bucephalandra sekadau
my c. rosanervig is starting to put out new emersed leaves! I'm very excited to see this plant. The C. longicauda has also started to grow. There's some weird green filament looking algae though... my guess is cyanobacteria aka blue green algae

in the lower right you can see the c. rosanervig

LUDWIGIA SPHAEROCARPA is one of my favorite plants. im guessing the humidity is so high in my tank that the leaves look like their submersed forms haha. a beautiful nice bushy green with tints of red (http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/plantfinder/details.php?id=338


My pogostemon helferi (downoi) is actually putting out the low humidity form of their leaves. i'm confused lol. not sure how humid my tank is :S still very pretty though


you can see the c. longicauda growing back in this one. and also... turns out i have a ton of gratiola brevifola ._. go figure.... i couldn't figure out what these horsetail looking things were until recently when they opened up.  i'm growing g. brevifolia and g. aurea side by side.... hopefully this is not a dumb move lol...


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## asukawashere (Mar 11, 2009)

I think the Gratiola in that photo is G. aurea, not G. brevifolia... it doesn't look toothed at all.

What's the funky little red thing in the upper-middle of the 2nd photo? A tiny cutting of Aciotis or something?


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

I think you're right... I still have stems of brevifolia in the other tank and since I found them in the same area I assumed it was brevifolia. LOL I guess I have a bunch of aurea then 
Yup, it's aciotis, I used to have a healthy stem but then it started dying  that's the last bit of it. hope it doesn't die.... wasn't a cheap stem lol.


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## HybridHerp (May 25, 2012)

If you get that L. atlantis ever, lemme warn you it grows like a weed underwater, so I'd imagine it'd be worse outside of it 

Cool little setup you have going on.


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

l atlantis does grow like a weed. very beautiful yellow veins though
here are some iphone pictures


piptospatha parakensis









downoi is starting to put out more compact and fuller growth









l. sphaerocarpa very robust grower for me, beautiful foilage


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## Yo-han (Oct 15, 2010)

neilshieh said:


> My pogostemon helferi (downoi) is actually putting out the low humidity form of their leaves. i'm confused lol. not sure how humid my tank is :S still very pretty though





neilshieh said:


> downoi is starting to put out more compact and fuller growth


Are you sure this is a low humidity form. One of our shop nurseries sent us a message all plants will look like this because it is winter and this is a low temperature form. What is your temp?


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

im actually unsure about my humidity, every time i buy a hygrometer the damn thing always breaks for no reason and just displays 99% even when the lid is opened. 
anyways i say it's the low humidity form because the leaves became harder, thinner, and the plant just elongated (the amount of stem between leaves increased) 
but now it's starting to grow in a different way :/ if anyone has any idea as to what's going on that'd be nice.
The weather in california has been 50-65 F lately (10-18 C) not too cold to be winter.


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

the l. senegalensis i got from Adam C.has taken root and is going steady! Hooray!!! looks like this plant is more sensitive to changes and needs to be gently acclimated to lower humidity levels


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