# 112lts - 1-2-GROW Aquarium



## chester (Feb 22, 2005)

Hi,
I would like to show you one of the tanks set up in our Gallery in Cracow. It was a test aquarium for new Tropica In-Vitro plants. We have sold the whole tank today, so it is a good moment to present the last photos.

*Aquarium:* 80x30x35cm Opti White tank (it is a standard dimension here in Poland)
*Filtration:* Eheim 2028
*Lighting:* 4x24W T5 - Sylvania Grolux, Aquastar, 865, 830
*CO2:* pressurized 1,5 kg, glass diffuzer
*Substrate:* ADA Amazonia II, Oliver Knott Nature Soil FINE
*Fertilizing:* ADA Green Brighty STEP 2, Seachem Potassium, Easy Life Easy Carbo
*Plants:*









*1st day after planting (I used total of 36 portions):*









*After one week:*








*
About one month after planting:*




































*And the final pics from today (about 2 months from set-up):*




























I am totally amazed by in vitro plants - they set-up really fast, are easy to maintain and grow in a beatiful, bushy form. This kind of aquarium is very easy to create even by a begginer aquarist.


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## Esteroali (Oct 1, 2007)

OMG!!!! How much Co2/ferts water changes ????


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

I assume that the Tropica in vitro plants are plants grown in sterile medium. Do you think they grow better than if they were grown under non-sterile conditions?


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

HeyPK said:


> I assume that the Tropica in vitro plants are plants grown in sterile medium. Do you think they grow better than if they were grown under non-sterile conditions?


Yes, they are tissue cultured plants. They should be free of diseases and all pests. Hopefully this will bring Tropica plants to the USA finally.


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## FBG (Jan 2, 2006)

from a few websites it sounds too good to be true."No disease! 100% crop growth with no losses! from planting to harvesting takes 25% less time, and produce longer!" It reminds me of Monsanto and their GM seeds that ruin our biodiversity. Please tell me that we don't need to start opening up "Organic plant makret: No GMO plants allowed" ? Plants are not meant, in my opinion at least, to be grown in petri (however it is spelled) dishes in a lab... Biodiversity is a good thing, and it is not something that can be obtained from a clone... I am not looking forward to Tropica sending these plants over here and selling them...keep these plants for your selves and send us the real ones please!


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

If plants grown the ordinary way have diseases, I would like to know about them. Is anything actually known about these supposed diseases? What are the symptoms? Do these diseases make the plants hard to grow? Are the plants rated difficult in the plantfinder diseased? It would be nice to see some comparison growing of tissue cultured and 'regular' plants of the same species.


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## SueNH (Jan 17, 2005)

The USDA makes the import rules. It's to prevent the import of bugs and disease not found here. Not that it really works. Examples would be our gifting the world with the colorado potato beetle or us getting the Japanese beetle
It is also meant to keep invasive plants out like sunset hygro and iris psuedocorus.

Tissue culture...lot of information on the net. It's done a lot with hostas and daylilies. Doesn't stop anything if the plant is then put in contaminated soil, tank or whatever. You constantly see HVX from hosta imported and sold in big box stores.

I suppose water born disease that humans get could be more of a worry. I can think of a lot of nasty ones right off the top of my head.


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

The United States is the only country that does not allow Tropica imports in rockwool pots. The USDA categorizes rockwool as a substrate and it does not allow importation of plants in any substrate even though rockwool would not have the threat of foreign organisms that foreign soils would pose. If the U.S. would allow Tropica's tissue cultured plants it would be a boon for aquarists because Tropica has a nice variety and because the plants would be free of hair algae, fuzz algae, etc.

I am not convinced that the tissue cultured plants have a big advantage over ordinary plants because they are disease free. That begs the question, "Are ordinary aquarium plants diseased?" I know that there are some virus infected aquarium plants that we want because they are diseased, such as sunset _Hygrophila polysperma_, a green-white variety of _Hygrophila difformis_, and a green-white variety of _Echinodorus cordifolius_ (Tropica marble queen). There is a stunted variety of _Echinodorus parviflorus_ sold by Tropica that is so popular that it is just about impossible to get the wild type _E. parviflorus_, which I think is a much nicer plant. I don't know if _E. parviflorus_ 'Tropica' is virus infected or just a mutant. It is definitely more difficult to grow.

So, until I see evidence that our normal, wild-types of aquarium plants are diseased, I will have my doubts that the tissue culture grown plants will be any easier to grow.


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## cah925 (Jun 23, 2007)

The way we buy/sell/trade our plants right now is all a form of cloning. Cutting the tip off a stem plant and putting it in the soil to grow is a form of clonal propagation. Tissue culture is just another version of cloning only it is done in a sterile environment. In fact, most rosette plants (crypts, swords, etc) sold in local stores come from nurseries that buy their plants from tissue culture labs and grow them out for sale. I know for a fact that Florida Aquatic Nurseries contracts with a lab for some of their crypts and swords. You would also be surprised at the number of fruit/vegetable crops that are grown each year that are started in a tissue culture lab.
The only problem with tissue culture plants is the potential for a single disease or virus to wipe out an entire crop if they are cloned from a single individual plant. These problems with genetic diversity in plants really only relates to repopulating a natural area or farm crops where the plants are exposed to the environment. The government (at least here in Florida) regulates the number of plants that can be used in repopulation efforts to about 25-30% from tissue culture. The rest have to be from seed or another source. Our aquarium plants are all in enclosed environments, not open to the world as a whole so there is much less opportunity for any kind of devastating pathogen attack. 

Trying to get back on topic, I think the tank looks great-very healthy and colorful. Congrats on the sale.


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## Ben Belton (Mar 14, 2004)

Back to Aquascaping..... Its a really cool tank.

I think this is great. Does Tropica sell this as an aquascape? I mean.... Do you buy a package of plants, plant the pots per a diagram, and then you have instant aquascape? Or, did you just do this on your own. 

I think its a hoot when so many of us meticulously plant plants one by one and don't come up with something as nice as this where 36 pots are shoved into Aquasoil and a nice aquascape pops up 2 months later. Was there any trimming done or did you plant and just watch it grow?

Thanks for posting. Please show us more.


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## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

I don't quite get the attraction of Tropica's plants. We all know that if you don't know how to take care of an aquatic plant you will kill it pretty quickly. And if you do all you need is a tiny part, even a sickly looking one.

Still - today, 2010, we are still seeing LFS plants that look as horrible as they did 10 years ago. It will be refreshing to see something new and civilized.

Thinking about the practical side of this business - I don't know how Tropica with their sterile shiny looking plants can compete with the inconsistent quality of plants that FAN sells all over in the US. I've seen amazing shipmpents from FAN as well as horrible looking ones. Unless Tropica matches the price I don't see many LFS owners prefering the nice looking plants and paying more for them. Most LFS owners see plants as a cheap item that only supplements the interest for everything else in the store. And most stores can't keep plants alive to save their life. 

Unless Tropica comes up with some kind of long term (and CHEAP) way of displaying and offering their plants I don't see how they can compete with the wilted melting lettuce that we usually see sold in LFSs. Maybe the smartest way would be to offer aquatic plants in an emersed display. But knowing how stingy my local pet store owners are noone will spend too much money for such a display. 

--Nikolay


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## doubleott05 (Jul 20, 2005)

i agree with niko on the subject of competition with FAN

only the big stores such as ADG or Fish Gallery or Aqua Forest Aquarium or any other fish store of thoes calibers will be able to support the new Tropica line because they are dedicated to the planted tank Hobby. most other fish stores see it as a LOSS due to lack of interst or popularity. they are geared more toward fish only setups. 

so the question is will it take. i say yes but only to the bigger stores or dealers. FAN however will remain king in america. 

great tank man that looks really cool. and i really like how the parvula stayed super short like about a cm or half an inch or so . you did really good. 

thanks 
Elliot


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## g8wayg8r (Feb 11, 2008)

Agreed. I think the next planted tank will be three or four stems planted in a square grid.

The real key to me since I try to maintain a planted tank is to see how it fairs over time after the pruning, water changes and fish additions. Doesn't look like much without fish.


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

niko said:


> I don't quite get the attraction of Tropica's plants. We all know that if you don't know how to take care of an aquatic plant you will kill it pretty quickly. And if you do all you need is a tiny part, even a sickly looking one.
> 
> Still - today, 2010, we are still seeing LFS plants that look as horrible as they did 10 years ago. It will be refreshing to see something new and civilized.
> 
> ...


That's just it though. Tissue cultured plants can simply stay in culture and be sold in that manner. This would allow the LFS to simply put them on a shelf with adequate lighting and their chances of keeping healthy plant stock consistently would go way up.


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## bratyboy2 (Feb 5, 2008)

AaronT said:


> That's just it though. Tissue cultured plants can simply stay in culture and be sold in that manner. This would allow the LFS to simply put them on a shelf with adequate lighting and their chances of keeping healthy plant stock consistently would go way up.


Agreed but I see the other points too. Unless you live out west where its big it won't sell but if I could have a store here I would totally buy.i live this tank a ton and wan't to replicate it bad!


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

If tissue culture plants were kept in their sterile containers, and if they had a long shelf life, they would be a boon for the planted tank hobby. 

If they are taken out of their containers and put in the typical aquarium store tank for selling plants, which usually is infested with fuzz algae, black beard algae, Cladophora, Rhizoclonium and staghorn algae, all of which will climb on the new plants, then you might as well have just pulled them from a pond. In fact, you probably would introduce fewer unpleasant algae types from a plant pulled from a pond or river.


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