Category: Fireplace aquarium

Water change effects on alkalinity

Posted on by Andy Pierce

Regular and substantial water changes for an aquarium are a good idea.  With EI fertiliser dosing the built-in assumption is that at least 50% of the water will be changed out every week to prevent a build-up of excess fertilisers.  Both the Fireplace Aquarium and the Shrimphaus follow this maintenance schedule, although lately I have been doing around 75% water changes to better remove organic particulate debris from the Fireplace Aquarium and to remove salts from the Shrimphaus.

Pre/post water change parameters

Fireplace AquariumShrimphaus
pHalkalinity (ppm CaCO3)pHalkalinity (ppm CaCO3)
before water change7.852649.01342
immediately after water change7.962768.67306
next day7.752799.03309

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Planting Microsorum pteropus ‘Windelov’

Posted on by Andy Pierce

Microsorum pteropus ‘Windelov’ also known as Leptochilus pteropus is one of the many varieties of Java fern.  I picked up a pot from Pro Shrimp in an order that also included Alternanthera reineckii ‘Mini’.  Developed by Tropica, the ‘Windelov’ version I received was grown by Aquadip.

The ‘Windelov’ arrived totally overgrown and just a touch ratty on the ends in places as if it had been waiting for a sale for a long time.  I don’t mind actually, and the pot separated out into a nice variety of sizes and forms of plantets.  Java fern is a rhizomatous plant where a thick lateral ‘stem’ sprouts leaves growing upwards and roots growing downwards.  Although there are many terrestrial plants that grow with rhizomes underground, the conventional wisdom in the aquarium trade is that rhizomes must never be buried in substrate or they will rot and kill the plant.  Accordingly, best practice is to attach the rhizome to a component of hardscape, usually rock or driftwood, either by tying it on with thread/line, or more simply by ‘supergluing’ it on using a cyanoacrylate-based adhesive.  It is also possible to wedge the rhizome into a convenient crack in the hardscape where eventually the roots will naturally bind the plant on.

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Planting Alternanthera reineckii ‘Mini’

Posted on by Andy Pierce

After an unsuccessful go with Alternanthera reineckii (didn’t thrive) and another with Alternanthera reineckii ‘Rosanervig’ (eaten by Amano shrimp), I’m giving it try with Alternanthera reineckii ‘Mini’.  This AR ‘Mini’ came from Pro Shrimp, and was grown by Tropica.  I have had mixed results purchasing aquatic plant tissue culture cups before, but this AR ‘Mini’ cup is one of the best I’ve ever seen.  The plants arrived in superb condition, with a huge number of goodly sized, mostly correctly structured plantlets.  Sometimes tissue culture plants can have a confused growth structure where it seems the plant doesn’t really have a good sense of top (leaves) from bottom (roots) and in some quarters tissue culture plants have a reputation for being more fragile than their potted counterparts, but I’m really optimistic about this latest batch.

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Massive epiphyte trim

Posted on by Andy Pierce

It’s been around 18 months since the Bucephalandra caterina and Anubias nana ‘Pinto’ were planted in the Fireplace Aquarium so time for a massive trim!

Ephiphytes on the mountain before and after trimming

The bucephalandra and anubias have both done really well, overachieved in a some ways in fact.  The caterina at the top of the mountain in particular is close to the light and grew across to make an impressive sombrero hat that did a nice job of shading most of the aquarium below.  This shading has been a challenge in particular for the new cryptocorynes on the right, nevelli at the back and wendtii ‘Flamingo’ in the front, but also I suspect for the Alternanthera reineckii ‘Rosanervig’ over on the left side. 

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Planting Alternanthera reineckii ‘Rosanervig’

Posted on by Andy Pierce

I’ve been looking for a red plant to replace the Ludwigia palustris mini ‘Super Red’ which is an awesome stem plant, but which comfortably exceeds 50 cm in length and so is really too large for the Fireplace Aquarium – keeping it trimmed was just too much hassle.  Previously, I had a go with Alternanthera reineckii ‘Rot’ which started out promisingly, but then never really made a recovery after the usual ‘cut off and replant the tops‘ process.  Further reading suggests that may have been where I went wrong – leaving the rooted bottom section to resprout new growth after trimming may have been a better approach with alternanthera, in contrast to approaches with many other aquarium plants.  I’ll keep that in mind for the ‘Rosanervig’.  Rosanervig is supposed to be an intermediate sized alternanthera growing to 20 cm or a little larger.

Adapting Alternanthera reineckii ‘Rosanervig’ to submersed growth

I received in from Pro Shrimp a quite large portion of Tropica-grown Alternanthera reineckii ‘Rosanervig’ potted in rockwool.  Removing the rockwool carefully with pinsettes gave six healthy-looking emersed-form plants.  I planted the Rosanervig in the middle left of the Fireplace Aquarium, in front of a developing back curtain of Vallisneria asiatica, and behind a foreground patch of Cryptocoryne parva.  The emersed form leaves really aren’t very happy when fully submersed and several were shed straight away, or started developing some rattiness.  Some of the amano shrimp may even have had a bit of a go at nibbling the straggly looking leaves.  

Submersed form leaves start to look good after two weeks

After a couple of weeks, it’s clear that new submersed form leaves are developing nicely on the Rosanervig.  Emersed form leaves are a blotchy light green with hints of red undertones on the top surface with pale pink/green undersides.  In contrast, the submersed form leaves are deep red with bright pink veining structures on top and bright red/pink underneath.  Previously the slow growing alternanthera had issues with algae collecting on the upper surfaces.  Algae hasn’t been a problem since the revised estimative index dosing scheme was implemented in the Fireplace Aquarium so I’m optimistic for the Rosanervig’s prospects.