I love Aquarium Gardens. Such a great aquascaping shop. They recently opened a new larger operation in Peterborough, so I thought I’d check it out. Owned by Dave Pierce (no relation) they stock plenty of aquascaping kit and plants. They also have a showroom where you can get some inspiration. They only moved in two […]
Read more →Category: Plants
Aquatic plants, either submersed or emersed: species notes, growth, trimming, planting, algae/plant interactions, and care.
It is a struggle to find plants that can thrive in the Shrimphaus. The combination of low-KH high-GH “low tech” not-CO2 injected water seems to make things difficult. I recently gave up on the reputedly “easy” Staurogyne Repens. Still, lots of plants left to try. This time we’re having a go with another “easy” plant: […]
Read more →I thought the Blue Velvet neocaridina shrimp had all died off, but then suddenly, babies! There are at least 5 new little guys in the Shrimphaus. I have no idea where they came from – there is no sign of their parents. I gave them some protein flakes and they seem to be enjoying those. […]
Read more →The Fireplace Aquarium was looking pretty overgrown and I hadn’t done a water change in a couple of weeks so time to get stuck in for some maintenance. For me, once I get going on this kind of thing it tends to get a little more vigorous than first anticipated, but it has a way […]
Read more →I recently put some Rotala rotundifolia ‘Blood Red’ into the Fireplace Aquarium and it came in more of a burnt ochre shade of dusky reddish orange than ‘blood red’ as such. I looked around for the (potentially mythic) ‘Singapore’ (SG) variant of the Rotala which is claimed to be more red under a broader set […]
Read more →Having some red in the Fireplace Aquarium gives some nice contrasting colours. I picked up some AquaFleur Rotala rotundifolio ‘Blood red’ to see how that would do. Red aquarium plants There are lots of good choices to provide some red colour in a planted aquarium. I had very good success previously with Ludwigia palustris mini […]
Read more →Staurogyne repens is an ‘easy to grow’ and popular aquatic plant. I have been resisting trying this plant for some reason… too easy, too popular? Anyway, it has a low growth habit but isn’t a carpeting plant, so seems like it might be right for the Shrimphaus. I usually prefer potted plants, but at the […]
Read more →Replanting actually… I was looking for something that could grow submersed in the back right corner of the Shrimphaus that might be able to break the water surface and grow emersed. Amazon sword plants (Echinodorus species) are sometimes able to do that and I looked for an intermediate sized one with interesting aspects and came […]
Read more →It’s been a challenge to find an epiphyte that looks good on the mountain. I tried Anubias nana ‘Snow White’ which failed to grow, and the similar Anubias nana ‘Pinto’ which grew fine but looked too big for the nanotank. Also in the mix was Bucephalandra caterina which grew well and kind of resembled a […]
Read more →I have been considering floating plants for a while, but they always looked kind of big and dangly and nasty to me which has put me off. Then the Aquatic Plant Society had a get together at Aquarium Gardens and I saw this pretty new (to me) much smaller floating plant from Tropica: Salvinia minima. […]
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