plants on drift wood

[Mattzilla]

is there anything i should be doing to maintain my plants growing on drift wood? do i need to fertilize them, trim them....please share any knowledge or experiences. thanks. a fe pics of my plants below

matt

[Mattzilla]

another pic

[Wahter]

Nice anubias.

I add fertilizer to the water and find that Java fern really perks up. I use both Tropica's Mastergrow and Seachem's flourish Iron.

Hope this helps.

Walter

[Mattzilla]

thanks a lot

any other advice tips are welcome

[Ralph]

Did you plant the driftwood yourself, they look great? It's a nice looking combination that will eventually cover the wood completely if you want it to.

Walter's advise is good, I tend to underfertilize though. With a small amount of plants like that (and they are small feeders), you may not need to add fertilizer very often. If you want, just go without adding anything for awhile, the plants will indicate if they need anything extra (by slow growth and sometimes pale leaves). The Anubias are low light plants (they get burn marks on the leaves with too much light) and the Jave fern usually does better with more light, you may end up rearranging them.

What are the pots for? I like those Rummies!

[Mattzilla]

thanks for the advice

i bought it like that from my lfs. the pots were going to have plants put in them but i got more drift wood with plants on it instead. my brother inlaw has some plants in pots and they look great and can be swapped and changed whenever you want, as well as being less messy. i like the driftwood better myself.

[tjudy]

:) That piece looks great! You said you got it from the LFS? How long had the plants been on the wood before they sold it?

As far as trimming goes, you only need to remove a leaf if it looks bad. Anubias leaves last a very long time. When they die, they will usually turn yellow. If the anubias were emergently grow, and are now submerged, they will not last as long, but the rhizomes will be fine and new leaves will grow... they may not get as large as the emergent grown leaves though.

Here is a piece I grew from rhizomes...

[ChloroPhil]

With those plants and discus I'd stick with adding Seachem Flourish or Tropica Master Grow (if you can get it) and Seachem Potassium. Your discus should be adding enough nitrate and phosphate for your anubias under normal lighting and no CO2.

I'd dose a quarter of the Flourish or half the TMG and Potassium. Those are some amazing Anubias Dooper! They're going to make that otherwise drab BB aquarium beautiful when they grow in.

[Mattzilla]

nice tank and driftwwod plants tjudy!

Biotypical...
drab bb tank???!!! it's much easier to keep clean and i think it looks better anyway!

thanks for the comments guys

[Ralph]

I think we are just scratching the surface as far as these hybrid tanks go. A full planted tank is not for everyone due to maintenance hours and possible risk to the fish. And the BB tanks, for some of us, lack the visual interest that we like in a tank.

A combination of the two, like Matt has here, is really the answer. It provides the ease of a BB with the aesthetic appeal of a planted tank. And you get the benefits of the plants to the water and fish (providing O2, removing CO2, removing nitrogen compounds, providing hiding areas, etc.).

My next project will have driftwood hanging down from the top of the tank that won't even touch the bottom. It will be planted with Anubias and riccia maybe. I'm having trouble finding the right piece though. But the idea is to have the option of working around it or just pulling it out completely for cleaning.

[Geodiscus]

My Three large Java fern plants produced about 100 plantlets,I purchased a nice piece of malaysian driftwood and placed them randomly all over the wood.In some time they should cover it nicely!