Emersed growing tank.

[Khirmun]

Hey everyone
I am an aquatic plant grower. A few months ago the collectritus bug bit me and I ended up getting 72 species of plants in my tank.
Now once all of them started to grew. I had little choice but to weed out some of them. couldnt throw away or even give away as most people weren't able to take care of them.
So I started an emersed tank for them. Emersed is different from immersed. Emsered means growing aquatic plants out of water.
So I got my hands on an old 20G fish tank. Covered to opening with a glass lid to keep the humidity very high in the tank.
Its lit by a 36W Osram 8000K PLL, which is on for 12 hours a day.
Plants are yet to convert to their emersded forms except the Hygrophila polysperma which was already planted in its emersed state.
Here is the planted fish tank these plants come from.

And here is the emersed tank.



The plants are:
Hygrophila corymbosa
Hygrophila angustifolia
Hygrophila polysperma 'rosnaervig
Hygrophila difformis
Hydrocotyle verticilata
Hydrocotyle sibthirpoides
Nesaea sp red
Nesaea crassicaulis
Ludwigia repens
Ludwigia rubin
Saggitara sabtula
Riccia fluitans
Taxiphyllum sp (java moss)
Hemanthius micranthemoides
Helanthium tennelum
Helanthium 'vesuvius'
Bacopa monneri
Bacopa Caroliniana.

[Mustansir Billah]

Wow! I have never seen such beautiful and natural Aquarium... Khirmun sb. I have a question to ask. Would there be any need of water filters and any need to clean the tank if plants are present in water??

[Izhar]

Khirmun, your setup is excellent....

[zeeshanuddin]

Zabardast...... which type of lights do you use?

[Khirmun]

Well... Plants do filter water. But to an extent. Fish produces waste as ammonia (N), the food gives of potassium (K) and phosphate (P). But there are still other compounds such as humio acids, tannins, and many other organic compounds. There are fish tank styles which cater to people who wanna set their tanks and turn it into a small eco system. Google El Natural Planted tanks. So your question can be answered in what kinda plants you want to keep with what type of fish and lights.
My tank borders on the very high tech system, as I dose my tanks with nutrients such as CO2 and ferts (NPK and trace) in a very calculated ratio. The lights are extremely powerful (They are equivalent of a 400W Metal Halide) and designed to specifically bring out colors of different plants. The water changes of my tank are done religiously at 50% biweekly.
Thanks everyone for appreciating it.
Zeshanuddin: On my fish tank I use 20x3W 10000K Cree XPEs, 8x3W 630nm bridgelux leds, 4x3W 660nm bridgelux leds, 8x3W 410nm bridgelux LEDs, 4x3W 450nm LEDs.
On emersed tank its just a 36Watt Osram 8000K (skywhite) PL light.

[IADina]

Salaam brother,

Just need to ask you where in Karachi I can buy good aquatic plants?