Plants Alive delivered the 18” collection, that I’d ordered last Thursday (7th Jan) fairly quickly (arrived Thursday 14th Jan). The snow and bad weather that the UK has been experiencing didn’t help much I’m sure. I was a little panicked about the cold weather affecting the live plants, however they arrived in very good condition.
Figure 1 – Plants alive packaging, consisted of a sturdy cardboard box, plants in a sealed moist plastic bag and some newspaper to prevent too much movement inside the box
Figure 2 – Planting information and the empty plastic bag shows that some of the leaves came off the supplied plants in transit (I was rinsing the plants in yellow bucket)
Figure 3 – Lead strips to weigh down the plants and planting grow tablets that claim to sustain the plant root nutritional requirements for two months… see the product: here
Figure 4 – Rotala Indica and Elodea Densa background plants are planted into the substrate
Figure 5 – more Rotala Indica nd Elodea Densa planting in the background
Figure 6 – mid-ground planting, Mini Amazon Swords, Dwarf Sagittaria, Bacopa Monnieri and Twisted Vallisneria
Figure 7 – more mid-ground planting
Figure 8 – foreground planting with the dwarf hairgrass. In the centre of the picture the main player in the 18” collection, the Aponogetum (Aponogenton) Crispus
As you can see the plants are very juvenile and will become much larger as they grow so it was important to space them out. The tank looks sparsely planted at the present time, however it will look great in a few weeks/months as the plants establish themselves in their new home.
You may have noticed grey/whitish residue on the tank, this is caused by the hard water that I get out of my tap. It comes out the tap at pH 8, and is full of minerals that stick to pretty much everything in the tank.
Figure 9 – The whole picture
Figure 10 – left side
Figure 11 – front centre
Its all coming along nicely. Fish will go in, in the next week or so.
Martin
