Welcome to Ancient Greece (my 10gal NPT)

[MonteCarlo]

Day 3 of my new 10gal NPT. The picture does NOT do it justice, I dont have a good camera or photo skills, and the water is not that murky lol. Species: 3 red broad leaf ludwigia in front right. 1 Narrow leaf anacharis, the tall one in back right. 2 wisteria kinda hidden in back. 2 anubias upfront. And a broad leaf crypt in the back left which looks blurry in pic but looks awesome in real life. I know the left looks a bit empty, I totally didn't know the crypt leaves were all gonna stand straight up. When i planted and during the first day, they were all spread out and took up the entire left side haha. I'll probably fill it in soon, with maybe another anubia and a moss ball i plan on getting.

There are no livestock in there yet, petco keeps delaying their new shipment of bettas on me I also don't have any floating plants yet because no stores have them in stock around me, and I don't really want to order online b/c of shipping expenses. Guess I will eventually. Thank you OFL for your thread and furthered assistance to make this possible.

[Oldfishlady]

Nice job!

That will look awesome when it fills in...it looks great now too...but once it starts to thrive...Wow......hope you have another tank ready....lol....Once the plants start to thrive and you start trims, the urge to get another one going can get strong-especially once you see how easy these systems really are to keep and maintain.

Its hard for me to tell and I am sure you do...but are the rhizome on the Anubias above the substrate and the crown of the crypts too. Adding some java moss on the columns would look neat.

Look forward to watching it grow-so keep us updated....

[MonteCarlo]

Yes the anubias are correctly planted. The crypt, to be honest, I wasn't aware that the crown had to be above substrate or what the crown actually is. By looking now, I think I inadvertently did the correct thing anyways. I can see some beginning of roots, and a big tangle of a thick root looking like thing that is above substrate, this im guessing is the crown.

Trimming (even though simple) is actually the thing I'm most inexperienced with. Obviously the anubias are fine. But for everything else I've had people say you can jus trim anyway you want to make it look nice, and I've had a person say you have to trim all the way down when you do or else eventually the roots will rot (but this seems unattractive because then youll have period of times where it looks like you barely have plants and/or just stems).

[Oldfishlady]

With your rosette plants-like crypts, swords, sags, vals...etc....the leaves start at the base or crown of the plant and reproduce by runners. Its better to plant these too shallow than too deep in substrate that can compact on the crown-otherwise the crown can rot.

Trims-with your stem plants-all I do is pinch the tops-I generally pinch enough so that I can replant them. Some will get bushy or sprout side shoots off the mother plant-depends on the species. I usually don't pinch or trim them all the way to the substrate-I want that mother plant to keep growing and looking good in the tank.

With some of the rosette like-vals, sags, chain swords-the grass like plants-I will pinch or cut the tops like you mow grass..kinda...lol....Some of my vals will grow well over 5 feet and I have to keep them trimmed so they don't shade too much.

With sword and crypts-I will pinch back dead/dieing and old leaves as close to the crown that I can. With some that are getting too large or leaves that are in the way or shading too much-I will pinch these larger leaves back to keep them looking tidy.

[aemaki09]

That tank looks amazing!!!

I cant wait to get my NPT started!! It makes me so jealous to see everyone else with theirs!

[Myates]

Very pretty! I have a bunch of narrow leaf anacharis, I love it :)

I'm jealous, as I have a ton of plants, but my plants are in tanks that I can't decorate :( So I like seeing decorated tanks with real plants! Awesome job!