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Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V3 #1362
Hoan wrote......|
| Date: Sun, 31 Oct 1999 15:49:01 -0500
| From: Hoan Tran <hoanvt at operamail_com>
| Subject: Riccia
|
| What do you think Amano does to get riccia to grow all over the tank
bottom? I
| suppose that he ties it to large slates and lay them down at the bottom.
Is
| there any other techniques? I really like his reccia-filled tanks and want
to
| create the same image.
|
| Hoan
|
| Visit my website at
| http://www.homestead.com/aquatic/plants.html
Hoan,
I like your web page! Super tanks!
I have had great success getting the Amono riccia look by doing as he does.
That is, get some light-weight monofiliment fishing line and tie a
slip-knot in one end of the line, slip it over the stone and pull it tight.
Now take a clump of riccia about the same size as the rock you are using and
wrap it around the riccia-covered stone many times going in all directions
around the stone and riccia. Don't be afraid to cover a good part of the
riccia (wrapping maybe 15-20 times), but leave enough space between your
fishing line to let the riccia grow up through it. When you have the riccia
strapped down to the stone real good, place the stone upside-down, cut the
fishing line leaving yourself some length to tie it off and slip the end of
the fishing line under the wrapping on the back of the stone and tie it off
real good a couple of times, snip off excess line.
Use various size, shapes and thickness of stones no more than 2 or 3
square inches in LxW and about 1/4 to 1/2"" in thickness. I found all the
stone I want at a local plant nursery real cheap. I picked rocks off the
ground that had come out of may different style bags of stones used in
landscaping for about $1/lbs. Try not to use two many similar size/shaped
flat stones, mix in some oblong, some more round and some thicker ones two!
Then arrange the riccia covered stones in varying positions, some leaning on
others some flat to get the "rolling hills" effect. I use some flat slate
to create some higher regions.
The growth rate of riccia is phenomenal in my 125g tank and I have to trim
it every 30 days or so. Trimming is easy by taking small scissors and
trimming along the contours of the rocks. You can trim fairly close as long
as you are careful to leave enough of the riccia to keep it fastened to the
stone and without cutting the fishing line! Occasionally the riccia will be
come detached from a stone or two and I have to re-wrap them. This gives me
the opportunity to re-arrange things and get a slightly different look and
contour. In a couple of days the new piece has filled in and you can hardly
tell it is a new stone. As you trim it floats to the top and can be used to
wrap more stones or grown out in another tank.
I am really considering slowly replacing some of my nice stem plants in
order to expand my riccia "plains" so it reaches the foot of my driftwood
stump or "plateau" and achieve the mountain and plains expanse that Amono is
trade-mark for. I just can't bring myself to start tearing out my giant
amazon and various red swords, crypts, sags, alteranthera, hygros, rotalas,
telanthera and glosso lawn etc. One day I know I will evolve to a simple
125g tank with riccia meadows leading to glosso jungles accented by maybe 3
or 4 red stem plants at the base and behind my towering driftwood in a
crescendo of 3-dimensional allusional "Chi" ! But for now I caught in by
the allure of diversity and complexity in my layout and I trim, trim, trim.