Decided to setup a dirt tank. 55 gallon tank. Diana Walstad reminded me that she always recommends starting with a smaller tank because now I need to cover 4 square feet of dirt. That's a lot of plants, and will bankrupt me if I have to shop the usual retail places.
Anybody(s) have cast off trimmings they could part with? Don't need anything fancy, just enough plants to boot the system without too much chaos. Donations welcome of course, but I also have some walking cash if that helps.
There are a dozen or so ponds in my neighborhood. Does it make sense to harvest plants there, and just decapitate them later on as I get better plants?
Advice always welcome.
I will be at the meeting on 1/4/20.
Eric
bringing some top water plants amongst plants i am bringing for the auction
should be lots to get at the auction.....
We have a sale going on at Reef Escape on plants until the new year. 20% off. As tissue culture plants get older I also mark them down and will stack those markdowns with the sale. Some of them are less than a dollar now. Potted plants are between $4-$7 for normal one plus some larger mother pots for around $20. Then we have a tank of random clumps and clippings for super cheap, just kinda make up numbers depending on how much of it you want. We don't have huge stocks but I think we do better than the other local stores I've seen.
You could harvest plants from the local ponds. I don't really know what kind of plants are in the local ponds and how they would do in an aquarium, of course.
There is at least a theoretical risk of importing parasites or snails on the plants. In addition, the plants would be undergo a rather large temperature change if you took them out of an outdoor pond and put them in an indoor aquarium. I don't how they would react.
There usually are quite a few bags of plants in the monthly auctions, so you might be better off waiting until January. It's only two weeks away, after all.
You are a good American. See you 1/4 without fail.
Hi Eric,
The meeting will be a great place to pick up some plants economically. I will put out a call for plants plus donations in the January monthly meeting reminder. If sellers know there's a buyer, they'll bring more.
Cheers, Patchin