New Tank Setup!

hey guys this is my new and first tropical scorp setup!
any comments or suggestions are welcome
don't worry about that hygrometer, it's off by like 10% lol
It's a modest sized tank but it's not bad for my het.
Sorry i dont know the names of the plants in there but they seem to be
doing awesome in my setup and look pretty nice too
I am in to live plants all the way ^^







here he is checkin the place out at night

That looks awesome dude!!! I'm so doing the "live plant thing". What did you use for substrate?

diabollicallycursed wrote:

That looks awesome dude!!! I'm so doing the "live plant thing". What did you use for substrate?

thanks a lot
the substrate is coco fiber (from bed-a-beast, those compact blocks)
the coco fiber works pretty well for me since it's good at holding water and
doesn't doesn't leave a mess
the smell isn't too bad either lol

Eco-earth is the same thing right?

I could prob find out the names of that plant with the pinkish tinted spots I used to have one for a house plant my mother gave it to me from a large one she had in her house. She still has it.

eco earth, terra spider, coco fibre... all basically the same thing.

and awesome setup dude! where'd you get the moss?

scorpion111 wrote:

eco earth, terra spider, coco fibre... all basically the same thing.

and awesome setup dude! where'd you get the moss?

Yeah diabollicallycursed, they are the same.

Thanks ^^
i got the moss from PetSmart for 7 bucks, still had over half left over after use.
Works great i think, adds a nice texture and brightens up the tank w/ green

ooh I will have to look at the local garden centre to ID those plants.. I actually used to have that pink spot plant years ago but i cent remember for the life of me what it's called!

Living plants are the last touch I need for my huge tank so seeing those plants in your tank, and doing so well gives me more of an idea of what I could use and work with

fantastic set up

If memory serves me, and anyone please correct me if I am wrong, I believe that moss requires rain water to do well in an enclosure... or that is what I have read up to now.
Or are there certain types of moss that will do good with normal tap water?

looking good there bud!!

I think it may be a type of hosta

LadyRiotControl wrote:

ooh I will have to look at the local garden centre to ID those plants.. I actually used to have that pink spot plant years ago but i cent remember for the life of me what it's called!

Living plants are the last touch I need for my huge tank so seeing those plants in your tank, and doing so well gives me more of an idea of what I could use and work with

fantastic set up

If memory serves me, and anyone please correct me if I am wrong, I believe that moss requires rain water to do well in an enclosure... or that is what I have read up to now.
Or are there certain types of moss that will do good with normal tap water?

hey thanks a lot guys, much appreciated

I agree, live plants add a lot of spark to the enclosure, especially when your scorp likes to disappear on you.
that pink spotted plant is doing excellent in my tank. It was wilting when i didn't have it planted, but after the setup and some watering, it was up and looking healthy. It definitely flourishes in this type of environment.

I use filtered drinking water with the moss and the rest of the plants. That seems to be working fine, since i bought the moss "dead" and after watering it's lush and green again

hey guys i found the name to that pink plant, it's Hypoestes, Polka Dot Plant
They are tropical plants that do well in humid conditions w/ low light ^^
There are a few varieties of them too, so they'd probably look great mixed together.

just, whatever you do don't get moss from outside... I've found all sorts of stuff living in them, including what appear to be nematodes and other various parasites.

Looks good -- at least, I'm sure it will until your scorp bulldozes everything to kingdom come.

The only concern I'd have is that coco fiber doesn't have much in the way of nutrients for plants -- that's why it's commonly used for plants that come from nutrient-poor areas.

You can always switch to organic potting soil though right?

Probably.

Just remember that "organic" does NOT mean pesticide-free.

I use potting soil for my H.Spin I make sure it's chemical free.

Actually I get it from my mom she's an agriculturalist of sorts and anti-pesticides. Or anything un-natural darnhippie

i would make sure the soil isn't contaminated with any harmful substances. And regarding coco fiber not having nutrients and minerals for the plants, you could always pot them and then insert them into the substrate. However, i'm not sure how that would go with the moss, unless you do some fix ups in the tank...which can get a little complicated lol

i will keep you guys updated on how these plants are adapting to coco fiber

H. laoticus wrote:

i will keep you guys updated on how these plants are adapting to coco fiber

Just curious, any update on how the plants are doing? I like the way things look in the setup.

Ah, it's been a while haha. This was my first setup ever. As for updates, the moss didn't so very well because I believe they need a certain pH in the water, etc to thrive. That polka dotted plant did well, but they are very needy and will wilt right away if you take them out of the substrate. The bigger, green plant didn't last because it didn't have a root system when I put it in, I pretty much plucked it. I don't know if it'd survive even if it was a whole plant, but I think it might with a bigger setup. The best plant so far has been the pothos plants I've been using. They easily thrive in cocofiber and are extremely hardy.

That really sucks because to me fake plants just look too darn fake. Scouring these pages the last few days has given me a ton of ideas for a future and larger setup, but I guess I'll have to scratch off the moss idea for now.

However, the pothos plant seems a lot better than nothing. I'll have to check around to see what I can find.

I guess it depends on the type of moss as well. I'm sure it's been done before because I see a lot of tropical setups for frogs and salamanders that have successfully used moss. There are a variety of pothos plants and I'm sure any one of those will do well in a tropical tank. They're very cheap as well and can be found in nearly any store that sells plants.