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72g build complete... Plant suggestions?

1K views 4 replies 3 participants last post by  docdubz 
#1 ·
Aside from taking a razorblade to the stray silicone on the glass and after a huge amount of setbacks... I am finally done.


This tank is for a Cuban Knight Anole, which is currently a tiny little hatchling. The temp and humidity of the tank will be kept in the 80's. Im looking for some suggestions for nice plants that thrive in those conditions, arent too delicate once well established (since eventually the little guy will basically be a ~20" velociraptor) and would look nice in a 72g (48"x18" at the center of the bow front). I especially need help picking out plants to go on the background wall.

Also, the front area is going to be a gravel riverbed (that wont be submerged at all, just for looks) with a very thin layer of ABG for microfauna. Are there any nice plants that would grow well simply in gravel?

Thanks in advance!
 
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#2 ·
Welp I went ahead and placed a plant order from NE Herps.

Cryptanthus bivitattus
Cryptanthus 'black magic'
Fittonia albivens
Pilea baby tears
Hypoestes phyllostachya
Neoregelia 'Fireball'
Rabbit foot fern

Now I just gotta figure out where I should place everything.

I got a couple questions:

1) Think I can place the Fireball or one of the Crypts down in the gravel in a spot where theres no dirt under it? (im thinking it should be basically the same as mounting them epiphytically, but unsure)
2) Do rabbits foot ferns grow well when mounted instead of being in soil? and do they need to be mounted with spagnum or is bare root fine?
 
#3 ·
Nice tank, I would tie the fireball on your branch with fishing string, it will root quickly and then you can remove the fishing string. The crypt will be fine in the gravel if there is always sufficient space between its roots and the water, dont submerge its root system. Kind of hard to tell from the picture.
 
#5 ·
Nice tank, I would tie the fireball on your branch with fishing string, it will root quickly and then you can remove the fishing string. The crypt will be fine in the gravel if there is always sufficient space between its roots and the water, dont submerge its root system. Kind of hard to tell from the picture.
My original plan was to plant the fireball either on the branch or the tree trunk, like you suggest. Im just unsure of how broms root. Do their roots wrap around/embed onto things or do they need to penetrate/dig into the mounting surface? The reason thats a concern is thats a faux/pvc tree that I made.

The gravel is ~2" deep, and below that is 'weed blocker fabric' and an egg crate/pvc false bottom which is about 1.5" from the bottom glass to the top of the egg crate. Do crypt roots grow strong enough to break through the weed blocker?









Thank you.

Ive had both the tank and stand for almost 15 years now. When I moved into my new house I spent a lot of money on really nice flooring, and that living room has a beach theme going on with the floor and the furniture so one night I decided to see if I could paint my regular old black stand to look like its made out of some strange kind of aged drift wood. I found a whole bunch of paint that the old homeowner left in the garage and mixed a sandy-tan and peachy tan color together and painted the whole thing with a sponge (I mixed the paint gently so that there would be occasional 'splashes' of one color or another every now and then to give it a natural grain look). It came out amazing looking I wish I had two stands to paint so I could have kept that color, but it was just the base coat and I painted over it with a mixture of sandy tan,peachy tan, and a steel-grey/blue-sliver color and I made several different mixtures messing with the ratio a little each time to get a more natural wood grain feel while making it look like its made out of a tree that doesnt belong on this planet and painted it on with a sponge and my fingers. The method I used to paint with the sponge was: get some paint on the sponge, glob it on the area that I am painting, and then pushing in on the sponge with a finger or two and dragging the sponge, in mostly arch shaped strokes, so as to drag the paint away from the glob and smudge the paint in It was a fairly complicated paint job and was a lot of trial and error (took two nights before I figured out a good set of 'stroke patterns' to use) but I am super happy with the outcome. I havent been able to take a picture of it that does it justice.
 
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