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Recent rearrangements in my amp tank/July 2014 - at its best :-)


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Hello,

here some recent pics of my amp tank. It looked quite untidy in summer:tank1overviews.jpg

and some following months of neglect let the plants look even worse.
Problem was - all substrate and plants were fixed in the tank - something I was happy to overcome last year with my second tank, my miniature amp setup:

12124481044_6597a944f6_o.jpg
(see here: http://www.cpukforum...showtopic=46715).

Something like that had to happen with the mother tank. So I chose a new tank with same base area (stilll 25x25cm), but less high (30 instead of 40cm), to have the lamp closer to the plants. All substrate and plants were put into a 23x23 cm net pot. The amps were cut down, and the drosera came in as small rhizome pieces.

So, now the new one, about 2 months old:
o57s.jpg

Esp. the ticolor looks already quite nice by now with its first pitchers emerging.
dzx1.jpg

qaku.jpg

And even the Drosea seem to come back :-)
jo0k.jpg

A work in progress. I will post some updates the next months.

Regards

Martin

Edited by Martin Hingst
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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I love these nano set ups or would these be pico set ups, ive done the same thing with tropical marine tanks, little 30 litre cubes can look stunning set up right, these look great and would make a good focal point for any piece of furniture.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Here an actual picture. The amps grow quite vigorous, but stay compact (esp. low growing - as requested ;-)

Only exception is the ventrinermis in the back, as expected. I hope I can leave it in there for some more months, until it has to leave.

12327400333_64b710c62c_b.jpg

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  • 1 month later...

Hello,

 

here a last pic taken in March. The good thing: the amps stay still compact (at least in height), comparable big pitchers on small leaves - just the way I like it. What was somehow new to me, that this would be true not only for my speckled one, but also for the tricolor (that grew bigger in the old tank). So it is clear now to me, that compactness can be acheived by a high light level - and is not only specific to the clone.

 

13335842963_9729bd218c_h.jpg

 

 

What has to be changed now - the ventrinermis has to leave, and has to take two amps with it to make more room for this tank here.

I already bought a tank for it, higher of course (40cm), and to aceive a good compact growth despite the more height, I will now try a new lighting setup: my first metal halide lighting in a mini tank.

Let's see what happens :-)

 

42i9.jpg

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My amp remains compact and very slow growing which, given the restrictive growing space it has, is an advantage. I notice that the pitchers on yours are much redder than mine, or is that a different amp clone than my speckled?

 

I am currently using a 21W LED COB downlighter at close proximity to the amp. I do have an option to use a metal halide downlighter (35W) but I am very fearful of cooking the plant. How are you going to deal with the intense heat from it?

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Hi Carl,

 

yes there are two different ampullaria in there, a "speckled" and a "tricolor". Both show this compact growth now, what I thought was perhaps a feature of the speckled plant. It is not ;-) just plenty of light, and both (and I would guess most other amps as well) stay compact.

 

I am not too afraid of the heat. Anyway, any lamp with the same energy efficiancy will produce the same amount of heat. No matter if LED, or cfl, or metal halide. So the metal halide lamps produce even less heat than cfl or LED because of their high efficiancy. The heat is just more concentrated because of the compact bulbs. But I will place it outside, so I see no problems there. We'll see if I am right ;-)

Edited by Martin Hingst
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As an ampullaria fan, I don't know why I only discover this post today...

 

I particularly like the second picture of this thread. That's what I call a healthy amp!

 

Mine are getting muuuuuuch too big, but the light intensity was not strong enough during the last months. Hopefully the LED set-up I'm building will solve this issue.

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Hi Martin,

 

My 35W MH lamp projects far more heat than my 21W LED - even taking into consideration the power differences. Could it be that the MH is emitting infra-red? The heat from the LED is mainly extracted by the heatsink at the rear of the lamp, so the actual light does not contain much heat.

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Hi Carl,

 

yes, as they are emitting a continuous spectrum, there is more IR in it than in the LED with their narrow spectrum. But it is just this continuum, that makes the metal halide light looking so nice and natural (at least the ceramic bulbs with a CRI of Ra>90.

 

But what has also an effect: any light that reaches the inside, will cause some amount of heat. As these lights focus very well, there will be quite some heat caused by that. But thats what I want - get as much light in there as possible ;-)

 

Thanks Vincent - and yes, that is exactly what happened to mine when the light was low. Luckily, this changes again as soon as the light level is up again. Leave surface is less than half as big now, and tendrils are short again. And short internodial distance again, just as it should be :-)

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  • 3 months later...

Some recent pics - still compact, and looking better and better :-)

 

13992523128_25f51c1682_h.jpg

 

13992499249_fdae0e11b0_h.jpg

 

My girls seem to like it, too ;-)

 

14179190114_770123278f_h.jpg

 

13992506059_f5478bc16e_h.jpg

 

Some recent close-ups:

 

14403498039_a87570b67a_h.jpg

 

14574918366_0b2b6bd67e_h.jpg

 

 

Regards

 

Martin

Edited by Martin Hingst
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Hi Martin,

Excellent photos of some beautiful plants.

N. ampularia is my favourite of all the Neps and those look great. Mine are only ~5mm tall at the moment with no pitchers yet (I hope they were N. ampularia seed after all!).

Cheers,

Steve

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Thanks Steve! Yes, my favorite Nepenthes as well. So compact and easy.

Most other species are either compact and difficult, or equally easy but far too large for a tank like this.

 

Good luck with yours -

 

Martin

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  • 2 weeks later...

My photography is rubbish compared to Martin's but here is a quick snap of my compact ampullaria. Just as with Martin's, it is grown under intense light, though I suspect a different lighting technology as I am using COB (LED) lighting.

 

Martin, is yours now growing under the MH lamp?

 

14nhkhz.jpg

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  • 2 months later...

Carl, I made a third tank for the ventrinermis, there I use the MH lamp. Two amps are in there as well. 

 

Still have to learn to get the conditions right in there. Here a post in the German forum with some recent pics.

 

http://forum.carnivoren.org/index.php?/topic/37080-hci-beleuchtung-f%C3%BCr-kleine-terrarien/

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