With plants as with corals, if you grow them well and in high density, your aquarium will invariably suffer from too much of a good thing. Case in point are these images of the aquarium I am currently overhauling with new substrate because my Eriocaulons have nearly replaced the substrate with the thickest root mat you ever did see. The plant that is mostly responsible for this corner of the clogged substrate is Eriocaulon “Aussie 2″ which has never yet flowered for me, therefore it gets uprooted and replanted much less frequently than say Erio ‘Japan’ or Eriocaulon cinereum. These picture represent just about a year and a half of intensive Eriocaulon culture and I’m just amazed at how much mass of roots the Eriocaulaceae can produce.

A brand new Eriocaulon from Thailand promises to be one of the most exciting dwarf Erios in the hobby. The new plant is called Eriocaulon “Ban Ba Wa” after the region of Sakon Nakhon in the Northeast of Thailand where this petite Erio was discovered. Eriocaulon “Ban Ba Wa” is a miniature species which reaches just over 1″ in diameter or about 4cm. When compared to the grain size of the regular Aquasoil in which it is planted, it is easy to see that this is one tiny Erio. So far we have only seen this plant distributed in Hong Kong and Japan but hopefully it will be a matter of time before we see some “Ban Ba Wa” around in the U.S. freshwater plant hobby. Big thanks once again to Daniel^~^ for sharing the wonderful image of this exciting new plant and follow the break for another look at Eriocaulon “Ban Ba Wa”.

The images below are from Japanese freshwater specialist Aqua Making.

Tonina Style planted aquariums is a new style of aquatic gardening which we have been studying for a little while now. The concept of “Tonina Style” is sort of a “Super Dutch” approach to growing certain aquatic plants, especially the Eriocaulon, Tonina and Syngonanthus species which are collectively known as Star Plants or Hoshi-kusa (Japanese for “star plant”). The video above displays an ideal Tonina Style freshwater aquarium using many plants with fine leaves: You’ll find very few plants that have otherwise “normal” leaves such as Ludwigia, Hygrophyla or Rotala, these are mostly absent. Tonina style and star plants can grow under a range of conditions but they truly look their best when cultured under stong light and CO2, good water flow, regular dosing and especially soft water with low general and carbonate hardnesses. Aquascaperz will be keeping Tonina Style planted tanks as a major component of our coverage of the planted aquarium community, continue reading to learn more about the aquarium above.

Tank: 24″ x 24″ x 20″ high, working volume of 37 gallons after substrate

Substrate: Medium sized powersand special, with Aquasoil Amazonia regular type

Filter: Marineland Canister, mid-size

Flow: Vortech MP10, reef crest mode, removed for the video

Light: 150 watt double ended ADA metal halide lamp

CO2: 4 bubbles per second into a DIY reactor fashioned from an Aquarium Pharmaceuticals tap water purifier.

Dosing: All nutrients are provided by the Seachem FLourish line of additives and added daily; 5ml Flourish Trace, 20ml Flourish Excel, 25ml Phosphate, 20ml Potassium, 10ml Nitrate, 15ml of Iron.