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Old 20-04-2003, 07:20 AM
Prakash
 
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Default How do I get fine leaved plants to grow ?

Hi,
I've got a 42 UK gallon tank, sand substrate, DIY CO2 and a number of
plants. ph is 7.6, GH and KH hover around 12 degrees. I'm new to this, and
have had the tank for about 12 weeks. Initially I had a lot of plants (dont
know all their names yet), and they all seem to be growing well. However I
have had increasing trouble with the fine leaved plants such as elodea,
cabomba etc. All of them seen to rot at the base and then just float up and
swirl around in the circulation. The leaves etc seem fine, its just the base
that rots.

Any suggestions on how I can stop this ?

TIA,
Prakash.


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Old 20-04-2003, 07:20 AM
Bob Alston
 
Posts: n/a
Default How do I get fine leaved plants to grow ?

I would wonder if you have enough light. As I recall, fine leaved plants
need relatively high light. I would suggest somewhere in the range of 2-3
watts per gallon. If you have just the standard light that came with the
tank, you probably have too little light.

Also, your water seems pretty hard for doing CO2.

Bob
"Prakash" wrote in message
...
Hi,
I've got a 42 UK gallon tank, sand substrate, DIY CO2 and a number of
plants. ph is 7.6, GH and KH hover around 12 degrees. I'm new to this, and
have had the tank for about 12 weeks. Initially I had a lot of plants

(dont
know all their names yet), and they all seem to be growing well. However I
have had increasing trouble with the fine leaved plants such as elodea,
cabomba etc. All of them seen to rot at the base and then just float up

and
swirl around in the circulation. The leaves etc seem fine, its just the

base
that rots.

Any suggestions on how I can stop this ?

TIA,
Prakash.




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Old 20-04-2003, 07:20 AM
Prakash
 
Posts: n/a
Default How do I get fine leaved plants to grow ?

Bob,
I've got 80 watts of light. The water is quite hard - actually in most of
the UK what comes out of the tap is liquid cement. Does this cause a huge
problem ? The plants seem to be growing fine.The elodea and the cabomba grow
rapidly but then come off the bottom. The elodea has plenty of roots
springing from the stem.
Are these plants not supposed to be pushed into the sand ?
Cheers,
Prakash.

"Bob Alston" wrote in message
...
I would wonder if you have enough light. As I recall, fine leaved plants
need relatively high light. I would suggest somewhere in the range of 2-3
watts per gallon. If you have just the standard light that came with the
tank, you probably have too little light.

Also, your water seems pretty hard for doing CO2.

Bob
"Prakash" wrote in message
...
Hi,
I've got a 42 UK gallon tank, sand substrate, DIY CO2 and a number of
plants. ph is 7.6, GH and KH hover around 12 degrees. I'm new to this,

and
have had the tank for about 12 weeks. Initially I had a lot of plants

(dont
know all their names yet), and they all seem to be growing well. However

I
have had increasing trouble with the fine leaved plants such as elodea,
cabomba etc. All of them seen to rot at the base and then just float up

and
swirl around in the circulation. The leaves etc seem fine, its just the

base
that rots.

Any suggestions on how I can stop this ?

TIA,
Prakash.






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Old 20-04-2003, 07:20 AM
Iain Miller
 
Posts: n/a
Default How do I get fine leaved plants to grow ?


"Prakash" wrote in message
...
Bob,
I've got 80 watts of light. The water is quite hard - actually in most of
the UK what comes out of the tap is liquid cement. Does this cause a huge
problem ? The plants seem to be growing fine.The elodea and the cabomba

grow
rapidly but then come off the bottom. The elodea has plenty of roots
springing from the stem.
Are these plants not supposed to be pushed into the sand ?
Cheers,
Prakash.


I would assume with a sand sunstrate you are not running a UGF. In which
case your setup is very similar to one of my tanks (except I don't have the
CO2). I have no issue with growing things like Cabomba although it gets a
bit "leggy". I think I'd need more light and maybe some CO2 to really get it
to thicken up.

Have you checked if you have enough Iron in the water? Are you feeding the
plants regularly enough? Have you tried some root tab fertilizer? Only other
thing might be a lack of light. Although you have 80W, what kind of bulbs
are they & how old are they? Although they still work the effectiveness of
most fluorescents decreases over time to the point that you should replace
them at least once a year.

One cheap option to increase the lighting on your tank is to buy some
reflectors - about £7 each I seem to remember . Made a niticeable difference
to both my tanks.

Only other option I can think of would be that if you were a bit rough with
it when you pushed it into the sand you might have crushed the bottoms of
the stems in which case they would rot. If you are having trouble anchoring
it try some plant weights.

I.


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Old 20-04-2003, 07:20 AM
Cichlidiot
 
Posts: n/a
Default How do I get fine leaved plants to grow ?

Prakash wrote:
Hi,
I've got a 42 UK gallon tank, sand substrate, DIY CO2 and a number of
plants. ph is 7.6, GH and KH hover around 12 degrees. I'm new to this, and
have had the tank for about 12 weeks. Initially I had a lot of plants (dont
know all their names yet), and they all seem to be growing well. However I
have had increasing trouble with the fine leaved plants such as elodea,
cabomba etc. All of them seen to rot at the base and then just float up and
swirl around in the circulation. The leaves etc seem fine, its just the base
that rots.


My experience in the states with elodea is that most specimens sold in pet
stores (especially the chain stores) are not well off to begin with. I usually
would buy some to nurse some new side sprouts out of (the "branching" new light
green growth that will occur at a leaf whorl) and typically the old growth
would start disintegrating away. The new growth though was quite healthy and
would keep growing even under less than ideal conditions. So, with the elodea
at least (never messed with camboda), look for the new growths and pinch them
off from the original plant when they are a few inches long or when the
original plant starts disintegrating, whichever comes first. If you aren't
getting new growths, then that's another can of worms.

You should also try prolonging the life of the old growth by pinching off any
disintegrating portions as you notice it. I also let the majority of my elodea
free-float as I seem to remember that trying to "root" it in the gravel would
often lead to disintegration problems, but it's been a good 10 years since I
last tried to root it in the gravel. Once it gets going well, you can tell when
it's happy because this plant likes to pearl like there's no tomorrow when
conditions suit it. I used to have a little 2 gal killi fish tank in a sunlight
window (that was the only light source) with elodea and the streams of bubbles
would be constant during the day, so it doesn't take much to make it happy.



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Old 20-04-2003, 07:20 AM
Tasslehoff
 
Posts: n/a
Default How do I get fine leaved plants to grow ?

Yeah I noticed when I went on holidays for two months to England all the
kettles around the country were chock a block full of lime/calcium deposits.

*snip*
"Prakash" wrote in message
...
Bob,
The water is quite hard - actually in most of
the UK what comes out of the tap is liquid cement. Does this cause a huge
problem ?



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Old 20-04-2003, 07:20 AM
DogCow
 
Posts: n/a
Default How do I get fine leaved plants to grow ?

I have the same problem with some Golden Lloydiella, Aurea, in my 15
gallon tank, and their base have been rotting as well. Funny thing is
only one bunch seems to be rotting while another bunch is fine.

I have a UGF set up with 1x15w flouro light. Every other plant are
growing fine, i have water lilies and few other plants as well. But
only the aureas are rotting at the base when I plant them in gravel.
So I"ve just let them float now.
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Old 20-04-2003, 07:20 AM
SLEngst
 
Posts: n/a
Default How do I get fine leaved plants to grow ?

I have the same problem with fine stemmed/leaved plants such as firl, etc.
Aurea, however is the happiest plant in the tank. But this is with 3.8
watts/gal. However, the KH is 16 and GH is 20, also liquid cement. Something
about cambrian folded sediments. I expect GB is also some pushed up ancient
seabed sediments.
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Old 20-04-2003, 07:20 AM
Prakash
 
Posts: n/a
Default How do I get fine leaved plants to grow ?

LeighMo,
The tank dimensions are 120cm * 40 cm * 40 cm. The plants seem to grow
allright - except they break off at the base. I tried bunching a few
together and wrapping some plant wight round the base before pushing it into
the sand - a few weeks later the separate stems started floating off,
leaving the plant weight where it was

I add some Nutrafin plant feed once every 15-20 days. Is that sufficient ?
Cheers,
Prakash.


"LeighMo" wrote in message
...
I've got 80 watts of light


I think Bob's right; that may not be enough light. You have a US 50

gallon
tank. So you have only 1.6 watts per gallon. That is on the low side for

your
average fine-leaved stem plant.

It might help to plant the stems directly under the lights, well-seperated

so
that the light can get down to the bottoms of the plants. If that doesn't
work, let the plants float, and get some plants that do better in low

light to
plant in the substrate. (Hygrophila will probably be okay with this

lighting.)

What are the dimensions of your tank, BTW?

Leigh

http://www.fortunecity.com/lavender/halloween/881/



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Old 20-04-2003, 07:20 AM
Jim Miller
 
Posts: n/a
Default How do I get fine leaved plants to grow ?

i find that wrapping the stems with anything i've tried causes problems.
i've taken to spreading the stems out so they aren't bunched together too
much, just laying them on top of the gravel then laying a small piece of
slate over them for about 10 days. i just took the slate off a bunch of
macaya today and it had lots of fine roots and no decaying.

seems to work.

jtm

--
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"Prakash" wrote in message
...
LeighMo,
The tank dimensions are 120cm * 40 cm * 40 cm. The plants seem to grow
allright - except they break off at the base. I tried bunching a few
together and wrapping some plant wight round the base before pushing it into
the sand - a few weeks later the separate stems started floating off,
leaving the plant weight where it was

I add some Nutrafin plant feed once every 15-20 days. Is that sufficient ?
Cheers,
Prakash.


"LeighMo" wrote in message
...
I've got 80 watts of light


I think Bob's right; that may not be enough light. You have a US 50

gallon
tank. So you have only 1.6 watts per gallon. That is on the low side for

your
average fine-leaved stem plant.

It might help to plant the stems directly under the lights, well-seperated

so
that the light can get down to the bottoms of the plants. If that doesn't
work, let the plants float, and get some plants that do better in low

light to
plant in the substrate. (Hygrophila will probably be okay with this

lighting.)

What are the dimensions of your tank, BTW?

Leigh

http://www.fortunecity.com/lavender/halloween/881/






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Old 20-04-2003, 07:20 AM
lynsey
 
Posts: n/a
Default How do I get fine leaved plants to grow ?

However, the water in Scotland is very soft and free of chlorine/flouride
etc! Its just plain water!
"Tasslehoff" wrote in message
u...
Yeah I noticed when I went on holidays for two months to England all the
kettles around the country were chock a block full of lime/calcium

deposits.

*snip*
"Prakash" wrote in message
...
Bob,
The water is quite hard - actually in most of
the UK what comes out of the tap is liquid cement. Does this cause a

huge
problem ?





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