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Re: umbrosum/substrates
I do not have any problem growing it now<g>! I have a ton of it. Super
plant....yada yada yada.
I needed a well cycled tank. This was my problem, tank out of balance. My
filter pump was clogged up so there was very little filtration. Other plants
were not as sensitive. Give it good balanced conditions and it's a good
plant. It has since done amazing things and is an excellent bushy little
plant with many uses.
The plant does like CO2,iron, light,and well balanced tank. This I can
assure everyone. I think it does need some elements and can do poorly if
these are not there. Which ones? I'm not sure. Good general conditions have
solved every issue I've had so far.......
I use Flourite with some jobes and this seems to really make most every
plant around grow well.
The plant grew extremely well under Quartz lighting(MR-16 bulbs 12v DC) as
do well......all plants.
The plant responds very well to pruning. I have two bunches being tested
with a nutrient poor substrate(sand only using a RFUG) and a semi rich
one(flourite and jobes every so often) with no current through the substrate
and extremely high lighting on both tanks(110 watts on a standard twenty
gallon!). Basically, I got other nutty test and notions going on and at
these light levels thing crash fast unless your on top of it. This is why
I'm trying some things on the substrate as well. I can't keep up on dosing
the water column without testing daily (and even then all the levels of
nutrients?) so I'm trying to rely more on the substrate as a nutrient source
even if I have a nice old mature tank when tanks are at 5 watts/gallon ++
and only 16 inch depths. Things happen much faster.
I'll let folks know about my findings. Shouldn't take too long. I know what
I'm looking for and know what the bad signs are. I think I'm on to something
that will work very well and is simple and very repeatable in a variety of
water conditions.
Patience and maintenance is all I needed to well with it. I got a little
impatient and came whining instead of taking my own advice :) ,it happens!
regards,
Tom Barr
>
>I had a large bunch of Micranthemum umbrosum growing in my 75g tank.
>It was kind of pale, and older leaves seem to be dying off. I noticed
>a message on TheKrib by Tom Barr noting the same problem. George Booth
>commented that it looked like a possible Iron deficiency when I gave him
>some of the M. umbrosum. No other plants in the tank are showing any
>signs of deficiency.
>
>Tom's comment on TheKrib (from 5/2/99):
>> the plant does very well for a few weeks(maybe 2-4 weeks or so)
>> then yellowish leaves start setting in and the holes in the leaves
>> appear(turning to complete degeneration of most of the leaf), turning
>
>Same basic thing I saw. Now for the unusual twist: I put a small
>bunch in my 29g tank. This tank has 80w of light, gets no added
>fertilizers (the occasional Seachem Flourish, or maybe a little PMDD
>once a week) The substrate is mostly LARGE smooth river rock. No
>substrate fertilizers have been added recently, only some jobes sticks
>more than 6 months ago. And the CO2 is a DIY yeast bottle, and I didn't
>bother putting a new bottle on last month when it ran out!
>
>What's all that got to do with my M. umbrosum problem? Well, the small
>bunch in the 29g tank was BEAUTIFUL. Full round leaves, bright green,
>perfect growth. It doubled in size, and reached the surface in the 29g
>and started spreading out from there. No signs of trouble.
>
>So, does the plant not like CO2? Or is it growing too fast with CO2
>so that it's running out of some nutrient? The bunch in the 29g tank
>grew as tall as the bunch in the 75g, so I don't think it's a height
>issue. The 75g has 6x40 watt tubes, with a mix of triton, Actinic, and
>GE Sunshine, while the 29g has 4x20w, with 2 sun-glos and 2 Actinic.
>(I got the actinics from a reef guy when I bought the lighting fixtures!)
>
>I have since pulled the poor growing bunch out of the 75, and swapped
>it with the beautiful bunch from the 29g. Until I come up with real
>solution, this will keep the 75g looking great. The good bunch has
>been in the 75g for about a week now, and it's still looking good. I'll
>let everyone know if it starts dying off...