Re: [APD] Spindly fronds

["S. Hieber" <shieber at yahoo_com>]

--- Gwmangen at cs_com wrote:

> 
> 1.  Have I been making too many changes?
> 
> I mean since I started this about six months ago I've
> been making constant 
> changes to water chemistry, filtration, lighting and the
> arrangement of the 
> plants in an effort to make them grow.  Wouldn't the
> plants be happier if I just 
> left them alone?

Plants can be grown successfully with or without lots of
water changes, but these are two diff methods. And jsut
because a method tends to work better for one person than
another won't necessarily mean it will work out best for
you.

  A couple of days ago I went into a pet
> store and saw an 
> Anubias that was thriving on neglect!  It was in a dimly
> lit tank with no CO2 and 
> probably no ferts.  

slow growing plants like anubias do well in dim light and
low ferts, so long as you can keep ahead of hte algae that
eventually builds up on the painfully slow growing leaves.


Lots of fiddling can mean an unstable tank in which diff
algae might find "comfort". But the main thing is providing
plants what they need, in balance, whether in strong or
light amounts. Fiddling around and keeping things in
imbalance is a good way to make life hard for your plants.


> But this plant looked nice and happy.
>  So I'm thinking 
> maybe I have been messing around in the tank too much and
> would be better off 
> working some neglect into my routine.  Therefore instead
> of changing 25% of the 
> water every three days, I'm going to change 50% of the
> water every five or six 
> days depending on what the algae is doing.

50% every 6 days is a higher turnover than two 25% changes
in the spame period -- the seond change is partially
replacing the previous replacement water. The bigger change
is good for keeping anything from building up too much week
after week.

 
> 2.  Why are the fronds on my Bolbitus growing long,
> staggered and spindly?
> 
> For a long time the Bolbitus was not growing but it took
> off when I put it 
> under the water current of a nano power filter.  It seems
> to appreciate the 
> current.  However, unlike its old growth, the new
> leaflets coming off the fronds 
> of the new growth are more staggered and farther apart
> from each other.  If I 
> were to hazard a guess, I would say the plant doesn't
> have enough nutrients to 
> keep up with the light provided to it.  The Anubias has
> been dormant for the 
> last six weeks after most of its rhizome disintegrated
> and is now teasing out 
> the beginning of a new shoot.  Growth on the java fern
> looks good to me 
> compared to the Bolbitus.
> 
> 3.  Could something important be missing from the RO
> Vital I've been using to 
> reconstitute RO water?
> 
> . . .If they want to play games and not tell me
> what it has, I could 
> have a sample analyzed.  It would make dosing the tank
> easier if I could use 
> a decent premixed proprietary product. 

Or you could try dosing what the plants need, potassium,
phospahte, nitrate, and traces (from a good plant trace mix
life Seachem Flourish or Tropica's Master Grow). Most
hydroponic stores are good sources for the other three
chems, as is litemanu.com.

> . . . 
> 
> On the threshold of success, George
Good luck, good fun,
Scott H.

=====
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