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Re: [APD] Poor growth of Alternantheras



On Thu, Mar 27, 2008 at 9:46 AM, Vahe Ganapetyan <vahegan at gmail_com> wrote:

>
> I can't understand what is wrong with my setup. All these plants -
> they are not new to me Madagaskar lace used to flowering regularly on
> summers when I kept it 6-7 years ago. I was pruning Althernaneras
> weekly when I had them some 10 years ago without any CO2, in a small
> 20g tank with guppies under a 60W incadescent light...
> I first thought that was my hard water keeping the growth of
> aponogetons and althernanteras and started softening the water about a
> month ago. Since that my glossostigma started to grow well but the
> madagaskars and althernanteras did not react to this. Another strange
> thing is that my ludvigia grows quite slowly (compared with how
> quickly it should normally grow), its leaves are not green round
> leaves with red underside as I used to know it but they are somewhat
> smaller elongated reddish leaves (they somehow resemble rotala by
> color and appearance - I would bet it is some rotala if not the roots
> on the stem)
> I would really appreciate if anyone here could direct me what else to look
> at...
>

Sounds like nitrogen deficiency to me.  The tip off about the nitrogen
deficiency is the ludwigia that is reddish.  Madagascar lace is a very heavy
feeder and without sufficient nutrients it will not do well at all.

Those Dutch tanks with the brilliant reds walk a very fine line between just
enough nitrogen and too little.  I wondered why my red plants didn't seem
very red, and confirmed the advice that I got here about dropping nitrogen
levels to get red plants to appear redder.  I confirmed it by accident --
going two weeks without dosing.  Wow, were they red.  Tank crashed about a
week later.


-- 
Liz
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