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Stemminess



I have a 29-gallon community tank, fully stocked with fish, that is 
fairly well planted.  But some of my plants are growing oddly.  The 
cabomba is growing like crazy, and has to be trimmed weekly, but is not 
very bushy; it's all stem and little foliage.  My ludwigia came with 
small red leaves, but has now grown nearly to the water's surface with 
much larger leaves, all green except at the very top, and again, stemmy.  
My Amazon Swords have long, narrow leaves, without the widening at the 
top that is characteristic of the plant.

I do have trouble growing dwarf corkscrew vallisneria--they keep losing 
leaves. 

My substrate is mixed gravel and sand, and I fertilize weekly with Tetra 
FloraPride, which has iron sulfate.  Light is two 20 watt flourescents. I 
use DIY CO2.  I get moderate circulation from an Aquaclear filter and an 
air stone, both turned down low.  My pH tends to run high, 7.5-8.0, so I 
filter with peat, but it doesn't seem to help that much.

I realize I could probably do better in terms of substrate, but I'd like 
to avoid pulling out all the plants and starting over.  The only other 
thing I can think of is to buy some more expensive, high intensity lights 
to replace the ones I have.  But what puzzles me is that everything seems 
to be growing (except the vals); it's just growing funny.  Could it be 
the pH?

I'd be very grateful if anyone has any thoughts or advice.  Thanks!




David Corner                  **      dcorner at csus_edu
dcorner at innercite_com         **      dcorner at tlc_crc.losrios.cc.ca.us
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