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Re: water sprite in low light??



>Water sprite in low light?? really?? I've never been able to grow them
>in anything but really high lighting. I've found that swords do better
>with lower lights than sprites. wonder what i am doing wrong. do you
>know your water conditions? may I have them? thanks.
>
>Toan Tran
>RiceGuy at stones_com

I hope Toan doesn't mind me copying this to the entire list, but I think the
followup warrants a response from some of the rest of you.

I've had my own problems with water sprite in a community tank.  I'd had so
much trouble with it when I first started growing plants, that I gave up on
it.

At the time, I had a pair of gouramis that wanted to breed, so I dumped the
decaying bits of water sprite, hygro and whatever else into a ten gallon,
and let the gouramis go at it.  There was no light on the tank, it just sat
on a bookshelf.  The water sprite happily took over the tank.  It looked
pretty shabby, all roots of course, but it grew.  And does a darned good job
as a fry food farm.

I've used it since, in lighted and unlighted tanks.  It looks completely
different, of course, when it floats vs. when it's planted.

In one tank right now, I've got it planted in got about one watt per gallon
(flourite substrate), and I'm getting strong growth out of it.  In another
tank, it's planted with about one and a half watts per gallon (flourish
tabs) and looks like crap.  pH in both is 7.5, GH/KH around 6.  I don't have
it floating anywhere right now, I'm experimenting with riccia (lighted tank)
instead.

Nutrients have appeared to be much more important, for me, than light.  With
ammonia/nitrates and whatever's in flourite gravel resulting in adequate
growth, flourish tabs being insufficient.  Yet other people can't grow it
except with high light.  Any comments, anyone?

Alysoun McLaughlin