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Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V4 #392



>Everytime I had Alternanthera reineckii and Ludwigia repens, I never managed
>to keep them red... they either faded to red or stopped growing
>alltogether....

>What's the catch? I don't have CO2 fertilization, because 1) They are too
>expensive 2) the yeast method never worked for me (pH flactuated too much
>and fish didn't like it...)
>Since the aquarium stored charges tons of $$$ for those, I thought that
>maybe I can buy the following plants cheaper through this list.
>
>I'm looking for the following:
>1) Alternanthera reineckii (Copperleaf)
>2) Cabomba caroliniana
>3) Didiplis diandra (Water Purslane)
>4) Hemianthus micranthemoides
>5) Hygraphila difformis (Water Wisteria)
>6) Ludwigia repens (Water Primrose)
>7) Some Riccia fluitans (Crystal wort)
>8) Nymphaea Lotus (the red one)
>I will pay by cheques to anyone who is willing to sell me some of these
>plants. I'm just looking for a small bunch from each of those.

Hi Luke,
 Basically read the Krib/APD well before proceeding.  Plants need 3 things:
Light, CO2 and nutrients. If one is out of balance things will not go your
way or the plants. You need to raise your KH 4-5 or so and your GH too.
Super soft water will cause you big problems with your PH. Plants don't grow
well and the Ph goes all over. The fish (Discus) will be quite fine at
higher KH/GH. My Discus grew very well and so have many others. Don't change
conditions to rapidly is all you need to do. The plants your after you can
get from Arizona Aquatic Gardens (check archives the web etc) but unless you
have enough light and CO2 they will not do well for you and likely will turn
brown and die after a few weeks. Your wanting to add Trace elements but your
not adding the other nutirents: CO2 and perhaps enough light? After a good
read you'll see what you need. Keeping a 90 gallon Discus tank on budget?
Don't want to spend much on a planted tank too? Well your setting your self
up for problems here so far with not adding CO2 with these plants. You can
do it and all ......but your choices will be much, much more limited in the
plants and set ups you can do. The Krib has some good idea for budget minded
folks. Rotting plants will not help your budget BTW. The more you
know......the less you'll money blow on plants. I know it's hard
.........but learn more about the plants first. That will only cost you a
little time and save you literally 1000's of $ in the long run.   
Regards, 
Tom Barr