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[APD] RE: Hemianthus micranthemoides & Limnophila Sessifloraproblems



My tank is 24" x 15" x 12" with about 2" of sand over a (relatively thin)
layer of aquatic compost. I should have put more compost in I think, but
I've never used sand before and was worried about stagnation and the compost
going anaerobic. The compost I used is sold in garden centres over here as
aquatic compost for use in planting baskets in ponds, so I thought it would
be ideal for growing plants in tanks. I was initially going to use Flourite
but couldn't find a supply over here.

The tank capacity is 71 litres or 16 UK gallons (not sure about US gallons).
I believe the T8s are 15W each which would be around the 2W per gallon mark,
though I suppose more would be better. It's a brand new setup so everything
is less than a month old. I use something called Leaf Zone which is made by
Aquarium Pharmaceuticals and says it contains chelated iron and potassium
(don't know what else, if anything). I'm not sure I like the reflectors as I
think they're quite inefficient. They're basically made of white plastic. Do
you think changing them for silver reflective plastic would help?

Graham

> -----Original Message-----
> Message: 8
> Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 21:17:16 -0600
> From: "william ruyle" <inquartata at comcast_net>
> Subject: Re: [APD] Hemianthus micranthemoides & Limnophila Sessiflora
> 	problems
> To: "aquatic plants digest" <aquatic-plants at actwin_com>
> 
> 
> Hi Graham,
> You didn't mention the dimensions of your tank or how many 
> gallons okay
> liters it is. Or what you use for a substrate (just sand?). Both these
> plants benefit from CO2 injection but can be grown albeit slower, in a
> soil-based tank with good lighting: at least 2 watts per 
> gallon of compact
> fluorescent lighting such as AH Supply (or Brit
> equivalent:). The T8s, over a  year old? Probably overtasked for these
> plants, a couple of my favorites. I have both growing great 
> in my wife's
> minibow-7 using Fluorite with some peat in the bottom layer 
> (a nod, no a bow
> to Tom Barr) and no CO2 injection using one 13watt cf at 6500k and the
> German-made Mirro reflector which is probably about 9 inches 
> away from the
> substrate surface. Planting Hemianthus micranthemoides by 
> separating the
> stems and inserting into the substrate individually would 
> help, same with
> the Limnophila (but a pretty hairshirted go of it). What 
> nutrients are you
> using? Sorry for all the questions but more info would help. 
> At first blush
> I'd have to say too little light and nutrients. Also
> look in any of Amano's books and you will see that he uses CO2 for
> Hemianthus. I have Limnophila thriving in
> several of my insta-plant tanks where they are free-floating
> like hornwort (and no CO2.)
> Regards,
> 
> Bill
> 
> > Hello all,
> >
> > I was wondering if anyone has any hints on how to grow Hemianthus
> > micranthemoides. I've had some for about two weeks and 
> initially it didn't
> > look too bad, but then it all started turning brown and has 
> basically
> > disintegrated. The stems are so delicate and I tried to be 
> very careful,
> but
> > I think they got kinked when pushing the bunch into the 
> sand. All of my
> > other stem plants have sprouted hair roots, but these 
> haven't (hadn't!).
> Are
> > they supposed to?
> > Also, I have some Dwarf Ambulia (Limnophila Sessiflora) 
> which when bought
> > was quite tough and tightly curled, it's now raced to the 
> water surface
> > (12"), is soft and could be classed as "leggy". Presumably this is
> > insufficent light (I have two T8s with reflectors, which I 
> thought would
> be
> > enough with only 12" of water column). If this is the case, 
> how can a
> > planted aquarium be "light limited"?
> > Graham
> > PS: I don't use C02 (definitely 'low tech").
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