[APD] Lilaeopsis blues :(

["CameronM" <cameronm at rse_co.za>]

Hello all you nice planty ppl,

I need your invaluable advice. I cannot, for the life of me grow Lilaeopsis!!!
I have a ten gallon tank (tall). It has 2 power saving compact desk lamps hooked to the hood, providing 30w of light. DIY yeast reactor replaced weekly to maintain good levels of co2, substrate is a fine black gravel (2-3mm). I dose and run my tank as per Mr. Barr's method. My kh is 6 and my ph out of the tap is about 8-8.3 sometimes a tad higher, ph in the tank with co2 is around 6.9 - 6.8. Mini aquaclear filter with diy co2 fed into the intake pipe. Water level is high as to try and knock down surface agitation from the AC. The tank setup is at most about 5 months old, I used initial sticks at first and a fern spike or two but have not added anything else to the substarte for months, in fact I suffered from a BGA problem and eventually resorted to vacuuming as much of it out as I could, which did sort the BGA to within 90% all gone, still there but a tad more manageable now!!! 50-70% water changes weekly, religiously :)

This is the third time I am attempting to grow Lilaeopsis. The first time I tried I planted the Opsis as is out of the basket,  in 2 separate clumps in front of my tank, within 2 weeks it went downhill, turned a murky green and succumbed to bga. Then I read a mail in the archives, this person apparently had great success by chopping it up and spreading it out a tad more. I tried that and exactly the some thing happened as before! DOH. I have removed around 60% of the bad looking stuff and have left the rest as is. The only thing I could think of was that maybe it needed something in the substrate!. Out of frustration and last attempt at this I bought a small packet of Laterite and added 2 or 3 handfulls in and around where the last bits of the opsis is growing. I am hoping that this might revive the slowly dwindling away opsis into some growth. The rest of the plants are doing great, pearling and lively, the tank in general looks great except for the damn Opsis.

What am I doing wrong? Is there a trick to growing a nice thick green Lilaeopsis carpet? Do I need to add something else to the substrate? If you need more info from me regarding tank params I will be more than happy to oblige. TIA, and have a wonderful day. :):)

Kind Regards
Cameron James
All the way from Sunny South Africa :)
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