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Re: Tonid's echinodorus sp.
Hello in Warsaw!
Tonid wrote:
> Subject: Me and all
>
> Echinodorus sp. (can someone help me out here?
> It has one characteristic feature - when young its leaves
> are light green with darker spots in some places, which
> disappears with age, adult leaves are large, up to about 40
> cm in length and 10 in width)
Sounds like E. cordata from the brown spots on the young
leaves, and the size. Are the leaves cordate (heart shaped?)
I have one of these too but it wants to take all the light so
I have to cut off leaves. The leaf stalks are quite long too;
about 40 cm. My leaves are not so large as your, about 25-30
cm in length, 10 cm width. It is now very much larger than
when I bought it; it may have been growing emersed before.
Is yours in the paludarium? Does it get daylight? These are
very large leaves! The farlowellas love to cling to the stem
of these.
> I also recently added some
> Cabomba caroliniana and it's growing FAAST!
You must have good strong light!
> Ludwigia sp. (don't have the right books to identify it :(
Please describe the leaf shape, stem and leaf stalk arrangement
as well as colors, sizes of leaves and stems. This really
applies to all questions about plant identification. We have
a few real experts here who we haven't been able to stump yet
given a detailed description. If you can get it to flower,
I bet Karen will even classify the Crypts! :-)
I guess somebody should post how to describe plant leaves
as this is one of the best indicators: eg. cordate, spatulate,
linear, undulate, blah, blah...
> I have those darn hair algae (short, about
> 1 cm in length, dark green/brown - sorry, I'm partly
> colourblind - grows in tight groups over the surface of the
> stones or at the edge of a leaf
Ah, the ubiquitous brush algae (sometimes called red algae
but it is black in appearance). It is very tough and grows
in tufts. How to get rid of it? Declare war on it! I'm
sure you'll get much advice on this including suggesting
the use of SAE. My methods:
1) avoid overfeeding/fertilizing
2) remove affected plant leaves without mercy
3) bleach treat plants you want to save (5% bleach 2-3 min)
Be careful, some plants (valisneria, ludwigia arcuata,
penny wort, hygrophila sp.) can easily be hurt by bleach.
I think Echinodorus and Crypts are a little tougher esp.
those with thicker leaves. After dipping, rinse thoroughly,
treat with chlorine neutralizer.
4) remove rocks, decorations and other hardware and 25%
bleach treat 'em. Same precautions, chlorine neutralizer;
dry thoroughly.
5) aquarium walls: magnetic scraper & elbow grease.
Apply elbow great liberally to your elbows and scrub away.
Maintain very high filtration at this time to remove floating
algae debris loosened from the walls. A powerful canister
type filter with the inlet directed where you're scrubbing
by a helper would do a good job.
6) grow lotsa plants, have CO2 and lotsa light so they grow
faster than the algae.
7) enjoy a beer, rum, gin or vodka. This will do nothing
about the algae but it won't bother you so much. ;-)
Steve