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Glossostigma and T-8's



[complaint deleted]
> ...  He also sells glossostigma - but 
> don't bother, it's very puny, and I had to finally pitch it.

I'm noticing that Glossostigma appears to be widely available locally now,
sold in pots as if it's a stem plant, so at least some growers are
producing it in bulk.  And all the specimens have puny leaves, as far as I
can tell. 

I bought a bunch last year & wanted to swap experiences with growing it... 

First, I've had zero luck keeping it alive in any tank other than my
CO2+high light setup.  Eventually it withers away from the bottom up. 

When I *did* get it to grow, it was by "training" the plant into the
ground (ie, partly covering the runners in sand).  Growth of the runners
progresses slowly, first with "puny" growth just as on the original plant,
and eventually larger (5mm?) leaves are produced.  I am not sure, but I
have a suspicion that too much light actually causes the puny growth,
because the really good leaves have been produced in runners growing UNDER
other plants.

One other problem I had with this plant was that the Krib (my fish, not my
web site) absolutely loves to attack it.  I ended up keeping an inverted
strawberry basket over the patch to keep him out of it.

Anyone else growing glossostigma succesfully?

> From: MMacG1167 at aol_com
> Subject: Lighting trouble?
> 
> I've finally got my T-8 lighting system up and running (5 F32 T-8 bulbs with
> 2 electronic ballasts in a hood on a 55 gallon tank). 3 of the bulbs are
> 5000k and two are 6500k. It's only been running a few hours and the bulbs are
> much hotter than I was expecting, being almost painful to the touch. Is this
> normal? If not does anyone know what the problem could be?

How close are you packing them?  Is there adequate ventilation?  How about
reflectors?  If it's a dark hood, it will absorb half the light as heat
directly, and I can beleive that an 80-watt heater would be hot to the
touch in some situations... 

Why five bulbs?  (Why not four? :)
Ah, so many questions...

    - Erik

---
Erik D. Olson					         amazingly, at home
eriko at wrq_com