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Re: Steminess



I do believe your problem is insufficient light. Cabomba will be bushy with
bright light. Likewise, the redness of the ludwigia requires bright light.

"Stemmy" is your clue. The rough guideline is 2 to 3 watts of fluorescent
lamp per gallon. (Please no heckling. This is just a rough guideline and I
know what it doesn't cover.) 

You can go with a high-intensity setup (which requires new ballasts and
lamps) or add another one or two 20-watters to your existing system.

>cabomba is growing like crazy, and has to be trimmed weekly, but is not 
>very bushy; it's all stem and little foliage.  My ludwigia came with 
>small red leaves, but has now grown nearly to the water's surface with 
>much larger leaves, all green except at the very top, and again, stemmy.  
>My Amazon Swords have long, narrow leaves, without the widening at the 
>top that is characteristic of the plant.
(snip)
>My substrate is mixed gravel and sand, and I fertilize weekly with Tetra 
>FloraPride, which has iron sulfate.  Light is two 20 watt flourescents. I 
>use DIY CO2. 

---------------------------------------------------

Greg. Tong
gtong at sirius_com (delivered by Cyberdog)
San Francisco, CA, USA

"Every infinity is composed of only two halves."