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Alternanthera issues.

A

Anonymous

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Hi all,
Hope your enjoying our glorious bank holiday weather.
I'm having some issues with my Alternanthera reineckii 'Purple' (lilacina). Iv'e pruned it back and replanted it some weeks ago but its not growing back as it usually does. Ive had this particular stem for about 6 months and it has always grown well, so well that regular pruning has been nescesary. However, this time it doesnt seem to be recovering. The leaves are growing rather small, and growth is slower than I would expect. Apart from this it appears healthy. Solid leaves, good colour, strong stem.
The only difference this time is slightly lower light. Ive always run very high light levels but wanted a bit of a safety net this time. Everything else is growing as I would expect it. Is this a synptom of lower light levels or a co2 issue? If anything I'm injecting more co2 than on previous setups. But always think co2 when something doesnt perform as I would expect it.
iv'e been dosing 45ppm N and about 10ppm P a week, just increased that slightly.
When I say Ive reduced my light, most would consider it to be fairly high still at 40W in a 50L aquarium. I wouldn't have thought light would be an issue, or is it?
Thanks
 
Yes, A. reineckii is funny that way. It often slows down and sometimes picks up speed again. Assuming flow/distribution is still good, light is an accelerator, so lowered light might be a factor. After successive trimmings I've had it slow and put out smaller, more compact leaves with darker, less flamboyant colour. It's not clear whether this is a consequence of length of time submerged.

Cheers,
 
Thanks ceg, appreciate the response. Ill persevere with it for now, and resist the urge to re-deploy the atomic barrage! :lol:
 
Alternanthera has started rapid growth again, and, I resisted the urge to up the light. Wont be long before they are climbing out of the top of my tank though. :crazy:
Incidentally, the alternanthera had in total 16 days of being more or less dormant with small twisted leaves. Since recovering from its major prune back. Which took about 2 weeks. The leaves suddenly opened up this weekend and new growth is rapidly occuring.
This is the longest its took for this to recover.
thanks
 
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