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struggling with Staurogyne repens

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danmil3s

Member
Joined
11 Jan 2010
Messages
756
hi guys dont know if any one will have answer for me but here goes. my Staurogyne doesn't seem to be growing its been in the tank over 3 months now. when if first put it in most of it died back only leaving the very tops its been like this since. the stem below the head which is maybe 5-10mm long looks all brown and manky. the heads of the plant seem to snap off quite easily and no new leaves are growing. the strange thing is under the substrate the plants this putting down nice health roots. im not sure if im missing something.
tank specs
750l
20mm of inert 5mm gravel over 40mm sand
co2 gas D/C yellow everywhere if n turn it up fish become stressed on 2 hours before lights on and 1 before lights out
all plants moving well in spray bar configuration with extra power heads well over 10X rule
342w t5 lighting
1 tsp k
.5 tsp p
trace as per bottle + a bit
weekly 50%+ water changes
all the other plant are ok but easy to grow like java fern and crypts
any thoughts appreciated
 
It's a very weird plant like you say - mine's been planted for months, it puts down very very long roots, and seems to do so very fast - yet the top of the plant doesn't seem to do much at all. I'm hoping mine will improve now I've added a Koralia to improve water flow, as the lower leaves on mine are very prone to being algae coated.
 
Yes, flow/distribution is suspect in your tank. This is essentially a CO2 shortfall, despite the fact that your dropchecker is yellow and that increased injection rate causes stress. You need to find a better way of getting flow down to the substrate level. This is exactly the same issues suffered by all carpet plants. Poor CO2 distribution yields GSA and failing health.

Cheers,
 
ok thanks Clive ill have a play with it although not really sure what i can do the power heads and spray bar point back to front and the flow goes down the glass then front to back. maybe ill change the angles so they are pointed right at the plants
 
Well, 750L is really quite large and it's tough to comply with the 10X rule Have you seen Almost Bloke's 760L journal? -> viewtopic.php?f=35&t=10171 he managed to get there with serious pumping power, although he did struggle with CO2 diffusion as well. The two tanks may not even be comparable because he didn't have carpet plants.
It may be that you're a little short on flow rate (I can't remember your stats - which thread is it in again?). You could supplement with Excel/Aquanourish/Easycarbo (££).
Is the Staurogyne attached to something? Could you raise it, or is it in the substrate? Got photos?

Cheers,
 
the Staurogyne is planted in the substrate ive got 3 power heads which total 32X flow + whatever the filter pumps producing (1000l pond pump slightly throttled). ive change the angles of the power heads and spray bar now so flow is directed at the plants ill give it a couple of weeks see how they get on. just so i can rule it out my bulbs being a year old wont be a factor will it. i know its nearly always flow/co2 but worth checking. and easy carbs a bit to expense for me i use it on my nano though.
 
Yeah it sounds like you have plenty of rated flow at 32X. Bulbs being year old have nothing to do with anything. Definitely rule that out mate. Is it possible your other plants are blocking flow or that you have hardscape interfering with flow to the substrate? I would at least try supplementing Easycarb for a few weeks just to see if it makes a difference.

I imagine you've also ruled out predation such as snails and so forth? 32X + ought to be plenty of flow to get down there.

Cheers,
 
didn't think it was light just wanted to check. its not the plants blocking flow or hard scape. i did wonder about predation but ive not seen anything eating them, and they look sick rather than eaten. Malaysian trumpet snails don't eat plant do they there the only snails i have. i might try easy carb going to need another bottle soon anyway. really want a carpet plant so ill keep trying. appreciate all you help Clive thanks.
 
1 tsp k .5 tsp p
Seems a little low on dosing and no N?
Matt
 
That dose is every a day nitrate and phosphate they both conain potasium hard water 32 so no magnesium did dose it for a bit got 25 kg in the shed but made no diffrence
 
My tank is 500l
I dose 2tsp kno3 1tsp kh2spo4
Try upping your dose
Matt
 
Wow that seems a lot i was told my doseing was rich mines an ei dose give or take
 
350-500 litres 1 1/2 tsp KNO3 1/2 tsp KH2PO4 1/2 tsp traces
From James planted tank site
Have a look
Matt
 
Ill have a look when im on my pc if i am low its an easy fix
 
mdhardy01 you will have to give me the link to those figurers i cant find them. when i use James calculator, and do the sums from the ei guide on this site, im dosing there or three about. remember im dosing 7 days a week trace and nkp (got the k+p backward earlier sorry)
 
If you look under dosing methods then ei and flick down the page James has put dosing levels for tanks from 40-500l using dry powders
Matt
 
yeah they are figurers for 3 x a week i dose 7x a week so im a bit high if you dose that daily you are well high
 
ok im with you now
you dose little and often
yeah if you dosed full blown ei you'd be way over
mind you it wouldn't hurt to try upping a little depending on how densely planted your tank is
mayy
 
its not that densely planted to be honest mate. if ei is max ferts im already over. i think Clive is right co2 is the cause ive got my gas coming on 3 hours before lights now instead of 2 and staying on till they go off sump might be gassing off to quickly. ill see how i get on with that if there's no improvement i 3 weeks ill up my dose
 
ceg4048 said:
Yeah it sounds like you have plenty of rated flow at 32X. Bulbs being year old have nothing to do with anything. Definitely rule that out mate. Is it possible your other plants are blocking flow or that you have hardscape interfering with flow to the substrate? I would at least try supplementing Easycarb for a few weeks just to see if it makes a difference.

I imagine you've also ruled out predation such as snails and so forth? 32X + ought to be plenty of flow to get down there.

Cheers,
Click to expand...

I have to say that my old bulb does affect the growth of the staurogynes. I was growing them by the bucket and they were covering the foreground nicely. I've since then move to a new place but the tank was setup to be the same as before (positioning of the flow and the CO2 intake etc) and yet the plant wouldn't grow. It just gets leggier.

I've change the bulb and kept everything else the same and within a week, I was getting compact growth again. My old bulb was only 12 months old at the point of changing
 
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