90P High Light (Plants are happy, Algae are happy too)

[erwin123]

How’s the A.Pedictalla doing? I got some from my LFS that looked a bit manky (only one they had) but gave it a go. Started growing beautiful new big yellow leaves and I got excited. Then it just turned black and now I have one stem left which is looking awful. Gutted because it seems difficult to get hold of and it looked great.

Hi,

the A. Pedicatella are doing fine. I have to toss multiple perfectly good shoots regularly as it doesn't like overcrowding.

Based on other journals which I have followed where A. Pedicatella has been grown I think there is pretty strong evidence that it does much better in soft water and/or lean dosing.
My water is soft (TDS 120), but not 'super soft' so I have to compensate by leaner dosing (I dose Tropica at the manufacturer recommended amount).

The H.Chai is more challenging ... some say it needs a 'clean' tank whereas I neglect my tank (4 weeks since last water change and maintenance as I was too busy ), so there is BBA on the Chai...

 

[simon_the_plant_nerd]

Hi,

the A. Pedicatella are doing fine. I have to toss multiple perfectly good shoots regularly as it doesn't like overcrowding.

Based on other journals which I have followed where A. Pedicatella has been grown I think there is pretty strong evidence that it does much better in soft water and/or lean dosing.
My water is soft (TDS 120), but not 'super soft' so I have to compensate by leaner dosing (I dose Tropica at the manufacturer recommended amount).

The H.Chai is more challenging ... some say it needs a 'clean' tank whereas I neglect my tank (4 weeks since last water change and maintenance as I was too busy ), so there is BBA on the Chai...

I’m not sure what I did wrong as I have very soft water from the tap (I add some calcium and magnesium for my inverts). I dose ferts regularly but I have a lot of emergent growth which sucks it up fast. I water change twice weekly at the moment just to remove any build up.

Next time you’re chucking out any stems from overcrowding, I’d be grateful if you would send me some? Maybe a healthy plant from a healthy tank would adapt better and do well in my tank. Happy to pay a donation to the forum or whatever you prefer.

 

[erwin123]

I’m not sure what I did wrong as I have very soft water from the tap (I add some calcium and magnesium for my inverts). I dose ferts regularly but I have a lot of emergent growth which sucks it up fast. I water change twice weekly at the moment just to remove any build up.

Next time you’re chucking out any stems from overcrowding, I’d be grateful if you would send me some? Maybe a healthy plant from a healthy tank would adapt better and do well in my tank. Happy to pay a donation to the forum or whatever you prefer.

Hi, I would be happy to give stuff away but unfortunately I don't live in the UK so the plants probably won't survive the journey.

there is one more 'secret' to A. Pedicatella which is controversial but I happen to think that there is some truth it in, which is: A. Pedicatella doesn't like it when you dose even 'normal amounts' of potassium (eg: APT Complete levels are too much) This in part could explain why it does well with TSN, because TSN is low in Potassium.

 

[erwin123]

Couple of photographs showing that A. Pedicatella doesn't need that much light. The 1st photo is the original exposure and the 2nd photo I had to use a photo editor to boost the brightness by several magnitudes...

Instead of tossing out everything, I planted some stems in the left rear corner where there were 'suffocated' by the Syngonanthus. But they are actually in pretty good shape despite the lack of light. A couple of stems managed to 'break through' and pop out above the Syngonanthus as well.