• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

Classic mistake of incorrectly place plants!

papa_c

Member
Joined
22 Jan 2013
Messages
368
Makes me laugh everything I walk past it!

Had an invitro pot of Blyxa Japonica that looked ropey as hell, thought what the heck I'll chuck it in and see what happens.

3 months later this is the result, I really have to move them but they look so happy!

Interestingly the plants on the right hand side look like a different strain. Not as green as the other and look almost variegated. But were from the same 1 2 grow pot.

BIG trim coming up this weekend, H. Pina is going crazy and growing like a weed!

20201211_160432.jpg
 
Last edited:
How on earth did you manage to grow Hyro. Pinnatifida so well?!!! Please share your tank paramters, lighting, substrate and Co2 specs. I would kill to be able to grow HP like you have done. It always dies on me no matter what i do.

Not exaggerating when I say that is the lushest Hygro. Pinnatifida I have seen!
 
Just shows you what can be done when you hit the sweat spot :thumbup:

Please share your tank paramters, lighting, substrate and Co2 specs
I would be interested also ;), plus your local water report if your not using RO
 
Substrate is 2 year old Tropica soil powder.

Lights are home built LED using cree 5630, and dimmable meanwell power supply, design is a direct rip off of Twinstar!

Filtration 2 x Eheim pro3 e's

Co2 distribution through twin home built reactors. On at 10.00am, 1.3 point drop lights on at 3.00 off at 10.00

Tap water in Cambridgeshire is on the hard side very little Mg and 120ppm Ca, with 30ppm nitrates. Dosing EI level salts I have always struggled for the last 2 years in getting the balance right and growth.

3 months ago i switched to RO remineralised to 35ppm Ca and 14ppm Mg.

I currently does EI to the following:
N 30ppm
K 65ppm
P 15ppm

Micros to standard EI level with added 0.6ppm per week of DPTA iron.

Tank really exploded when changing to RO, but close up H. Pinna still suffers with pin holes on older leaves despite the high levels of K. Next trim session I plan to remove all old leaves and observe what happens.

When changing to RO I also ditched my sprays bars and switched to lily pipes.

My current nemesis is green thread algae in the mini Christmas moss, and the ability to kill cherry shrimp at genocidal proportions!
 
Only wish I had the artistic ability of many others on UKAPS and could visualise what the end result will look like!
 
Substrate is 2 year old Tropica soil powder.

Lights are home built LED using cree 5630, and dimmable meanwell power supply, design is a direct rip off of Twinstar!

Filtration 2 x Eheim pro3 e's

Co2 distribution through twin home built reactors. On at 10.00am, 1.3 point drop lights on at 3.00 off at 10.00

Tap water in Cambridgeshire is on the hard side very little Mg and 120ppm Ca, with 30ppm nitrates. Dosing EI level salts I have always struggled for the last 2 years in getting the balance right and growth.

3 months ago i switched to RO remineralised to 35ppm Ca and 14ppm Mg.

I currently does EI to the following:
N 30ppm
K 65ppm
P 15ppm

Micros to standard EI level with added 0.6ppm per week of DPTA iron.

Tank really exploded when changing to RO, but close up H. Pinna still suffers with pin holes on older leaves despite the high levels of K. Next trim session I plan to remove all old leaves and observe what happens.

When changing to RO I also ditched my sprays bars and switched to lily pipes.

My current nemesis is green thread algae in the mini Christmas moss, and the ability to kill cherry shrimp at genocidal proportions!
Awesome!

I have a feeling its the RO water that is enabling H.pinnatifida to grow like a weed. It is one of the more difficult plants to grow, even very experienced hobbyists struggle with it. You have very large specimens, which is impressive to say the least.

Unfortunately, with the size of the tanks i have, RO is not really a viable option. As someone working in the sustainability space, i am finding it hard to justify the amounts of wasted water using an RO unit.

Based on anecdotal evidence from numerous hobbyists, RO water might make the difference, especially in growing the more difficult plants like H. Pinnatifida.

Anyway, great job. Your scape has a wild untamed look to it which works well. No need to change things around for now.
 
Awesome!

I have a feeling its the RO water that is enabling H.pinnatifida to grow like a weed. It is one of the more difficult plants to grow, even very experienced hobbyists struggle with it. You have very large specimens, which is impressive to say the least.

Unfortunately, with the size of the tanks i have, RO is not really a viable option. As someone working in the sustainability space, i am finding it hard to justify the amounts of wasted water using an RO unit.

Based on anecdotal evidence from numerous hobbyists, RO water might make the difference, especially in growing the more difficult plants like H. Pinnatifida.

Anyway, great job. Your scape has a wild untamed look to it which works well. No need to change things around for now.

I don't think Pinnatifida is particularly difficult to grow - give it CO2 and it grows like a weed. I have in my tank and it grows faster than anything else in there. I even put some cuttings in my low light/low tech tank, and they're growing fast in there too, and that is very hard water and minimal ferts.

There are a fair few tanks on here that have loads of Pinna growth in hard water:



Blyxa Japonica on the other hand is a tricky plant to grow well, and that is fantastic lush growth on those plants @papa_c - is that a Cork Screw Sword (Helanthium Bolivianum 'Vesuvius') on the right hand side? It looks great.

 
Thanks for that @papa_c , been struggling with H.Pin for years with hard water and pinholes, moving soon and RO looking very likely as new house has bore hole for water
I currently does EI to the following:
N 30ppm
K 65ppm
P 15ppm

Thats pretty high levelso_O
N 30ppm ~ NO3 120ppm
P 15ppm ~ PO4 45ppm

I dont think even @ceg4048 dosed PO4 at as high a level as that
 
I don't think Pinnatifida is particularly difficult to grow - give it CO2 and it grows like a weed. I have in my tank and it grows faster than anything else in there. I even put some cuttings in my low light/low tech tank, and they're growing fast in there too, and that is very hard water and minimal ferts.

There are a fair few tanks on here that have loads of Pinna growth in hard water:



Blyxa Japonica on the other hand is a tricky plant to grow well, and that is fantastic lush growth on those plants @papa_c - is that a Cork Screw Sword (Helanthium Bolivianum 'Vesuvius') on the right hand side? It looks great.

Mine is growing like a weed, but my water is nowhere near as hard as some on here (180ppm). It's growing everywhere and I'm having to trim it constantly to try and keep it semi nice looking. I'm not sure it's 100% healthy, but hasn't got any holes as yet.

I've just planted some blyxa japonica, what makes you say that's a hard plant to grow? I've never grown it before so just curious.
 
My current nemesis is green thread algae
Do you have any Amanos? they soon clear it up, one of my tanks does have amanos and gets hair algae, I just move the plant as they are all potted to other tank and hair algae is gone in 24hrs
 
Mine is growing like a weed, but my water is nowhere near as hard as some on here (180ppm). It's growing everywhere and I'm having to trim it constantly to try and keep it semi nice looking. I'm not sure it's 100% healthy, but hasn't got any holes as yet.

I've just planted some blyxa japonica, what makes you say that's a hard plant to grow? I've never grown it before so just curious.

It’s softer than mine for sure - your GH must still be in double digits though? It’s a great looking example of just how much Pinna can grow, which is why I link to it.

On the Blyxa I’ve just read of quite a few people struggling with it - it seems to need a lot of light - when I had it, it just faded away to nothing unfortunately.
 
It’s softer than mine for sure - your GH must still be in double digits though? It’s a great looking example of just how much Pinna can grow, which is why I link to it.

On the Blyxa I’ve just read of quite a few people struggling with it - it seems to need a lot of light - when I had it, it just faded away to nothing unfortunately.

To be honest I couldn't tell you, don't trust test kits and never really looked into it.

Thank you

Aren't you running a chihiros wrgb11? Which is putting out more light than my twinstar? Doesn't bode well for me then. My Amanos generally strip a plant to nothing as soon as it starts to look semi unhappy
 
look to get rid of some of those runners, let me know!
Hey wookii, yup live in Cambridgeshire, I'll be trimming very shortly and will let you know...post is crazy slow at the moment so might be better to wait till after Christmas to post them
 
Do you have any Amanos

Had them in the past and like the cherry shrimp they didn't last, might invest in some more if they have a taste for the green thread algae.

How many would you put in an EA 900?
 
To be honest I couldn't tell you, don't trust test kits and never really looked into it.

Thank you

Aren't you running a chihiros wrgb11? Which is putting out more light than my twinstar? Doesn't bode well for me then. My Amanos generally strip a plant to nothing as soon as it starts to look semi unhappy

To be fair I probably shaded it too much, plus I suspect your fingers are a lot greener than my black ones, so I’m sure you’ll be fine mate.
 
Hey wookii, yup live in Cambridgeshire, I'll be trimming very shortly and will let you know...post is crazy slow at the moment so might be better to wait till after Christmas to post them

Thanks mate, I’ll drop you a PM.
 
Back
Top