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Glossostigma growing up despite over 1.5 watts per liter?!

GreenGrow

GreenGrow

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Joined
26 Jun 2011
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UK
Ive recently set up a scape which includes glossostigma as the predominant carpeting plant. It isnt over shadowed by other plants so logic would say that its getting enough light but it continues to mainly grow vertically?

The specs of the tank are

30l-45 l x 25 h x 25w cm

Dosing Ei and there are no signs of nutrient deficiencies

Co2 is pumping into the tank as there are no live stock in it.

Just abit baffled to be honest

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
 
How have you planted the glosso?

If you've planted clumps then prune them into individual plantlets, and re-plant.

It's a common myth that leggy growth is down to poor lighting. If CO2, other nutrients and circulation are good, then glosso will carpet in relatively low lighting.

IME if some time is spent preparing and planting the glosso, then this will give you the best chance of success.
 
Hello Ed,
Vertical growth of glosso is not due to low light.
I have been advice here that you need very good flow and distribution down to the carpet, and that is an important point.
You will need also to trim the glosso to make it grow more compact.

You can read here the advices that Ceg has given me. Start to read from post #65, you should find all the answers.
Dymax Tropical 36 watt | Page 4 | UK Aquatic Plant Society

Hope that this can help

Regards
Zanguli
 
Just to back up the light theory...

There is a hormone released by plants called ethylene, which can cause leggyness if not released properly. Decent flow around the substrate should help disapate this hormone. That along with good c02 and a decent fert regimen with help you grow glosso under any light.

This was mine grown under 2 x 18w t8's in a deep 126ltr tank, just to prove it doesn't need high light

uBwL6rK.jpg
 
Ian Holdich said:
Just to back up the light theory...

There is a hormone released by plants called ethylene, which can cause leggyness if not released properly. Decent flow around the substrate should help disapate this hormone. That along with good c02 and a decent fert regimen with help you grow glosso under any light.

This was mine grown under 2 x 18w t8's in a deep 126ltr tank, just to prove it doesn't need high light

uBwL6rK.jpg
Click to expand...

Sorry to ask an off topic question on this thread but what is the big plant in the right hand 1/3 of that scape please ? Thats a lovely scape too :)
 
Yes, I found out glosso doesn't need much light to grow horizontal. Mine has been growing in a low tech tank that has low light due to the light being miles away from the surface. The tank doesn't even get CO2 supplement. But I have decent enough flow to about 10x via 3 externals and spraybars. It's a soil tank. I think Ian maybe right about that hormone. I started with very little(invisible on pictures when I first planted) so it's taking ages to carpet in a low tech but so far so good.

u8j0.jpg
 
Christian Walker said:
Sorry to ask an off topic question on this thread but what is the big plant in the right hand 1/3 of that scape please ? Thats a lovely scape too :)
Click to expand...

Hi Christian, that was an echinodorus tri colour. It was a lovely plant, it would produce all kind of coloured leaf. I think they're available from aquaessentials.
 
You have all the explanation about the effect of hormones on a more compact growth, in the link I have put.
Had the same problem and Clive (Ceg) have explain it there.
you should go trough that thread there is a lot of interesting infos !!!!
 
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Hi guys!

Thanks for your responses!

George - there is no livestock in the tank as of yet so I have whacked up the CO2 in an effort to avoid any deficiencies. I also started off with only one light as advised by the guys at the Green Machine, but the glosso and the marselia were growing very tall. Cracked on the other light and it improved the situation. The glosso came in the Tropica 1-2 grow pots and i was advised that you could plant it in chunks so did so initially. After a couple of weeks of vertical growth, I trimmed and replanted individual leaves but still to the same result..vertical growth :crazy:

Zanguli- I've heard this too but I don't think flow is the issue.... I'm running a Rena XP3 with the tank... which flow rate is at 1350lph unloaded. This would smash everything in the tank about if it wasn't for my poppy pipe. To test the flow at the bottom, I have injected the micro solution to see how it carries and the flow disperses it in a less than 2 seconds!

The light I'm using is a UP Aqua luminaire and the little voice inside my head is always concerned that there is something wrong with it as it was so cheap?! It was purchased from Tankscape and has anyone had any experience with this or am I just being over worried?

Thanks very much for your help!!!
 
Structural problems are almost always caused by the lack of CO2/flow distribution. In all honesty you need not worry about lighting too much. As mentioned by the above posts with good CO2 or flow distribution the carpeting plants will grow horizontally. CO2 is definitely more important than light in my opinion when dealing with leggy growth. Having high lights may make it worse when the CO2 and flow does agree with the lighting.
 
Unfortunately I can't give a definite answer on that as I personally don't run a High tech tank and have no first hand experience on this matter. What I have said before was from various thread regarding similar issues so it worth taking a look at the CO2 section of the forums.

Michael.
 
Have been experimenting for the last week or so and have cut the lighting down to just one bulb (24w). In theory this should be enough to sufficiently make the glosso grow horizontally.... But it persists or growing vertically?! Co2 remains on what it was for two bulbs. So no the drop checker is truly very yellow!!

Running ferts at triple dose and same for liquid co2
This has got me thinking that the actual light unit is rubbish? It was a cheapy one from tankscape

UP PRO-L 43cm (2x27w) T5 Fluorescent Luminaire Light

Is it possible it just is abit of a knock off??

gytaha4a.jpg
 
Hey ed, that pic above screams to me "more co2/better distribution".

There's some gda and leggy glosso, both would indicate lack of co2 in these regions. As good as a drop checker is, there's nothing like looking around the tank to see what's going on. Good luck with it mate?
 
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