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Pinnatifida help

David Edwards

Member
Joined
7 Mar 2018
Messages
52
Location
Market Drayon, Shropshire
I wonder if anybody can shed any light on the following.

I have pinnatifida in my tank from tissue culture attached to ricks and wood. It seems to do well for a while sending out side shoots and growing well then seems to deteriorate. The leave appear to get tiny holes in them and fall off and the stems seems to rot?

I assume the holes may represent some form of deficiency? Everything else in the tank seems to be growing well and not showing any deficiency.. I dose regularly using my own salts micro and macros

Anybody have any thoughts on this?
Thanks
 
Not an easy plant to grow for me. Tried it twice and lost it to quick death of the emerged leaves, followed by slow death of the submerged leaves. I have medium light and I guess it needs higher light to thrive.
 
My LFS sells this emersed and these don’t usually do well submerged. Kinda hit and miss for me.

Try to get trimmings from nearby hobbyists?
 
My LFS sells this emersed and these don’t usually do well submerged. Kinda hit and miss for me.
Exactly.
I have failed a few times with emersed and Tropica 1-2-grow.
No issues growing it when I got some stems after LFS trimmed in a display tank.
Rescaped a few weeks ago and have added 1-2-grow, so let's see what happens this time around.
 
I had no issues using a 1-2-grow pot, no real melt or die back to report. I'm finding Pinnatifida grows like a weed and needs constant trimming, otherwise it'll take over the whole tank :eek:. The next time I have a big trim (probably in a few weeks, as I did one this weekend) I'd be happy to post out all of the trimmings to somebody foc.
 
Konrad Michalski......grows lovely Pinnatifida!...:thumbup:
Strangely enough he lives in the same area as Laybones51.

Therefore could be a water parameter issue elsewhere!
hoggie
 
Yes, I never had much luck either with the said plant!
My tap water is hard.
Can grow it emersed...don't have much success in the aquarium:(
Cheers
hoggie
 
Have grown it emersed in a covered tank a few years back!
Even got it to flower:D
I think you will struggle to get it not to dry out....above the water surface.:meh:
hoggie
 
Well.............

Been struggling with H Pin. for quite some time and ended up with having to bin the batch, Got some H Pin. from @Konrad Michalski and it does seem to be doing much better than my first batch

No idea why but something must not be right in your tank. In my tank it’s worse than a weed. I removed everything and left only few tiny twigs for myself, 3 weeks after I sold another batch. And then week after had to bin loads of small runners as it just takes over the tank.


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Seems a very hit and miss plant for everyone. I have only ever bought it as a tissue culture plant and as mentioned in my original post, it grows well for a time before it then dies off with the older stems shedding leaves and the stems appearing to rot before that then manifests in the newer offshoots.

I use remineralised RO water, ei dosing, co2 injection and high light.

Don’t know what I’m doing wrong, if anything, but the responses so far suggest it’s one of those particular plants as this is not the only set up where this has happened. Having said that the one constant factor is me!
 
I use remineralised RO water, ei dosing, co2 injection and high light.

My initial batch was Tropica tissue culture (I think) and my water is very hard which is what I put the issue down to but maybe it isnt !!!!

@Konrad Michalski where did you get your batch from M8 ?
 
My initial batch was Tropica tissue culture (I think) and my water is very hard which is what I put the issue down to but maybe it isnt !!!!

@Konrad Michalski where did you get your batch from M8 ?

No idea where they come from as I got them years ago from Poland from my brother. They were always growing like a weed.


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Hi @David Edwards

It depends what you want from this plant and be careful what you wish for. Once it’s happy it will take over a tank if not constantly pruned back. There are caveats to pruning that in my experience implicate how you should ideally dose, more on that in a bit....

If you’re using RO and EI dosing there’s no reason not to give this a try. Example of how I’ve prepared water previously prior to dosing any EI at water change:


80L Total

Target ratio range:

Ca:Mg - 4:1 – 3:1 and K:Mg - 3:1 – 2:1

Ca from tap water report here puts it at an average of 116mg/l here, adjust for your area if cutting RO with tap

upload_2020-3-31_8-26-44.jpeg


60 RO/20 TAP

So at water change adding in -

MgSo4
K2SO4 or KCl

I just use Epsom salt and Easylife Kalium (just potassium sulphate or chloride)

You can use salt if you got it but if not Epsom salts and Easylife Kalium are likely to be readily available as this lockdown continues from various vendors.

In real money this works out at water change as:

60l of RO
20l of tap water
8mg of Epsom salt
50ml of Easylife Kalium

So even before target EI dosing parameters for rest of the week e.g. NO3 20ppm, K 30ppm, PO4 3ppm, Mg 10ppm per week, you’ve already got the target ratios of Ca:Mg - 4:1 – 3:1 and K:Mg - 3:1 – 2:1 at water change.

Pruning:

Bit of a longer answer but may be of interest to someone else on here...

How I go about cutting Pinnatifida is also related to how the tank is being dosed at the time i.e. lean dosed (minus additional nitrate, phosphate and iron) or EI.

If we’re restricting the water column I’ll just prune leaves. Encourages smaller growth due to nutrient restriction and the high light will force the leaves to tan.

When dosing full EI the focus is on cutting the runners under the nodes to encourage spreading. Green leaves, more chlorophyll, more photosynthesis, more ability to recover = better spreading growth.

The issue with dosing the water column this way just to suit one species is it may be at the detriment to everything else in the tank. Root tabs and rich soil offers flexibility. But Pinnatifida seems to operate like a conveyor belt, cutting beneath the nodes forces new growth forwards with the top section and the old section below the cut will either snuff it or become a new conveyor belt of growth if dosing is to its liking.

A lot on UKAPS about this plant being difficult/not successful in hard water/prone to burning out.... Have grown it in extremely hard water and soft water with the same success simply by dosing according to its needs that are triggered by the aquascaper through the way its cut - simple.

Context of that conversation here: https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/taking-a-sump-back-in-five-minutes.59010/page-9

Currently switching the above tank back to full tap (very hard water here) and will explain how to optimise for harder water on the above journal soon. Have run the setup both on full tap and RO/tap mix over the last eight months just to trial Pinnatifida growth under different conditions. Pruning style and nutrition both interplay in your outcome.
 
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