Rotala wallichii no tech

[Conort2]

Hi

Added this rotala wallichii 1 2 grow to my black water tank the other week as I saw something online mentioning that rotala wallichii wasn’t a difficult plant at all and could be grown low tech as long as it had soft water. I thought I’d gamble and give it a go. I was expecting the plant to melt in a matter of days if I’m honest but was pleasantly surprised. The plants only been in there around a week and has at least doubled in size and started to develop the typical form of wallichii. This tank has no ferts at all and a tds normally around the 30-50 mark. I’m using a little aquael leddy light and the surface is often covered in duckweed.

I thought this was a plant that can only survive high tech. Granted it’s not been long so the plant could still fade away but it looks pretty good to me so far.

 

[plantnoobdude]

tds normally around the 30-50 mark

this is the key, softwater and a tank that's not driven too hard is the easiest way to growing decent wallichii.
I have some in a similar setup.
20-30 tds, ada amazonia, full RODI it grows decently well. now if you were to increase lights, or ferts to EI levels im sure the plant will begin to decline, cheers.

 

[Nick potts]

Looks good

A lot better than mine looks in a high CO2 driven tank, I can never get it really flourish, never dies off but looks rubbish.

 

[JoshP12]

Soft water … co2 acquisition better (especially since wallichi comes from soft native waters so it’s genetic can’t cope in harder as well like crypto - use carbonate etc) … low nutrient - metabolism driven slow.

Beauty.

Go lean in the column in high tech and crank the light.

Thanks for sharing this.

 

[erwin123]

I have no problems growing it in low tech. I plant the scraps from my trimming sessions into my low tech and they grow fine. The question is the colour. It has only been in your tank for 1 week and plants need a couple of weeks to adapt to their 'final' form.

My experience is that it will adapt to a more greenish form in low tech- which has apparently nothing to do with light. I blasted my Wallichiis in my low tech with a lot of light but that couldn't stop them from changing to a more greenish form. The red stems went green.

 

[Conort2]

Think it’s fair to say it’s still doing well!

Decided to take the experiment a little further especially after seeing some recent posts on here in regards to growing plants without CO2. Have now added some rotala najenshan, rotala bangladesh and tonina. These are going to be split between both my no co2 no KH tanks I have to see how they get on.

 

[eminor]

amazing, no tech also mean also no filter or pump right ? i have a small tank 2 gallons that i'm trying to grow walichii and tuberculatum

 

[AlecF]

What effect does TDS have?

 

[Conort2]

amazing, no tech also mean also no filter or pump right ? i have a small tank 2 gallons that i'm trying to grow walichii and tuberculatum

I’ve probably phrased this wrong! The tank has an aquael Pat filter and a small power head and is lit by a aquael leddy.

What effect does TDS have?

Not quite sure but this plant is always noted as being a soft water plant. I had seen some mention of people keeping it low tech in soft water so thought I’d give it a go. It’s absolutely exploded in here. The picture doesn’t really give a true sense of this.

Cheers

 

[AlecF]

I'm still learning: I understand soft water and low tech, and I have those, but my TDS tends to be c 300 and hard to get lower than 200, eve though I have a powerful filter,

 

[Conort2]

Rotala will need removing from the tank soon, covers probably two thirds of the surface. Seems to be in good health still even though it has been covered with duckweed. This has been removed so should see abit of an explosion in growth again. Still dosing no ferts and water has a tds of 37. The tonina I’ve added seems to be growing quite well too.

Cheers

 

[eminor]

So plant don't need co2 injections after all, i have some success so far with rotala macandra in really low tech tank, at least that's my experience

 

[erwin123]

So plant don't need co2 injections after all, i have some success so far with rotala macandra in really low tech tank, at least that's my experience

looking forward to your next update to your journal. Its been more than a month. I haven't tried Macrandra in my low tech tank yet so I would be interested to see how much of the red/pink colour you are able to maintain in low tech. (I think its a given that most aquatic plants can grow in low tech except some marginal aquatics... however, sometimes the plants with CO2 seem to have better colour)

 

[eminor]

looking forward to your next update to your journal. Its been more than a month. I haven't tried Macrandra in my low tech tank yet so I would be interested to see how much of the red/pink colour you are able to maintain in low tech. (I think its a given that most aquatic plants can grow in low tech except some marginal aquatics... however, sometimes the plants with CO2 seem to have better colour)

i will, yes color of my rotala macandra is better in high tech so far, walichii is easier in low tech so far but without co2 it grow slow actually in my tank, but in a good shape

 

[erwin123]

26 March

2 April


1 week of growth in low tech and Wallichii is also a weed

No CO2, no liquid carbon, just an Aquazonic Spectra 60 LED light at the lowest setting.
Water column dosing ppm wise, I think I am dosing more than my high tech tank (because its a small tank and sometimes I can't be bothered to measure exactly the 0.4ml I need to dose and probably dose more)
The height of the AR Mini on the left can be used for comparison.