Slow, steady (and impatient!)!
Why do I punish myself with
Staurogyne repens in every set up?! In this tank it is in several different locations and each plant now seems to have lost loads of the lower leaves. I can't seem to turn it around. It can only get worse!
None of the other plant species (e.g.
Micranthemum sp. 'Monte Carlo'), show any problems. The 'Monte Carlo' continues to spread out, the
Pogostemon erectus looks great and is getting taller each week. I still have no algae whatsoever on the rocks or plants, and just the tiniest amount of 'stuff' on the glass in the places where I miss with the algae scraper (plastic card!).
For the main group of
Staurogyne in the back middle I have the Koralia Nano circulation pump pointing straight at it (though there's a bit of
Microsorum in the way).
I have a Eheim 350T filter with minimal media (1050 lph) plus the Koralia at 900 lph. Plenty of surface agitation from a skimmer on the filter inlet. Plus the outlet creates a vortex. CO2 is injected using an UP inline diffuser. For 8 hours the aquarium is lemonade is every corner!
CO2 on: 12:00 pH = 6.8
Lights on: 14:00 pH = 5.8
CO2 off: 20:00 pH = 5.8
Lights off: 22:00
KH = 5
EI ferts (aquariumplantfood.co.uk)
Easycarbo 5ml per day
Even with a 1 pH unit drop, my Vietnamese minnows seem to suffer a bit from acidosis (unless they just are simply enjoying the flow coming out of the outlet)...
For the first few weeks the LED lights produced 20 PAR at the substrate level. I've since increased the light a notch but we're still talking low light here.
As these
Staurogyne have been planted for only about 7 weeks in a light-limited aquarium, I guess the problem might simply be that even now, older emersed leaves are being 'sacrificed'. However, it is painful to watch. I'm seriously thinking about increasing the light to speed up whatever is going on!
I can see that the
Staurogyne has really deep roots going right down to the very bottom of the aquarium. I guess another option might be a severe trim, but can a plant really grow from just the roots and a bit of stem alone?
P