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Emersive to submersive: how to promote growth?

GillesF

GillesF

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Joined
21 Jun 2011
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279
Location
Belgium
Hi

My plants are slowly adapting to submersive life: old leaves dying off and new leaves slowly (!) growing. Is there a way to promote growth even further? Should I start trimming? My Hygro is now almost reaching the water surface but most of the leaves are still emersive.

Best regards,
Gilles
 
Well, as has been discussed many times, CO2 grows plants, so maximize plant uptake by having good flow and high injection rates and good distribution. Liquid carbon is is a good supplement to support this. Naturally, high nutrient loading is a must. There really isn't much else. Trimming helps the plant to send out submersed leaves and to become bushier. This is a good technique to use on carpet plants like glosso and HC.

Cheers,
 
I'll trim them today and see how everything goes. So far I can see the glosso and Eleocharis growing too. Actually, all of the plants are growing, just very slow. I'll probably remove the lower, emersive parts of the Rotala and plant the submersive tops too.

By the way, can irregular dosing of liquid carbo cause BBA too?
 
Yes, it can, although sometimes we don't see it as easily because it's algacidal properties tends to mask the effects.

Growth RATES will always be improved by adding more light of course, but we know the possible penalty. If you do increase the PAR then you should also increase flow and gas injection rates appropriately.

Cheers,

Cheers,
 
I trimmed the Hygro and I can now see small, submersive leaves forming at the tops. The Rotala is doing fine although some stems do have signs of CO2 deficiency. I think this was the result of poor CO2 when I was still adjusting at the very beginning. The other Rotala stems which are growing at a faster rate have nog signs of deficiency. I'll have to keep an eye on that though ...
 
The trimming improved growth well, lot's of new leaves. I'm also slowly adding more light to increase growth rate (keeping in mind the nutritients of course). The Rotala is doing well too, beuautiful leaves (although they tend to grow slightly towards the front, lol?).

I do have a "problem" with my hair grass. There's nothing wrong with it, no algae whatsoever, good colour and healthy roots but ... no horizontal growth. The small portions that I planted still look the same after 1 month, even after trimming. Some "leaves" do grow vertically. I'd say it's CO2, but the CO2 is actually higher near the DHG then where the Rotala/Hygro are located since my spraybar goes from back to front. Hair grass isn't a demanding plant regarding CO2 either as far as I know. My DC is limegreen when lights go on and yellow after two hours, lot's of current too, full EI dosing.

What could be the problem? Too much current maybe (it's quite strong at the bottom front)?

Regards,
Gilles
 
Hairgrass is a NO3 and CO2 junkie. You can trim it aggressively and it will start to spread.

Cheers,
 
Thanks mate, didn't know that.

NO3 shouldn't be the problem, I'm over 30ppm/week. I'll add some extra CO2 and start trimming agressively, this did the trick with the stem plants too.
 
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