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When to start trimming?

The general consensus is, there is not realy time frame to give in days etc.. 🙂 It all depends on plant sp. and how well they astablish and grow.. If they are growing they can be trimmed and will keep on growing anyway.. If you have plants going nuts in 4 days time, you probably have very easy true aquatics or allready submersed form bog plants which the majority of aquarium plants are and lucky with the parameters in your tank..

Next to this, as said it depends on plant sp. and it's grow characteristics how it is best to trim them. Considering how you like them to grow to accentuate your scape.. If you elaborate on what plant sp. you are refering to and what you would like as end result, it would be a lot easier for members experienced with these sp, to give you a adequate answer or advice.. 🙂
 
Hi Zozo. Thanks for the response. Plants that are growing well are mainly stem plants. I have between two and three inches growth on the stems and the Hydrocotyle is putting down runners and growing like a weed.

Hydrocotyle tripartita
Ludwigia repens Rubin
Rotala rotundifolia
Bacopa caroliniana
Lindernia rotundifolia
Bacopa australis

A surprise is the Staurogyne Repens, which are going well, but these guys I'm going to leave until the roots are a bit more established. All Tropica plants. In the past I was better at growing algae, so not used to the takeoff.
 
Sure. The aquarium is an ADA 60p with a ADA Aquasky moon light. Co2 starts 2 hours before lights on and goes off 1 hour before lights out. Lights are on for 8 hours. Soil is ADA Amazonia with Powersand bottom. Filter is an ADA ES600 and I have a Dici protein skimmer (Vuppa style).

The drop checker is dark green at lights on and lime green about 2 hours before lights out. I'm dosing ADA step 1 and ADA special lights on alternate days, 2 pumps per day and ADA green Bacter at 4 drops per day, but this will go down after this week to 2 drops per day. I'm not measuring any other parameters, just following the instructions on the labels.

The tank was planted 5 days ago after running for 4 weeks to get past the ammonia spike from the Aquasoil.

I spoke to another forum member a while back who is local. He told me my local tap water is more to the soft side with Most elements being ok apart from PO4 being high.

This is on planting day.

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This is 5 days

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You might use some of the Tropica videos for reference - they usually wait for strong growth to be established & good root development before trimming
Initially plants have "stored energy" from their emerse life, initial submerse growth will deplete these energy stores, removing the growing tip (the new submerse adapted leaves) before roots are established & uptaking nutrients, can really slow things down - those aging emerse leaves will already be deteriorating (depending on plant type & environment) & open to algae adhesion 😉

I don't trim until fast growing stems are nearing the surface, you can often see root development on plants that are near the glass.
Depending on your experience level be more or less conservative 😀
 
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