Limnophila aromatica ‘hippuroides' help

Sinopa

When I first got them they looked like this: http://aishe.tumblr.com/post/444883792

And now...well, the stems are skinny and the leaves are thin. I'm down to about three stems. I can't find a lot of specific information online, a lot of it is very vague and varies from site to site. I'm hoping to get help from someone that actually keeps them.

I bought liquid co2 (flourish) and do daily injections of recommended dosage on bottle.
I also add a "comprehensive supplement for the planted aquarium" every few days as recommended on the bottle
The tank also contains FlourishTabs which are gravel bed supplement for the planted aquarium

I am currently using an LED light
specs: 1.8 watts. 77 lumens. 7000 degree Kelvin. 120 degree angle beam.

I have a biube aquarium (pic: http://www.tropicalfishstore.com/ima...blk_hi-res.jpg) so I'm a bit limited in what i can do.

I think light might be a problem but i don't see how that really explains the thin stem. I was thinking of looking into buying strips of LEds and get them modified to have the highest kelvin and attaching them to the lid of the tank.

My riccia and anarchis are thriving.

redchigh

I would assume it's lighting too... I'd probably cut out the excel and see if it helps... (sometimes carbonates can be harmful.)
If it was me, I would just get some of these:
http://www.lightbulbemporium.com/bul...lk_12_pack.asp

and wire them up to an outlet. You probably know a geek with the 1337 skills to do it.

I would tell you how, but you'd have to sign a waiver in case you do something wrong and get electrocuted/burn down your house/ etc. ;)

Sinopa

spending $95 on lighting for aa plant that cost me less than 20? I'll look into other options though! Thank you, and I'll try cutting out the excel

redchigh

Oh I see. The link I showed you... I was really trying to show you what they look like. You can buy them for less than $20 at lowes/walmart/etc.

Austin

The website you linked shows they cost 95$.

redchigh

fixed. many apologies.

Sinopa

I understand now! I'll go shopping after finals, thank you!

Byron

I've not (to my knowledge) kept this particular plant, but I have a couple general comments that may provide some assistance.

From my research around a couple of my plant groups, it seems this plant is commonly available in an emersed form and a submersed form, and the two look quite different. If the plant was propagated emersed and you place it in the aquarium (i.e., submersed) it may well take on a new form. You don't mention how long you've had this, and as I said I've no personal knowledge of its behaviour, but if this is the case it may sort of die down and re-emerge in the submersed form. Echinodorus species do this regularly; if purchased as the emersed plant, all existing leaves die off and new growth is the submersed leaf form. Just a thought.

The fact that your other stem plants are doing well suggests to me that this is a more likely reason than one of light problems, though that is definitely another possibility. We had a thread here on LED lights a couple months back, and those who have them (if memory serves me correctly) commented that they have issues. You might want to do a search (I think it was the Aquarium Plants section) and track that thread down.

I certainly agree with stopping Excel. In my experience over 20 years I have found there is a lot of CO2 naturally in an aquarium from the fish and bacteria and provided the light is not beyond what is needed, sufficient to balance, along with the comprehensive fert (Seachem's Flourish I assume, good stuff). Dosing with Excel establishes the need for a completely different "balance" with light and nutrients. Eliminating the Excel will mean reducing the amount of nutrients required to balance the light. And I am a believer in "the less stuff added to an aquarium the better the health of the system.'

Byron.

Sweet Aquatics

My experience with hippuroides has been up and down. I purchased 25 bunches and placed them in several different setups. The only setup the plants survived and actually did pretty well was in a soil based tank with cfl above it. I am guessing from this that the plants are high nutrient suckers and light loving plants. This plant also has very fragile stems.

Sinopa

Ah, I have gravel, can't have soil because of the under gravel filter :( I'll try again after I graduate college though and do what you did, see what I get

Thank you for replying! I really appreciate it!