Ludwigia arcuata

[Sunflower]

Hi, has anyone been successful in planting Ludwigia Arcuata and for that matter any red coloured plants. I bought some Ludwigia arcuata last week from C328. I planted them in my tank but they melted away within a week. Please share some tips. Many thanks.

[Desewer]

http://www.tropica.com/productcard.asp?id=035

please share your tank specs?

another reason for melting could be the plant adapting from emerged to submerged form...

i had some success with rotala macrandra and macrandra narrow red once before.

[ranmasatome]

what is your tank running on?

[Shadow]

yes, been planting that plant couple of times. Share your tank spec please. such as tank dimension, light wattage, temp, co2 level, fert dosing etc

[Sunflower]

My tank specs: 120(L)x45(W)x60(H) but water level only up to 45cm from surface of soil
Light: Lighting is T5 54x4 (total of 216watts)
Temp: Keeping water cool to around 27-28 degrees with a fan(24/7)
Co2: The CO2 injection at 3-4 bps
Fertiliser: Then I was dosing seachem iron (one thread of the cap) and a liquid trace supplements (5ml) once in two days.
Soil: Amazonia II

Thanks guys.

[Sunflower]

My tank specs: 120(L)x45(W)x60(H) but water level only up to 45cm measuring from surface of the soil
Light: Lighting is T5 54x4 (total of 216watts)
Temp: Keeping water cool to around 27-28 degrees with a fan(24/7)
Co2: The CO2 injection at 3-4 bps
Fertiliser: Then I was dosing seachem iron (one thread of the cap) and a liquid trace supplements (5ml) once in two days.
Soil: Amazonia II

Thanks guys.

[blue33]

They prefer cold water, <27 and lots of light.

[Sunflower]

Will it help if i add another maybe 108watts of lights. However i can't help with the temperature because addition of chiller will add to my electricity cost which i am trying to avoid. Bros, are ada fertilisers more effective than other brands because if it does i thought of switching just so i can have success in planting. joy:

[ranmasatome]

Don't need more light. You will notice with your setup that if you put more light they will die faster.

How come you dose all those ferts (iron and liquid trace) but no macro fertilizers?
I would think this would be the first thing to dose? no?

Its like trying to raise a puppy but you don't give it dog food but trying to do it with sesame seeds. Then you try to add more light and its like taking the dog for a run every day still on the same diet of sesame seeds. so your end result is...
1) dog dies.
2) dog dies faster.

same thing is happening to your plants. Although the amazonia II does help a bit.. i think in such a high growth environment macros should be added.

[Sunflower]

Oh i did not know i dose macro first. I will try to do as suggested and hopefully things work. thanks ranmasatome.

[ranmasatome]

If you're going this route then try to hit around 20-30ppm of No3 and 1-2ppm of Po4 weekly. K will settle itself if you're using KNo3 to dose your No3.

If you don't want to think/ use your brain to calculate stuff or understand how things work, then just spend money and buy ADA system. EAsiest system even blur "sotong" (squid) can use...just need to know which liquid and how many press each day.. then press and forget.

[StanChung]

I don't see any potassium in the dosing. No potassium no photosynthesis. Period.

Ranma's got it.

IMO cross fertilizing with different manufacturer's ferts is not recommended if you are not sure.

[o2bubble]

I think if there are enough fishes in the tank, there should not be a need to dose nitrate? I'm dosing all except nitrate for my high light ADA substrate tank with more than 80 fishes (many shrimps as well). L.Arcuata are growing well after the initial period of tank cycling which will take about 2 months. More important is they must not be shaded to get enough light or they will melt.