tonina only tank

[mor b]

im setting up a tank with toninas only. could u guys help me with their needs? i allready have t. belem n t. manaus and they r doing great. i couldnt grow t. fluviatilis though.
now this tank has aquasoil, heating cable, 160w over 150L, co2 and full r/o water.
fertilizers are home made by myself
please give me info about the best temp for them ( i have a chiller n heater so controling the temp is not a problem) , the best ph, kh, gh, no3, po4, fe etc...
should i give them also botom fertilizer?

[fabry]

Hi Baruch.

I find pretty strange that you can easily grow Tonina Belem (Tonina Fluviatilis var. Belem) and Tonina Manaus (Tonina Fluviatilis var. Manaus)
but not Tonina Fluviatilis.
They are in fact the same plant or ,better, different local varieties of the same plant (Tonina fluviatilis).
The Genus Tonina is infact monospecific (just Tonina Fluviatilis in it).
The water chemistry required by them does not change depending on the local variety.
These plants are said to be very difficult to grow.
The problem with them is that they cannot adapt to conditions wich are only slightly suboptimal for them.
When you say that Tonina fluviatilis (I presume the variety with broader leaves in comparison to the other two) does not want to grow I can only think that the single plant you are talking about was haveing some problems when you bought it or the location in the tank was not appropriate (light in particular).
Tonina Fluviatilis and all its varieties have very stringent requirements in terms of water chemistry and light.
For growing well they must have very strong light, soft water and a good amount of Carbon.
As long as the light requirements are met you could stay around these values:

Temp = 23-28
CO2= 25-35 mg/l
Alkalinity = 3-6 °dkH
Hardness = 2-5 °dgH
Conducibility = 150-300 microSiemens
pH = 6,4-6,8
NO3 = 5-10 mg/l
PO4 = 0,2-0,5 mg/l
Fe = 0,1-0,2 mg/l (until 1 mg/l if chelated).
Potassium = 10-20 mg/l
Magnesium = 5-10 mg/l

Being an amphibious plant with a well developed root system Tonina fluviatilis will take advantage indeed of a good bottom fertilizer too.

Good luck and let us know.

Regards and Shalom.
Fabrizio

[mor b]

thanks fabrizio
when i say t. fluviatilis i mean the plant with the small leaves

[fabry]

Hi Baruch.
Sorry for the misunderstanding, but I think we are referring to the same thing anyhow.
When I said broader leaves in comparison to the other two I meant leaves less filiform (and then broader- although shorter) than the other two varieties.

Please check this link which has nice images (altough in Japanese).


http://www.rva.ne.jp/plants/gallary_yukei_ta.html

Best Regards.

[FC]

As far as I observed, this plant like soft acidic water. I managed to grew them except one problem, the bottom half of the leafs tend to rot easily.