Difficulty with bucephalandra "minis"

[anewbie]

Well, that's not good. I've had mine just over 6 months now but it isn't producing any more leaves. Argh.
Have you guys run across any that are relatively "bulletproof?" Especially minis?

Thank you everyone for your help and insight so far, I really appreciate it!!!

I'm growing all of mine in blackwater and several are doing extremely well (blackwater means very acidic and virtually no nutrients); the kedang is esp perking up since it arrived with almost no leaves alive. It is a variety with relatively small leaves.

 

[anewbie]

So here is the edge of the kedang next to some s. repens so you can see the size - another very easy to grow buce i have is mini apple. mini apple isn't the nices buce in terms of having fancy colours but it does grow every easily and it is small:

I guess the kedang has more colour than i though - no remember both plants have been in the aquarium for over a year and both get almost no nutrients which is why the s. repens is a bit 'holey' though it seems to do fairly well if you can live with the holes.

 

[Zer0Fame]

Hey,

As for media it's the standard stuff...coarse sponge, floss, Fluval bio-fx and a small amount of matrix.

What kind of fish are in the tank? I'm wondering if it might be smart to remove the bio-fx step by step...

Nitrates at .1-.8ppm

That's low. Do you know your tank parameters? Low nitrates can create some problems.

If there's something else I should look at I'd appreciate the advice!

Magnesium would be of interest.

just a handful of these tiny little things run over $100

What?!? Here I can get a full in-vitro cup of 'Mini needle leaf' or 'Lamandau Mini Red' for 5 bucks each.
A 'Kedagang Mini', well grown plant, not in-vitro, is 2.50€

 

[gimme30]

What?!? Here I can get a full in-vitro cup of 'Mini needle leaf' or 'Lamandau Mini Red' for 5 bucks each.

I've been keeping receipts so that someday, assuming I can ever really be "done" with plant stocking, I can tally it up and then decide whether or not I want to jump off a cliff.
Lamandau mini was $14.99 (on sale) or roughly 12 euro so yeah, they cost almost 3 times as much here. And you can pay much more than that for other varieties! I also never buy just one since they're so small. Out of all the plants I've murdered so far buces are the only ones actively trying to do the same to me!

https://www.thorntonco.gov/media/file/water-quality-report

That links to a pdf if you want to see the entire report. Nothing looks out of the ordinary to me but maybe you'll spot something detrimental to buce. Magnesium is listed at 11-21ppm and nitrates in the tank are 40ppm. As for fish there's just neons and CPDs, along with amano and neo shrimp. I keep a few catappa leaves in there for the latter but it's not enough to discolor the water-unless the purigen is removing the tannins.
You mentioned pulling the bio-fx; I can certainly do that, I have various types of bio media lying around I can swap it with. The only reason I'm using it is because the box was damaged so I was able to get it cheap! The easiest to get to would be a bag of K2, or if I dig a little I'm sure I can find regular old ceramic rings. What's the reasoning behind making the change?

I think I mentioned before that all new plants go into this tank first since it's well established, with the idea being that once acclimated I can move them to other tanks that aren't quite as mature. Probably a bad idea, but since they're not surviving, I haven't been able to test it.

Edited to add: I made a mistake listing filter content. I must have had matrix on the brain for some reason but I meant Purigen.

 

[anewbie]

In the us i've been ok with this guy on etsy:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/BuceFarm

HOWEVER it is winter in colorado and i would highly recommend you wait till it warm up a bit.

 

[gimme30]

Thank you @anewbie!! Never occurred to me to try Etsy. And yep, plant buying is on hold until it warms up. I can walk into the LFS and get all the jungle val or java moss I want, but for whatever reason nobody carries bucephalandra.

 

[Zer0Fame]

Hey,

I can swap it with

Not swap, remove. Simple as that.
With the reason to transfer some biology from the filter into the tank.

Unless we're talking about 300 neons in a 30 gallon.

Nothing looks out of the ordinary to me but maybe you'll spot something detrimental to buce.

Sodium. However, that's a rather slow killer, not a quick one.
How long does it take the Bucephalandra to die?

 

[anewbie]

Where did you buy the buce that died ? There is one store in particular that i can think of every rhizome plant (buce/anubia) I have purchased from them rot within one to two weeks.

Also sodium high enough to treat fish is enough to lay waste to all plants in a couple of weeks.