plant advice!!

[kat and james]

heya

just looking for some plant advice, we've got some twisty reed type things which keep going brown, and breaking away and then floating around the tank.. ANNOYING

the other plants seem to be doing well, especially the java fern. so my question is what can i do for these plants to help them grow better? do they like specific temperatures/pH/etc..?

thanks

kat and james

 

[Lateral Line]

Java Fern is an almost indestrctable plant that will grow in almost any water type and in very low light. The twisted reedy stuff sounds like a species of Vallisneria, there are several species, and several twisted cultivars, so I'd need to know a lot more to get to specifics.

Vallisneria, (colloquially "Vallis"), is a slightly more demanding plant than JF, but emphasis on the slightly. It will tolerate a wide pH and hardness range, temperature between 20-28C (depends to a crtain extent on the species).

The thing with a lot of "plant problems" is light. To get the best out of Vallis, you need "Medium" light. This is normally defined as 2 Watts per gallon of full spectrum, (4500K - 6700K), light turned on for 10-12 hours a day. This is a rough guide and assumes an "average" sized tank of regular rectangular shape. Small tanks need more, tall tanks need more, large tanks usually somewhat less. A tall hex is a nightmare to light, a 2m rectangular - easy.

Twisted Vallis species/cultivars generally need a little more light then their straight versions.

 

[kat and james]

i think the problem will be the temperature. we recently had a really nasty bought of white spot, the treatment required the temperature to be upped to over 80 degrees! which would mean the temp is far too hot for these plants!
thanks for your help, the white spot is gone, and the treatment is ended, so we will be putting the temperature back down to normal today!
thanks again
kat and james

 

[Lateral Line]

Raising the temperature increases the life cycle rate of Ich. It cures nothing.

 

[kat and james]

we were told to increase the temperature, coz the ich can't survive at higher temperatures, this is the same with every person we have talked to, and every site we have visited. furthermore while the temperature was at normal nothing happened, only once the temperature was increased did the white spots start to disappear.
but the bought is over now.. the white spot is gone.. and all is good.

 

[Lateral Line]

Raising the temperature high enough to kill the parasites would also kill the fish. Raising the temperature increases the life cycle rate thus gets the outbreak over with quicker.

Read my post, (the fourth post), in this thread.