Plant Help

[coner31]

I purchased this new dwarf four leaf clover from my lfs and its been in the tank or about 6hrs now and some of the leaves are turning brown..
And can any body suggest good ways i could plant it so that it forms a carpet

 

[ian]

Sounds like Marsilea hirsuta, this is another plant which is grown out of water, so you'll need to cut off the old leaves in a week or so, when it starts to get established. The old leaves will go brown on it. Remember to get some flow down at the plant and it should carpet OK.

 

[coner31]

well the thing is i bought from my lfs when it was in the water likeball of the other plants i purchased

 

[hensonc4098]

Probably some of the leaves were damaged in transit and during planting too, which are the ones turning brown straight away. However as ian said, the plants are grown out of the water to speed up growth, then when they go to the LFS they get put into water and will be in water in your tank. Therefore the plants will go through a "transition" phase where it changes from emersed growth to immersed growth. Likely most of the 4 leaf clover shaped leaves will die off in this time, and many do not get them back, with new shoots only having one or 2 leaves on them.

 

[coner31]

ok i just wanna ask 3 more things..
1. how long will it take to carpet the tank?
2. how long does it take to grow?
3. if it carpets the tank how will i clean the gravel

 

[hensonc4098]

1 and 2 are dependant. On what?

• The amount of marsilea you put in
• What ferts you are dosing
• What kind of lighting you have
• If you have co2
• What kind of substrate you have
• How well you spread it out
• How much flow you have

If and when it does carpet, using your gravel vac, just wave it over the carpet and this will lift up any surface debris. Some debris will remain stuck in the plants, but that is ok as it will fertilise them.

 

[coner31]

ok im not really sure what you meant but..
i have just normal fine gravel
im not really sure what marsilea, co2 or what you mean by flow
i think i have a 15 watt for my ten gallon
im going to get ferts and plant food pretty soon
and i spread them out about 1-2 inches apart in a blank part in my tank where they get alot of light..

im really sorry about the misunderdtanding guys...

 

[coner31]

ok so i just got the case for the light.. im just gonna read this from the container but im not really sure what it means so..
1. 15w power-glo t8
2.18,000 k super bright aquarium bulb
3. 50 lux
4. energy b
5. 580 lumen and 7500 h
6. ideal for freshwater and salwater aquariums, coral, invertabrates' planted aquariums

 

[hensonc4098]

Ok. Basically you aren't dosing any fertilisers or co2. People dose co2 into their tanks either in liquid form or in pressurised gas form to increase plant growth.
Your lighting is fine for what you're doing at the moment with the tank.
Flow is the output from the filter. It is important as it pushing nutrients around the water to the plants and you don't get "dead spots" where there is no flow.
Marsilea is the actual name for 4 leaf clover. "4 leaf clover" is its nickname, if you like.

Basically, it's going to grow pretty slow there, but should be fine and may carpet eventually.

 

[coner31]

ok thanks.. i will get some co2 or plqnt food really soon and im not really sure if my filter produces that much flow. its a whisper power filter 10 that seems to produce flow

 

[hensonc4098]

Don't worry so much about flow just now. Mainly look at good fertilisers that contain all the macro nutrients (potassium, phosphorus and nitrate) and micro nutrients like iron etc. The majority of store bought fertilisers will not provide this, so the best way to get these is online. The best kinds that I have seen so far that include everything are TPN+ which can be found here or TNC, which is a fairly new brand that is pretty much the same as TPN+ but cheaper. TNC can be found here. These chemicals are labelled to be dosed weekly, however you can split the portion and dose daily if you prefer.

With regards to co2, liquid co2 is added daily to keep levels more constant. The main brands of co2 used are easycarbo which can be found here or seachem flourish excel which is slightly more expensive. It can be found here.

 

[coner31]

i dont think my dad reqlly wqnts mr to buy that stuff online so what are good ferts that i could purchase from my local petsmart in st cathrines ontario

 

[hensonc4098]

You might be able to get seachem products, but I wouldn't bother with any other ferts that you can buy from a store to be honest. They're more often than not a waste of money as they contain very little that will actually benefit your plants.

 

[catfishblues]

The last I checked petsmart has flourish excel. I also have this plant in my ten gallon but I have two 15 watt bulbs and flourite gravel to give it a little more nutrients. mine died off at first and is growing but at a really REALLY slow rate.

 

[coner31]

ok so this plant grows naturally slow? ok thats a relief because i thought i was doing something wrong. whats really annoying is that this plant at first seems to always turn brown right after you clean it.