# Problems with Alternanthera reineckii



## Cap10Squirty (Feb 2, 2014)

I've had a couple of stems of A. reineckii for about 3 months now and all it does is sit there in my tank...usually until the bottom dies and I replant tiny tops of it.

I use EI with a little extra iron, injected co2, high lighting (4x24w t5ho) about a foot above my tank, GH of 6 degrees, and topsoil capped with sand. I've even tried putting fert tabs under the plants and they just don't grow. 

Any ideas on what I should do to get this plant growing nice and red and healthy? As you can see, this plant is the algae magnet of my tank...I'm hesitant to trim it too much because it's only about 3" tall.


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## Raymond S. (Dec 29, 2012)

I bough Osmocote+ from the Walmart garden supply and use tweezers to put individual pieces of it around the plant. Like 4 on the 4 corners about 1" away from the stem.
Most fert tabs are incomplete...no potassium or not enough. 
What size tank is that ? It looks as if you have too much light in there.
Also how are you planting it ? You need to hold the tip end/w a tweezers and pull it down into the sub. You can't hold the stem up a couple of inches from the bottom and push it down with the stem. If you have you may have damaged it too much.
If you can, I would take out two of the bulbs unless the water is more than 20" deep.
Which bulbs do you have in there ? But just from that picture, there is not enough plants in there to justify 4 bulbs.


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## Cap10Squirty (Feb 2, 2014)

Raymond S. said:


> I bough Osmocote+ from the Walmart garden supply and use tweezers to put individual pieces of it around the plant. Like 4 on the 4 corners about 1" away from the stem.
> Most fert tabs are incomplete...no potassium or not enough.
> What size tank is that ? It looks as if you have too much light in there.
> Also how are you planting it ? You need to hold the tip end/w a tweezers and pull it down into the sub. You can't hold the stem up a couple of inches from the bottom and push it down with the stem. If you have you may have damaged it too much.
> ...


I have some of the newer osmocote plus, I'll try adding some more directly underneath. I plant these like I do any of my other stems, clean off about an inch of the lower stem and use tweezers to pull it into the soil. I know what you mean about breaking the stems...my ludwigia repens snap easily if planted improperly.

As far as light, yes I have a lot of light and over a shallow tank. It's a 20 long. This plant has struggled long before I switched over to high light. Even when it would be shadowed by others it still looks beat.


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## umarnasir335 (Mar 2, 2014)

I think what you have here is simply a co2 problem. Simply put, AR and its variants are co2 hogs. My experience with AR mini was that it just sat there until I doubled my co2. I recommend running at least 3-4 bps.


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## poormanisme (Jul 19, 2012)

umarnasir335 said:


> I think what you have here is simply a co2 problem. Simply put, AR and its variants are co2 hogs. My experience with AR mini was that it just sat there until I doubled my co2. I recommend running at least 3-4 bps.


Same here AR's love Co2. Also, you can remove some of the lower leaves so light can get down there.
scott


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## ced281 (Jul 6, 2012)

I echo the other's users comments about the CO2. Also, keep in mind that you put your AR in not the best location as it is far off the side and probably not receiving much light or water flow. How are you injecting the CO2? Are you using a ceramic diffuser or are you using a CO2 reactor? In either case, the CO2 needs to circulate with the water flow. Areas with low water flow will inherently get less CO2 than areas with higher water flow. That's why ADA designs have their ceramic diffusers in the path of the outflow.

Also, it looks to me that the AR isn't planted deeply enough, otherwise there wouldn't be so many visible roots emerging from the stem.

From my experience in farming AR, they need direct light to get bright red. I have 200+ W LED lights shining on them and they don't turn red until they're about 10 inches from the lights (4 inch air, 6 inch water).


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## Cap10Squirty (Feb 2, 2014)

ced281 said:


> I echo the other's users comments about the CO2. Also, keep in mind that you put your AR in not the best location as it is far off the side and probably not receiving much light or water flow. How are you injecting the CO2? Are you using a ceramic diffuser or are you using a CO2 reactor? In either case, the CO2 needs to circulate with the water flow. Areas with low water flow will inherently get less CO2 than areas with higher water flow. That's why ADA designs have their ceramic diffusers in the path of the outflow.
> 
> Also, it looks to me that the AR isn't planted deeply enough, otherwise there wouldn't be so many visible roots emerging from the stem.
> 
> From my experience in farming AR, they need direct light to get bright red. I have 200+ W LED lights shining on them and they don't turn red until they're about 10 inches from the lights (4 inch air, 6 inch water).


I turned the CO2 up today AND cleaned what turned out to be the dirtiest filter I have ever cleaned - a clean eheim 2213 will probably help somewhat.

For CO2, I'm using a cerges reactor..seems to do a great job of ridding visible bubbles from the water column, and it keeps the drop checker on the other end lime green/yellow towards the end of the day.

For circulation I have the eheim 2213 spray bar and two tiny generic 50gph powerheads one aiming near the substrate spraying left to right and another at the top back spraying right to left.

I trimmed up the A. reineckii quite a bit to get rid of the algae and decaying leaves. I agree about the depth possibly not being right....however that may be due to the bottoms melting out and new roots shooting out of the sides...I specifically remember pushing them as far as they could go and being disappointed with how little plant there was above the soil.

On another note...I have what appears to be some Ammannia pedicellata that is after 3 months finally growing decently for me...no stunting or shriveling or burned tips *knock on wood*...probably can't see it too well in the photo, but it is to the right of the B. japonica.

And finally on a final note, I am a little confused as to why my L. aromatica isn't turning any color other than from green at the bottom to lime green/yellow at the top. It appears healthy but just not anywhere near as colorful as I've seen it in other people's tanks. It's about 2 inches from the surface right now.


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## ced281 (Jul 6, 2012)

Cap10Squirty said:


> I
> And finally on a final note, I am a little confused as to why my L. aromatica isn't turning any color other than from green at the bottom to lime green/yellow at the top. It appears healthy but just not anywhere near as colorful as I've seen it in other people's tanks. It's about 2 inches from the surface right now.


New leaves that are light green / yellow with healthy other leaves is a sign of iron deficiency. Try dosing some additional iron into the tank.

If the lower/older leaves are yellow and shriveled with the newer/upper leaves yellow, then you have a nitrogen deficiency (Which doesnt' seem to be the case).

OR, the L aromatica might be getting photoburned XD.


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## Cap10Squirty (Feb 2, 2014)

I guess yellow is not the right descriptive color...it's the color between the change from green to orange and ten eventually red...so maybe it is yellow, but not the stunted and sickly yellow that would be an iron deficiency. I dose equal amounts of DPTA 11% iron as I do CSM+B. So on micro days the tank gets 1/8tsp of CSM+B and 1/8 tsp of additional iron. 

As far as photo burning...maybe..but why are the Ludwigia "cuba" and Ludwigia repens x arcuata and Ludwigia "rubin" all coloring at 3" from the surface and up? Maybe it is how I have trimmed the L. aromatica in the past? I used to cut the tops and discard, allowing the plant to become very bushy...possibly dividing nutrients between several branches. The ones in question are single new stems...so I think I'll try topping and replanting the tops for a week or two and see if that has anything to do with it.


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## Krispyplants (Apr 15, 2014)

Is that regular or mini? Regular is like a weed.


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## Cap10Squirty (Feb 2, 2014)

I have no idea...when I got it several months ago it was a tall lanky red stem with leaves and lots of flowers so it was obviously emersed. Maybe it's a non aquatic Alternanthera?


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## Krispyplants (Apr 15, 2014)

Cap10Squirty said:


> I have no idea...when I got it several months ago it was a tall lanky red stem with leaves and lots of flowers so it was obviously emersed. Maybe it's a non aquatic Alternanthera?


They may be regular alternanthera's but you should give them time and a little chance. transitioning always take a very long time. My pogostemon helferi took months to go from emerse to submerse,


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