# The Secret to Downoi?



## stealthypotatoes (Feb 2, 2013)

I've been having trouble growing downoi for the past year. The crowns haven't been dying but they don't change in growth. I had this substrate mix with eco, flora, aquariumplants.com's black diamond. I have amazonia now and it still hasn't been growing well. I see many people growing and selling many crowns. I can barely get my crowns bigger than a quarter. I have cories and sometimes they pull it out but I plant it back after. I have co2 and does EI once in a while. What am I doing wrong?


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## aquarist (Aug 29, 2012)

What is your lighting situation? Downoi is a high light plant and won't grow in substandard lighting. Also what do you mean by you sometimes dose EI? This can also be one of your problems, the key to growing plants is to try and maintain the same parameters, no matter what those parameters are, if you want to use co2 and fertilizers you need to stick with it or don't use them at all. Maintaining a constant environment is ideal and will give you much better results then sometimes doing this or that.


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## GuppyGuppyGuppyGuppyGuppy (Feb 11, 2012)

I think they really really enjoy hard water. Mine were doing well and I had about 40 covering the entire front of my 5.5 gallon. I decided to use distilled water to fill up the tank because I'm a noob and I thought it would be better for everything in the tank, but I was wrong. They all died.

Right now I have 1/2 of a melting one. I'll probably go back to Petsmart and get some for my new tank. Not to hijack, but does anyone know if they work well for dry start?


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## aquarist (Aug 29, 2012)

I am growing mine in Ro/DI water just fine, I have not check the hardness of it but I don't think it's too hard.


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## stealthypotatoes (Feb 2, 2013)

aquarist said:


> What is your lighting situation? Downoi is a high light plant and won't grow in substandard lighting. Also what do you mean by you sometimes dose EI? This can also be one of your problems, the key to growing plants is to try and maintain the same parameters, no matter what those parameters are, if you want to use co2 and fertilizers you need to stick with it or don't use them at all. Maintaining a constant environment is ideal and will give you much better results then sometimes doing this or that.


Two Planted+'s. I usually dose EI in the morning but sometimes I rush out of the house and forget to dose.


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## stealthypotatoes (Feb 2, 2013)

GuppyGuppyGuppyGuppyGuppy said:


> I think they really really enjoy hard water. Mine were doing well and I had about 40 covering the entire front of my 5.5 gallon. I decided to use distilled water to fill up the tank because I'm a noob and I thought it would be better for everything in the tank, but I was wrong. They all died.
> 
> Right now I have 1/2 of a melting one. I'll probably go back to Petsmart and get some for my new tank. Not to hijack, but does anyone know if they work well for dry start?


What do you mean by hard water? I use NY Tap water and I can grow pretty much any plant except for Downoi. Which is pretty annoying.


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## Monster Fish (Mar 15, 2011)

Give it more ferts and don't shade it. It can grow in lower light, just not shaded. Also, NYC tap is soft enough to require the weekly addition of GH booster.


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## stealthypotatoes (Feb 2, 2013)

Monster Fish said:


> Give it more ferts and don't shade it. It can grow in lower light, just not shaded. Also, NYC tap is soft enough to require the weekly addition of GH booster.


What ferts are good? I'm using Nicog's EI kit. It isnt in shade though. What GH booster is good?


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## Monster Fish (Mar 15, 2011)

stealthypotatoes said:


> What ferts are good? I'm using Nicog's EI kit. It isnt in shade though. What GH booster is good?


The EI kit will work. You can either use GH booster from nilocg or use Seachem Equilibrium.


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## wicca27 (May 3, 2009)

i dont find it to hard at all really. i have it in a tank with amazonia and a single cfl spiral daylight light bulb in a 5 gal tank. i got one of the gel packs from petsmart and it has done well. with it in a shrimp tank i dont use any kind of ferts or co2. down side to mine is i dont have enough light so its getting kinda tall. other than that its growing and spreading and getting new baby plants and roots. i just moved some to a brand new tank. a 29 with miracle grow organic potting soil and pool filter sand cap. i will let you know how it does. i know its low light but untill i can get another light bulb i will just have the one aquarium/plant bulb that came with the light when i got it. its nothing fancy just a stock light and bulb i think less than 10 bucks is how much the bulb cost. i never had any melting or anything. i did have snails eat one of the plantlets back to almost nothing and it has even recoverd with no ill effects


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## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

Idk, I'm almost convinced I need virgin sacrifices to get downoi to work for me.


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## stealthypotatoes (Feb 2, 2013)

Will the gh raise affect my fish? I have some angels, kribs, panda cories, saes and ottos


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## AaronT (Apr 11, 2004)

stealthypotatoes said:


> Will the gh raise affect my fish? I have some angels, kribs, panda cories, saes and ottos


Raising KH is more likely to affect fish. Raising GH should not affect pH. 

Pictures of your downoi might help us. Do you have any?


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## TekWarren (Oct 6, 2013)

I had some real ups and downs with...Downoi. Although I wasn't EI dosing or had my DIY CO2 dialed in when I tried it. It melted on me 2-3 times before I lost all of it but a few stragly stems. I moved a few barely surviving stems into a low tech nano I setup back around Thanksgiving and they have never looked better. I have 4 awesome looking plants and they are growing.

Original tank was sand, and just started EI in between one of the melts. In the nano tank I randomly add ferts mostly sprinkle a little CSM+B maybe once a week. I only recently started dosing Metricide at a low dose and they are picking up even more. The nano tank has floramax for substrate.


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## stealthypotatoes (Feb 2, 2013)

AaronT said:


> Raising KH is more likely to affect fish. Raising GH should not affect pH.
> 
> Pictures of your downoi might help us. Do you have any?


The photo was a couple weeks ago


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## Seattle_Aquarist (Jun 15, 2008)

stealthypotatoes said:


> I've been having trouble growing downoi for the past year. The crowns haven't been dying but they don't change in growth. I had this substrate mix with eco, flora, aquariumplants.com's black diamond. I have amazonia now and it still hasn't been growing well. I see many people growing and selling many crowns. I can barely get my crowns bigger than a quarter. I have cories and sometimes they pull it out but I plant it back after. I have co2 and does EI once in a while. What am I doing wrong?


Hi stealthypotatoes,

I can grow Pogostemon helferi (downoi) with low light ([email protected]) and no CO2. They do need good nutrients (I dose EI with root tabs in substrate near P. helferi). When Christel Kassellmann visited GSAS in Seattle she shared that in nature they are typically found in faster flowing 'blue water' streams which indicates a high mineral content. I dose extra baking soda (NaHCO3) to raise my dKH (and PH) and Seachem Equilibrium / Barr's GH Booster to increase my DGH for both for my submerged and emersed plants.

10 gallon; low light; no CO2 (arrows indicate new growth)









Emersed growth


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## Charrr89 (May 15, 2013)

GuppyGuppyGuppyGuppyGuppy said:


> I think they really really enjoy hard water. Mine were doing well and I had about 40 covering the entire front of my 5.5 gallon. I decided to use distilled water to fill up the tank because I'm a noob and I thought it would be better for everything in the tank, but I was wrong. They all died.
> 
> Right now I have 1/2 of a melting one. I'll probably go back to Petsmart and get some for my new tank. Not to hijack, but does anyone know if they work well for dry start?



They so awesome in dsm. As soon as I flood my tank they die tho. I want in on the secret to downoi too..


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## stealthypotatoes (Feb 2, 2013)

Seattle_Aquarist said:


> Hi stealthypotatoes,
> 
> I can grow Pogostemon helferi (downoi) with low light ([email protected]) and no CO2. They do need good nutrients (I dose EI with root tabs in substrate near P. helferi). When Christel Kassellmann visited GSAS in Seattle she shared that in nature they are typically found in faster flowing 'blue water' streams which indicates a high mineral content. I dose extra baking soda (NaHCO3) to raise my dKH (and PH) and Seachem Equilibrium / Barr's GH Booster to increase my DGH for both for my submerged and emersed plants.
> 
> ...


Wow so pretty


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## Ebi (Jun 29, 2011)

Here's my low tech setup... 

10 gallon tank 
Glass top (shaded the lighting a little)
20 inch fuge ray 
Eco conplete (red. Don't think color makes a difference) 
No co2. No ferts. Wc once a week
Ph. 7.2-7.6 





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## stealthypotatoes (Feb 2, 2013)

Ebi said:


> Here's my low tech setup...
> 
> 10 gallon tank
> Glass top (shaded the lighting a little)
> ...


What the heck. I'm so jealous. Maybe its the ph. Mine is around 6.


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## poormanisme (Jul 19, 2012)

I have some in my shrimp tank that are doing just fine. No CO2 and very little water column dosing. I put a flourish tablet under each one. Par is between 20-30. TDS is 140. GH 5, KH 0


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## stealthypotatoes (Feb 2, 2013)

Thats just crazy. Isnt downoi a plant that needs high specs?


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## Seattle_Aquarist (Jun 15, 2008)

stealthypotatoes said:


> Thats just crazy. Isnt downoi a plant that needs high specs?


Hi stealthypotatoes,

See above.


> 10 gallon; low light; no CO2 (arrows indicate new growth)


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## Danu Buntoro (May 26, 2018)

very nice growth


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