# Problems with alternanthera reineckii



## lainealex (Sep 27, 2009)

I am growing all kinds of difficult plants quite easily, such as myrio tuberculatum, rotala wallichii, ludwigia peruensis, ludwigia inclinata, etc etc. But this one, easy to grow plant, alternanthera reineckii, is my most challenging plant. My water is RO with GH booster in it. GH is around 4 to 5, KH is 0 to 1, I use pfertz daily, the full line, substrate is Fluorite, CO2 is pressurized, lighting is compact fluoros @ 5WPG for 8 to 9 hours daily. 

What could be the problem?

The alt rein is crinkled, grows algae, dies back - it's just really not happy.

I have heard other people say they can't grow this plant - is it something about the soft water?

Thanks,

Lainey


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## lainealex (Sep 27, 2009)

I just stumbled onto some pictures of my alt rein from a couple of months ago and it was doing really well. The leaves were big and full and there was no algae or crinkling. So something has changed in that tank. The only thing I can think of that happened was that the tank got overgrown for a few weeks and the alt rein was shaded. That's when the problems began. But I didn't think that could be the reason (the shade) because I keep reading that alt rein does OK in shade. 

Do people think maybe it was the period of shade that caused the algae and wrinkled leaves? 

I have about twelve bunches of this plant and I don't want to lose them - they were spectacular for a while there...

Thanks,

Lainey


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## chad320 (Mar 7, 2010)

Its been my experience that this plant likes alot of light. Algae is usually a though one because it holds its lower leaves for a long time, and once theyre shaded start to fade.


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## lainealex (Sep 27, 2009)

Turns out that one of my two compact fluorescent bulbs blew out. I knew the tank didn't look right!

And the alt rein looks more and more awful each day.

Lainey


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## timwag2001 (Jul 3, 2009)

i have the exact opposite experience. they need enough light but not too much. they did fine under 1 wpg but not great. i put them under 2wpg t5ho and they did better. i went to 2wpg t5ho with 1wpg regular flouresent and they werent doing to good. when i went to 4wpg they started doing worse and i threw them away



chad320 said:


> Its been my experience that this plant likes alot of light. Algae is usually a though one because it holds its lower leaves for a long time, and once theyre shaded start to fade.


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## thrak76 (Aug 3, 2009)

timwag2001 said:


> i have the exact opposite experience. they need enough light but not too much. they did fine under 1 wpg but not great. i put them under 2wpg t5ho and they did better. i went to 2wpg t5ho with 1wpg regular flouresent and they werent doing to good. when i went to 4wpg they started doing worse and i threw them away


Hmm... I've not had much luck with A. reinickii yet, either. I recently reduced my lighting in an effort to curb BBA, so maybe the reinickii will start to do better as well. I had 3 54w bulbs over a 75g, and recently reduced it to 2 bulbs. Time will tell...


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## NJAquaBarren (Sep 16, 2009)

Mine does well with:

-2 T5HO bulbs, 13 hrs duration, 28" from substrate 
- full Pfertz
- floramax large grain substrate.
- pressurized co2 at ~20ppm
- 50% weekly WCs
- ph 7 to 7.4
- GH 180

It has always done well, but it does collect some algae, more than other plants, which I remove with trimming. I just assume that's because it grows slowly.

My red substrate has lots of iron. Could that make a difference?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## chad320 (Mar 7, 2010)

Yes. Mine has @ 65w PCs for 8 hrs. and 2 150w MH for a 2 hour burst. Mine like alot of light. All of my other paramaters are normal otherwise. I do give them some 10% DTPA Fe for a boost once in a while tho.


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## lainealex (Sep 27, 2009)

In general, I thought this was an easy plant to grow. And yet I have not found it to be easy - I am always having to worry over it and fuss with it. From what people are saying, it's not that easy, is it?

Lainey


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## timwag2001 (Jul 3, 2009)

keep one stem there and put one in a lower lit tank. i bet you it does better in lower light


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## Crispino L Ramos (Mar 29, 2008)

ime, it prefers hard water - doesn't grow well in RO water.


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## lainealex (Sep 27, 2009)

Thanks, Cris. I'm afraid that may be my problem, the RO. It's just too much work to make this plant happy when I can easily grow much more challenging species - obviously something fundamental is wrong.

But I love it!

Lainey


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## reybie (Jun 7, 2007)

I've never had luck with this either. All the times someone gave me a stem, it stunted and just disappeared/melted away.


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## lainealex (Sep 27, 2009)

Well, I'm determined, so today I pulled out all the alt rein and the rest of the plants in the tank, a 20 long, and I soaked them all in diluted HP, then replanted, added root tabs and am increasing the GH. The light and CO2 could not be much higher, so I am not changing them.

We'll see if this works.

Here are pictures of it from the rescape looking all scraggly and ragged. I will take follow up pics if my big plan is a success.

Lainey


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## timwag2001 (Jul 3, 2009)

since you dont want to alter your lighting, how about trying to plant a stem all the way to the side of the tank and grow something over it so its shaded. i bet if you diffuse the light it do awesome


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## lainealex (Sep 27, 2009)

I've already tried the low light approach with this plant maybe half a dozen times. I've placed it in basically every level of lighting possible. The only time I ever had any luck at all was in the tank it's now in at high light/high ferts/high CO2 but I'm pretty sure my GH was around 9 and for the past couple of months the GH has been at 4 because I had some licorice gouramis in that tank. I had forgotten this until Crispino reminded me about it. Today I moved the LG out, and will raise the GH back to 9 and see what happens. 

Here is the same plant in the same tank back in May when the GH was 9.

Lainey


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