# Bacopa being difficult



## felicity (Sep 18, 2015)

I recently (well kind of, I had it for 2 weeks now) got a bunch of bacopa plant and it hasn't doing very well. 

All my other plants seem to doing pretty good but the bacopa hasn't really grown, the bottom portion of the stem is slowly breaking down. Some of the stems has very sluggishly grown some new leaflets, its existing leaves seem to be falling off one by one if not chewed off by snails (which I think only happens when the leaves are already in poor condition). 

I am not sure what can be done to save them, I had to consistently trim down the stems because they keeping breaking down. :|

I keep my tank at 80F, 13w of cfl at 6500k 6hrs everyday. I do a 1/2 dose of leafzone and flourish every week. I have fluvel shrimp stratum for substrate. I have 3-5ppm of nitrates on a average day.

and to be sure, this plant is bacopa right? I am new to aquariums and plants but it looks like the bacopas from Google.


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## Daisy Mae (Jun 21, 2015)

Yes, it is Bacopa. 

My Bacopa is planted in Fluval stratum too. The only thing I can suggest today is maybe plant the stems a little bit apart from each other. Is it possible the stems are being bruised by the rocks (which are probably helping to anchor them down)?

You can cut the stem midway between nodes. Then hold the bottom of the stem and then push down with tweezers into the substrate so that one pair of leaves is buried it may help to keep the plant anchored. 

Hopefully this plant starts to do better for you.


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## Carmex (Dec 1, 2014)

I'd recommend trying root tabs. My bacopa seems to like the seachem brand.


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## Raymond S. (Dec 29, 2012)

What kind of fixture is the CFL bulb in? Vertical or horizontal?
What size tank/how far from the sub is the fixture?
If by heater you have it @ 80 drop it to between 76-78F
Seems most plants in picture look like they could use longer light hrs. but don't know
how far fixture is from sub at the moment.


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## FatherLandDescendant (Jul 24, 2014)

felicity said:


> I keep my tank at 80F, 13w of cfl at 6500k 6hrs everyday. I do a 1/2 dose of leafzone and flourish every week. I have fluvel shrimp stratum for substrate. I have 3-5ppm of nitrates on a average day.


First off;
How big is the tank, and how far from the light is the substrate?

Second;
A 1/2 dose of commercial ferts 1 time a week *IS NOT* enough. Commercial ferts are mostly water and have to be used at around 3x the label amounts to begin to approach a somewhat sufficient level to provide for a high demanding plant like bacopa. Also 3-5ppm of nitrates isn't enough, most of us try to maintain 10-15ppm minimum.



felicity said:


> and to be sure, this plant is bacopa right? I am new to aquariums and plants but it looks like the bacopas from Google.


Looks like bacopa to me. You might want to space the stems out a bit, in your pic they are touching one another. You want enough space between the stems that the leaves won't overlap. Trim the bottom leaves off when planting, leaving just a small portion of the leaf, do this on the bottom 2 nodes, the part left behind will act as an anchor while the stem produces roots to anchor itself.

I have found that bacopa is a quite demanding plant. Until I started injecting pressurized CO2, AND dosing full EI ferts in their salt forms I had VERY sporadic success with bacopa. Now that I dry dose and inject CO2 I'm starting to see side shoots, need to trim on a frequent basis, and it has gone so well in fact that I may soon have enough of the tank filled in that I can start finding new homes for excessive plants.

Bump:


Carmex said:


> I'd recommend trying root tabs. My bacopa seems to like the seachem brand.


Biacopa aren't root feeders, they are water column feeders.


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## felicity (Sep 18, 2015)

My tank is 2.5 gallons, the light fixture is about...hmm 7-8 inches from the substrate, its a vertical bulb. 

I think the problem with bacopa is it doesn't really match up with the rest of my plants. My tank is small and mainly consist of anubias and java fern, they are slow growers so I been holding back on fertilizers. 

I thought this was a relatively easy plant because it was labelled as a "beginner" plant. I'll bump the temp down to 78.


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## FatherLandDescendant (Jul 24, 2014)

felicity said:


> My tank is 2.5 gallons, the light fixture is about...hmm 7-8 inches from the substrate, its a vertical bulb.
> 
> I think the problem with bacopa is it doesn't really match up with the rest of my plants. My tank is small and mainly consist of anubias and java fern, they are slow growers so I been holding back on fertilizers.
> 
> I thought this was a relatively easy plant because it was labelled as a "beginner" plant. I'll bump the temp down to 78.


Should be enough light, just not enough ferts.

Hardly a beginner plant IMHO.


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## Carmex (Dec 1, 2014)

FatherLandDescendant said:


> Biacopa aren't root feeders, they are water column feeders.



Actually, I do believe they're both. I've seen them mostly planted, hence the root tab suggestion. And I have had some planted in my pea puffer tank for the last year without issues.


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## plantetra (May 17, 2014)

I have Bacopa in my tank and the first 2 weeks I rarely saw any growth and the all of a sudden i see it growing crazy tall. The only change I made was some Nitrogen 2x that week but that was for some other plant but I think this used it too. Or it could have been acclimating for the first two weeks.


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## strangewaters (May 13, 2015)

plantetra said:


> I have Bacopa in my tank and the first 2 weeks I rarely saw any growth and the all of a sudden i see it growing crazy tall. The only change I made was some Nitrogen 2x that week but that was for some other plant but I think this used it too. Or it could have been acclimating for the first two weeks.


Like mine. Its stupid tall right now i think maybe im wrong lol









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## JMN16150 (Jul 21, 2012)

I find that B. monnieri tends to grow more easily than B. caroliniana most of the time. Although they have quite the lengthy acclimation period compared to most others.


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## Fish Em (Jul 3, 2015)

felicity said:


> I recently (well kind of, I had it for 2 weeks now) got a bunch of bacopa plant and it hasn't doing very well.
> 
> All my other plants seem to doing pretty good but the bacopa hasn't really grown, the bottom portion of the stem is slowly breaking down. Some of the stems has very sluggishly grown some new leaflets, its existing leaves seem to be falling off one by one if not chewed off by snails (which I think only happens when the leaves are already in poor condition).
> 
> ...


I have issues with mine. It grew really tall but the leaves fell off at the bottom half. So I hacked it where the leaves fell off and replanted it somewhere else in my tank with root tabs and potting soil-all better! My temp is 82 f too. No melting, browning or shedding. I have mine separated. Also, if it is close to water wisteria (in your pic?) you will want root tabs and move. My water wisteria steals all the nutrients so nearby plants don't have a chance. My vallis almost died while I was on vacation because of that.

Bump:


JMN16150 said:


> I find that B. monnieri tends to grow more easily than B. caroliniana most of the time. Although they have quite the lengthy acclimation period compared to most others.


This is true.


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## dukydaf (Dec 27, 2004)

plantetra said:


> I have Bacopa in my tank and the first 2 weeks I rarely saw any growth and the all of a sudden i see it growing crazy tall. The only change I made was some Nitrogen 2x that week but that was for some other plant but I think this used it too. Or it could have been acclimating for the first two weeks.


 I agree with plantetra. I was monitoring the growth of individual Bacopa plants for an experiment. Although not the purpose of the experiment, some observations were:
1. this plant does better when it is anchored in the substrate than free floating 
2. this plant is stressed when frequently moved around in the substrate and will grow less 
3. this plant should be allowed 2 weeks in one position without disturbance to evaluate a real growth rate
4. this plants should have at least 4-6 leaves on stem to ensure fast secondary budding

Also some ferts will help. Also I had it in hard water, low light aquarium with no problem.


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## harilp (Feb 23, 2013)

Mine grows well if left alone and give some good amount of light and co2 










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