# Blyxa Japonica problems



## alan j t (Feb 13, 2008)

what light are you running,ferts,co2,etc.....


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## Seiryoku (Apr 1, 2009)

Blyxa doesn't seem to like me either. Most of mine went to hell, to the point of uprooting on it's own from melting, while my Downoi is growing like a weed...


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## vtkid (Jan 5, 2009)

alan j t said:


> what light are you running,ferts,co2,etc.....


65 watt compact flourecent with a 50/50 bulb, that might be the problem. total substrate pellets from aquariumplants, and one 2l bottle diy co2


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

What size is your tank? My thought is that it had to acclimate to your tank. It will grow back with a little time. Try not to move it around for a week or so.


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## legomaniac89 (Mar 16, 2008)

IME Blyxa need softer water to be happy. I've tried to keep it in hard water and it promptly melted, but it thrives in my softwater tank


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

legomaniac89 said:


> IME Blyxa need softer water to be happy. I've tried to keep it in hard water and it promptly melted, but it thrives in my softwater tank


I disagree with this. I have very hard water and I take out thirty - forty stems a month of this plant. The only thing I have found it doesn't like is low iron levels or co2 too low.


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## vtkid (Jan 5, 2009)

i have it in a 26 gal and i have left it in the same spot for a month or two.?.? I'm more confused than anything for a while a lot of my plants were dying but im not sure of the problem. i will check my parameters in a minute.


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## legomaniac89 (Mar 16, 2008)

sewingalot said:


> I disagree with this. I have very hard water and I take out thirty - forty stems a month of this plant. The only thing I have found it doesn't like is low iron levels or co2 too low.


Hmmm...maybe it's just me. I've been totally unable to grow it in my hardwater tanks for some reason, but it is a total weed in my softwater tank. I must be missing something in there


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## vtkid (Jan 5, 2009)

is actnic lighting bad for planted tanks???


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

legomaniac89 said:


> Hmmm...maybe it's just me. I've been totally unable to grow it in my hardwater tanks for some reason, but it is a total weed in my softwater tank. I must be missing something in there


I'll have to send you some of mine to try. Maybe the key is to buy blyxa from a hardwater source if you want to grow it in hard water.

Back to topic - what are you dosing? If other plants are suffering, it sounds like a bigger problem to me. Either the co2 levels are too low (that is what I suspect) or you are not dosing enough.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

vtkid said:


> is actnic lighting bad for planted tanks???


In my opinion, yes. It caused nothing but bad growth and algae for me.


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## vtkid (Jan 5, 2009)

sewingalot said:


> I'll have to send you some of mine to try. Maybe the key is to buy blyxa from a hardwater source if you want to grow it in hard water.
> 
> Back to topic - what are you dosing? If other plants are suffering, it sounds like a bigger problem to me. Either the co2 levels are too low (that is what I suspect) or you are not dosing enough.


I am only running one 2l bottle for diy co2 
water parameters
GH: 150
KH: 180
PH: 8.4



sewingalot said:


> In my opinion, yes. It caused nothing but bad growth and algae for me.


my light is 65 watt half actnic half 10,000k because that is what came with my fixture and i haven't had money to get a new one.


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## vtkid (Jan 5, 2009)

another thing is I have not had consistant photoperiod, and it is usually more than 10 hours


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## alan j t (Feb 13, 2008)

i grow blxya in all buch of conditions ,low ,med,high light w/co2,
but i always added ferts .even once a week i would dose ferts and in low lighted tanks

i say you would need some ferts to help out yu r blxya


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

I would say get some root tablets and stick underneath the blyxa. They love iron and I really think that would help you. The lighting will be okay since you have half non-actinic. What do your plants look like in general?


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## vtkid (Jan 5, 2009)

alan j t said:


> i grow blxya in all buch of conditions ,low ,med,high light w/co2,
> but i always added ferts .even once a week i would dose ferts and in low lighted tanks
> 
> i say you would need some ferts to help out yu r blxya


 what kind do you use? what would you recommend?


sewingalot said:


> I would say get some root tablets and stick underneath the blyxa. They love iron and I really think that would help you. The lighting will be okay since you have half non-actinic. What do your plants look like in general?


I have some root tabs i have been using. some other plants i have are not looking so hot, the leaves of my stargrass have curled up and aren't growing. My rotala indica is growing pretty well along with some others.
And i have hair algae( i think) on almost all of my plants except the ones growing faster


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## rrrrramos (Jan 24, 2008)

I've found it really depends on where you get the plants from. The first batch of it that I got, all but two stems melted and died off. The second batch I got, all of the stems died. Ironically, the 3rd batch that I got as a '3rd times the charm' thrown in free with some other stuff from a member on here is still alive and actually growing in two different tanks of mine! 
As far as keeping it alive, just plant it and let it be. As long as the stem stays stiff, the plant will bounce back. Moving it around, drastic changes in water, and low CO2 will both make the plant angry.


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## vtkid (Jan 5, 2009)

rrrrramos said:


> I've found it really depends on where you get the plants from. The first batch of it that I got, all but two stems melted and died off. The second batch I got, all of the stems died. Ironically, the 3rd batch that I got as a '3rd times the charm' thrown in free with some other stuff from a member on here is still alive and actually growing in two different tanks of mine!
> As far as keeping it alive, just plant it and let it be. As long as the stem stays stiff, the plant will bounce back. Moving it around, drastic changes in water, and low CO2 will both make the plant angry.


I think i probably have pretty low co2, but then again i dont really have any way to ckeck right now:icon_roll
I see your blyxa is looking pretty good in your tanksroud:
it is weird how plants from different places grow differently.


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## rrrrramos (Jan 24, 2008)

I'm using DIY on both tanks and also have no way of measuring it but they are doing decent in both tanks with the DIY. I think it has a decent amount to do one where they come from, water params, GH of the water, stuff like that. Also you could float them for a while to let their roots grow out because they do even better with intact root structures.


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## vtkid (Jan 5, 2009)

A while ago i saw my SAE nipping at the edges of this plant maybe that has a little to do with its stunted growth


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

The SAE could definitely be part of the problem. I would say if you have narrowed out ferts and the description of your plants sounds like a co2 issue. How are you diffusing the co2? I found a powerhead works wonders for my diy.


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## jrs (Dec 25, 2005)

I too have very hard water and that seems to have no effect on japonicas growth.










As far as its ability to bounce back, I find it is very resilient. The small amount of japonica you see in this tank below actually hitch-hiked in with some Utricularia that I had taken from the tank above. As it was growing I initially thought that I had some weird mutated strain of UG and then as it filled out I knew that it was japonica. 

NOTE: Pic below is just one of those bad scapes that just didn't work out so dont hammer me on it


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

jrs said:


> I too have very hard water and that seems to have no effect on japonicas growth.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Stunning! (You also explained that my blyxa turning red is normal under high light! Thanks.)


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## alan j t (Feb 13, 2008)

vtkid said:


> what kind do you use? what would you recommend?
> 
> i use ferts from orlando
> you know the banner at the top of the page that says GLA


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## vtkid (Jan 5, 2009)

sewingalot said:


> The SAE could definitely be part of the problem. I would say if you have narrowed out ferts and the description of your plants sounds like a co2 issue. How are you diffusing the co2? I found a powerhead works wonders for my diy.


I'm using a mini elite but I think it's working good


alan j t said:


> vtkid said:
> 
> 
> > what kind do you use? what would you recommend?
> ...


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## alan j t (Feb 13, 2008)

ya thats the one
it will last you a while


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

the fert pack is a great deal and fast shipping too!


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## vtkid (Jan 5, 2009)

cool now all i have to do is find some money:hihi:
how do you dose dry ferts?


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## alan j t (Feb 13, 2008)

thera s sticky on water parameters
thats what im using and so far so good


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## fresh_lynny (Mar 9, 2006)

The key to Blyxa is soft water. I grew it in confluent lawns in NYC soft water, dry ferts and Metal Halide light. They love soft water.


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## vtkid (Jan 5, 2009)

fresh_lynny said:


> The key to Blyxa is soft water. I grew it in confluent lawns in NYC soft water, dry ferts and Metal Halide light. They love soft water.


But a lot of people have grown it in hard water though. Like rrrrramos said it might depend on were the plant comes from. I just want to be able to grow it in my water haha


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

The water hardness won't be an issue for you, vtkid. Get your ferts, and if you are still having issues, pm me. I'll be glad to send you a few stems of "hard water" acclimated blyxa for nothing.


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## rrrrramos (Jan 24, 2008)

sewingalot said:


> The water hardness won't be an issue for you, vtkid. Get your ferts, and if you are still having issues, pm me. I'll be glad to send you a few stems of "hard water" acclimated blyxa for nothing.


Like I said earlier, I've found the free blyxa grows the best 
Now I've gotta get ordering those ferts too!


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## vtkid (Jan 5, 2009)

sewingalot said:


> The water hardness won't be an issue for you, vtkid. Get your ferts, and if you are still having issues, pm me. I'll be glad to send you a few stems of "hard water" acclimated blyxa for nothing.


cool, I appreciate the offer, and thanks for all your help so far


rrrrramos said:


> Like I said earlier, I've found the free blyxa grows the best
> Now I've gotta get ordering those ferts too!


It is kind of a pain to have to order all this good stuff off websites isn't it.:icon_roll haha


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

your welcome


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## SvenBoogie (Jul 3, 2009)

Necroposting as I was just about to post a new thread with this same issue.

My blyxa japonica is seemingly falling apart. Lots of leaves/blades coming off, becoming transparent and melting away to shreds, etc. The strange thing is, it is also turning red/golden as if it was happy with lights, etc. 

I'll post some pics of the blyxa in question tomorrow.

This is in a 10g tank with 2 x 26w CF 6500k, on an 8 hour schedule (4 hours on, one hour off, 4 hours on) 2 DIY 2 liters co2 (currently running at about 1 bubble per second) run into the filter intake... dosing via EI method:

1/8 tsp KNO3
1/32 tsp KH2PO4
1/32 tsp K2SO4

3x per week, with 1ml Flourish comprehensive 2x per week.

EDIT: Forgot to mention: Flourite black substrate.

RE-EDIT:

Just now tested water:

pH: ~6.8
KH: 6-7 dKH (107-125 ppm)


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## anh (Jul 20, 2009)

i have the same problem, how resilience are they are growing back? they haven't all melted yet and there are still good leaves in the center. I have a PH of 7.0 and lighting is about 1.4w per gallon.


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## rrrrramos (Jan 24, 2008)

How long have you had it? I've always had a little melt, even on the best plants that I got, and even when I just moved some stems from one tank to another or had them out of water for just a little too long. I also found that when mine turned bright red, those leaves tended to wither away pretty quickly, but the plant itself stuck around.
*Sven*, I'm using pretty much the same setup as you, just pressurized Co2 but at the same bubble rate, same ferts and all, and mine took about a week before they started growing as nicely as they are now.


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## SvenBoogie (Jul 3, 2009)

rrrrramos said:


> How long have you had it? I've always had a little melt, even on the best plants that I got, and even when I just moved some stems from one tank to another or had them out of water for just a little too long. I also found that when mine turned bright red, those leaves tended to wither away pretty quickly, but the plant itself stuck around.
> *Sven*, I'm using pretty much the same setup as you, just pressurized Co2 but at the same bubble rate, same ferts and all, and mine took about a week before they started growing as nicely as they are now.


Thats encouraging, these are in fact brand new, I just set up my scape in this tank and got it going in earnest. I'll give it a week or two and see what happens...


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## marrow (Feb 4, 2007)

I grow blyxa in very hard water, alkalinity is obscene almost any tonina/erio will die in it w/in a week. (I use rain water for those plants). It comes straight from a limestone aquifer and blyxa japonica grows fine w/co2 and ei ( Vals grow unmanageably fast in that hard water).


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## SvenBoogie (Jul 3, 2009)

Here are pictures of what is happening to my Blyxa:


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## oldpunk78 (Nov 1, 2008)

^ that's normal. they'll bounce back.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Yes, that is quite normal. I see some healthy grow there, so I wouldn't worry.


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## SvenBoogie (Jul 3, 2009)

Hmm, so far, no bounce back yet. :icon_frow

I'm hoping for the best, but I came in today to find ongoing rapid melting and leaf loss...


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## vtkid (Jan 5, 2009)

bad news the blyxa is being unreasonable again. after a period of letting go of tank work the blyxa just stopped growing does anyone know if i should move it around or what?


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## marrow (Feb 4, 2007)

Moving plants around particularly blyxa will only slow them down. Shove some fert tabs under their roots and let them alone.


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## vtkid (Jan 5, 2009)

ok cool thats what i have been working on doing


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