# Cabomba Lighting?



## Noahma (Oct 18, 2009)

I never had any luck with it in low or medium light, the stuff just falls apart on me.


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## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

I might be an exception, but Cabomba always grew like weed for me, to the point where I had to pull all of it out. BUT it needs light: the more light the faster it grows and shorter the inter-nodes. The dimmest tank it grew for me was in a 24" tall with ~3 wpg of CF , slightly shaded by other plants, 80-84F temp rage, 6.0-6.5 pH and ~9 dH. I had it before and after I added pressurized CO2 to that tank and I did not noticed any difference in growth pattern.

All that personal trivia aside, I would try a simple test: let a stem or two float on the surface (don't let it bounce around, but maybe anchor it to a spray bar or against other plants). If you have sufficient light at the surface, the stem will develop inter-node roots within 5 days or so. It will fall apart/melt if the light is not sufficient.

If it survives at the surface, then let it grow to the length equal or longer then the height of your tank. Then when you plant it, the top will reach the surface and will start trailing/floating. Given that it will already have a ton of inter-node roots, it should have no problem extracting nutrients from the water column. If it dies planted, it would point out to potential nutrient deficiency. If the stem rots away or the leaves start falling off while the floating part survives, then it would point out to insufficient light.

When topped, Cabomba branches extensively, especially at the surface. So, if you can grow it floating, but not planted, then that would be a way to obtain many stems that you can plant for the looks, and re-plant every couple of weeks.

If all of the above fails, the next step would be to up the light.

My logic might be flawed, but I still hope that I gave you some ideas. Best of luck.


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## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

I guess you got me going, so, I went down the memory lane and found some old pictures:

Planted and trailing on the surface in the old Eclipse System 12 (12G with 17W of t8) 5+ years ago









Semi-alive in 30G unheated goldfish tank under Eclipse 3 2 x 18W T8 (7+ years ago)










Up to mid level in 36G corner under 2x65W of CF (about 4 years ago)


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## allaboutfish (Oct 14, 2011)

mine does great in high light and did ok in medium


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## rocketdude1234 (Apr 8, 2010)

Although you mentioned c. caroliniana, it seems like red cabomba likes good light. We have had it in several tanks. Currently its in a 29g with 38w of t5. We had some previously in a 10g with 20w of cfl and it did not do all that great, but this tank was also not dosed with anything.

I just completed a 3 day blackout and boy did the red cabomba pay for it; 20% of tops had melted, and there was about an overall 20% loss in density. 

A few days back in the light and its doing MUCH better.


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## Gold Finger (Oct 13, 2011)

Thanks OVT! Thanks all! It helps a lot to know what to expect. I am not really surprised about the light, but I am surprised about the CO2 not being a big issue. Despite what the botanists may think, I think maybe it_ can_ fix carbon. In any case, it can do well without added CO2 and that's really good for me!


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