# Hygrophila corymbosa "kompakt"



## CAPisces (Sep 24, 2010)

Hi all, I just got a pot of _Hygrophila corymbosa "kompakt"_ as a present from my boyfriend and I have no earthly knowledge of what it needs to survive. He found it at Wal-Mart, so we all know that they would be of little help in answering any of my questions. 
So, for all of you plant gurus out there, I would really appreciate any help you could give me. 
Right now I have it in a QT with several other plants I just bought, with a HOB filter, clown vomit gravel, lighting from a 40W CFL for about 9-12 hours a day, and a heater that I am not sure is working correctly (water temp feels around 68-70 degrees, but the heater doesn't seem to be kicking on). I dosed the tank with some Nutrafin Plant Grow yesterday.

Thanks guys!
CaPisces


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## chris.rivera3 (Apr 15, 2008)

your clown puke gravel probably won't do you any good unless your dosing your tanks with fertz and/or CO2...gravel generally is inert and won't have any sufficient value in growing plants...look for a suitable plant substrate or at least look for fert tabs/capsules that can provide the nutrients plants need to grow


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## timwag2001 (Jul 3, 2009)

you should be dosing with ferts. nutrafin plant gro is crap. you need to dose N,P,K and trace. hygro corymbosa is pretty easy to grow. i have noticed though that it needs more K than any other plant that i've grown.


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## CAPisces (Sep 24, 2010)

The clown puke is just in my QT. I have flurite in my main tank. The Nutrafin Plan Gro has boron, copper, nitrogen, and chelated iron, zince and manganese, won't that be enough of those elements? In my area of the world, planted tanks just are not the "in" thing and only the stores 80 miles away have what I need. But Tim, I will check out some ferts with a higher potassium content. I just don't want to over fertilize since the plants will be going into a 5 gallon tank with a very sensitive female betta. Any suggestions out there for root tabs other than those from Pfertz? They are always out of stock on the web site.


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## timwag2001 (Jul 3, 2009)

dont need root tabs for that bad boy and it can grow big enough to fill half of that 5 gallon tank. liquid ferts can be bought or you can make them yourself for a fraction of the price. if the 5g is your only planted tank i would probably just buy seachem or rootmedic or something. you need nitrogen, potassium, phosphate and trace. all of them. not just some.


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

It's a pretty easy to grow plant actually. I gave some to my sister who Does not dose ferts and have low light.

They tend to grow tall and skinny though. Root tabs couldn't hurt.

I usually clean my plants with a dip in 1:5 hydrogen peroxyde:water for 5 minutes or so and then rinse under running water. It saves the quarantine time.


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## CAPisces (Sep 24, 2010)

Thanks guys for your help. I really appreciate it. 
Mistergreen, can I do the peroxide dip on a moss ball? And willl it kill off pond snails? A guy at a private LFS (non-big box), told me a cheap way of killing off pond snails with out chemicals is to boils some pennys to get rid of any random pocket grime and drop them in to the QT. It sounded like a sound idea since the copper from the pennys would leach out into the water and as a result it should kill the snails. It's been less than a week and I have seen some baby snails but not like I have seen in a non-treated tank.


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## McGillicutty (Aug 31, 2010)

I have the plant in my nano tank and all I dose is excel and seachem flourish with a 13w ottlite. Grows fine for me.


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

CAPisces said:


> Thanks guys for your help. I really appreciate it.
> Mistergreen, can I do the peroxide dip on a moss ball? And willl it kill off pond snails? A guy at a private LFS (non-big box), told me a cheap way of killing off pond snails with out chemicals is to boils some pennys to get rid of any random pocket grime and drop them in to the QT. It sounded like a sound idea since the copper from the pennys would leach out into the water and as a result it should kill the snails. It's been less than a week and I have seen some baby snails but not like I have seen in a non-treated tank.


Not sure if the penny thing works. You'd need a bucket of pennies for it to kill anything. A salt bath is a good way to get rid of snails.


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## CAPisces (Sep 24, 2010)

Thank you for all of your experiences and advice. I will try the salt bath, MisterGreen. I feel bad killing off the little critters but they just multiply WAY to much.


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## keno (Oct 30, 2009)

I have it growing in three tanks and all three have mineralized soil. In my low tech 20 gallon with compact fluorescents the plant has stayed small. I was able to harvest some stem cuttings from it for my 55 gallon and 200 gallon. Both of the larger tanks have CREE LED lights and the plants just love the light. The plants have stayed short, are very stocky with thick stems. The stem length between the leaves is very close and the plants are very bushy. I didn't know I would like the plant, but it is one of my favorites. I do dose with ferts especially iron.


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## zavikan (Jan 5, 2009)

personally my favorite plant. leaves are large and bright, but plant stays short and wide. The plant is right below the Angel. It has been suseptable to changes though and will completely melt to the point that its just a stalk... but it comes back


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## CAPisces (Sep 24, 2010)

So far I am loving this plant. I has really given my tank some beautiful lime green color while staying just the right size so as to not block everything else out. I am hoping that my LFS will get some more in so I can buy another.


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

Check the Swap & shop forum here... I have a ton of the stuff and throw a bunch away every month. And you can grow these guys out of the water too. Mine has flowered. I'll take a picture of it if I can remember to.


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## Sharkfood (May 2, 2010)

Just FYI, pennies are made of zinc. 

There's some copper in the brass plating, but I doubt it leaches out very fast, especially since brass resists corrosion better than copper. Likely the copper I intentionally dose in my tank 3X a week for plant growth contributes as much or more copper than the pennies would. I've always had snails in my tank. If the copper was dissolving at any appreciable rate, pennies in the fountains downtown would all look silver.


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## Captivate05 (Feb 23, 2010)

mistergreen said:


> Not sure if the penny thing works. You'd need a bucket of pennies for it to kill anything. A salt bath is a good way to get rid of snails.


Oh no, pennies kill things. When we were kids, my sister and I thought it would be a cute idea to change our fish tank to look like a gold course pond. My sister threw some pennies in there, and the next day all the fish were dead. We're talking an established 10g tank with a handful of guppies that had been just peachy for months.

We hadn't even put the golf balls in yet. The only thing that changed in the tank was the pennies. All change stays well clear of my tank stuff now!


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## Sharkfood (May 2, 2010)

> The only thing that changed in the tank was the pennies. All change stays well clear of my tank stuff now!


 
You realize most houses have copper plumbing right? Where do you get the water for your tank?

Then again who knows what might have been on those pennies. I've seen some pennies with pretty "interesting" looking residue on them. That being said, There's a Chinese resturaunt where I lived as a kid that had a small indoor koi pond with about 20 lbs of change thrown in it by customer's kids.


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## Captivate05 (Feb 23, 2010)

Sharkfood said:


> You realize most houses have copper plumbing right? Where do you get the water for your tank?
> 
> Then again who knows what might have been on those pennies. I've seen some pennies with pretty "interesting" looking residue on them. That being said, There's a Chinese resturaunt where I lived as a kid that had a small indoor koi pond with about 20 lbs of change thrown in it by customer's kids.


Not my place! It's too old, and I tested it. So even if it has copper plumbing, it isn't leeching anymore. The place I grew up in was the same. It has copper pumbing, but it wasn't leeching.

Yeah, I have no clue what is on my change, or any cash for that matter. Some of them have been in some _baaaaad_ places.


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## Sharkfood (May 2, 2010)

I'm curious now. I should throw a penny in my daphnia culture and see what happens. They're more sensitive than a pimple on an eyelid. If pennies in the water would harm anything, I'd think the daphnia would be the first to go. Many claim dechlorinated tap water would kill them, although I've been keeping them in tap water for months. I have copper plumbing also.


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## Sharkfood (May 2, 2010)

Just out of curiosity, why would copper pipe stop dissolving?


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## F22 (Sep 21, 2008)

so not to thread jack, but...
I just bought some of this myself, i'm gonna go for root tabs and seachem flourish (found a bottle) and thats all i plan on dosing... how ya'll think i'm gonna do?


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## CAPisces (Sep 24, 2010)

The guy who told me about the penny said that they had to be before a certain year. I decided I was impatient and threw in a handfull of random ones. But you, Sharkfood, are right. Instead of using copper for to get rid of the snails I hired my friends Dorf Puffers. They did an amazing job of killing off the adult snails and a substrate change and plant dip did the rest. 
Mistergreen, I will check out the Swap n' Shop. Thank you for letting me know about your stash, try and remember that picture. I would love to see the flower.


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