# Can't grow anacharis or hornwort(!)



## Trapper (Dec 9, 2004)

Howdy folks,

Every plant I've tried to grow had either thrived or at least not melted away, with the exception of anacharis and hornwort. I've also tried another elodea-like plant as well, and it, too, melted.

This is puzzling. I've got hairgrass, chain swords, amazon swords, bacopa, ludwigia - all really doing well. The anacharis-like stuff, though, melts within a few days of introduction and seemingly lives only at the very tips.

The hornwort melted literally overnight.

Water: (in a 75gal tank)
KH: 4.8 degrees
pH: 6.55-6.65
CO2: ~30 ppm
GH: 3 degrees
Temperature: 77 f.
NO3: 12-15 ppm
PO4: 0.5-1.0 ppm
K: 1.5x kent's recommendation
Traces: added weekly with flourish
I do weeklyish large water changes, using my tapwater's 3ppm PO4 to boost my tank to slightly over 1ppm PO4. It takes about a week to get down under 0.5ppm. My tapwater is VERY soft and poorly buffered, so I have to add bicarb and GH reagent. I dose nitrate and K at water-change time.

Light:
4 x 65W 10k/6.7k PC
10.5 hr photoperiod

Substrate: flourite with a sprinkling of sand.

Watersprite, bacopa, lugwigia, et al. grow visibly in the course of a day, O2 streaming like mad, etc. Bacopa has actually taken to growing *out* of the water!

When I brought the anacharis home from the LFS, its leaves had all these little crystals (some insoluble carbonate, I assume) and these have all seemingly gone back into solution or have been resorbed by the now-melted parts of the plants.

Anacharis is one of my alltime favorite plants, and I've *never* had good success with it. Worse, it seems to be something that grows like a weed for normal people.

WTF am I doing wrong?

--Trapper


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## secretagent (Mar 13, 2004)

Calcium!!!! Ive heard many ways to add it BUT you need to think of one that wont ruin your tank.


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## Buck (Oct 13, 2002)

I have no idea why it dont grow for you...your water sounds good, lighting is definately good, maybe too much ? Doubt it , but just a thought. I am wondering what this crystal stuff is all about...maybe it is damaging the plant somehow ?


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## fishyboy (Nov 16, 2003)

it's not to much... it grows form 3 inches to 22 or so in a week for me with the same light and same tank...


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## trenac (Feb 15, 2004)

Trapper...Don't know what your doing wrong, everthing looks good. Maybe it has to do with the crystals. I'm puzzled, because these are two very easy to grow plants.


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## Ibn (Nov 19, 2003)

Try a different source for those plants and see how they fare. You should be able to grow that stuff especially if you can grow hairgrass. You might want to lower the CO2 concentration off a bit and see how it does.

It should be easier to grow than any of the other plants you have listed (other than the elodea-like plant). Mine hits the top of the tank every week, after trimming it down by half, and the last week, it hasn't been fertilized. It's also in the back rear corner where there's less light. That's 12"+/week we're talking about there.


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## secretagent (Mar 13, 2004)

i dont want to disagree, BUT i have read this somewere else and Ive heard calcium is the reason for this "problem" This type of plant will do better if you try some way to "add" it.


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## Laith (Jul 7, 2004)

At a GH of 3 you may have a lack of Magnesium. What's in the "GH reagent" you add? If it's just calcium then you will definately have a lack of Magnesium.

On the other hand, you say the rest of your plants are doing well? puzzler...


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## bigpow (May 24, 2004)

BTW, Trapper, what were their condition when you got them?

It could also be, that the plants were dying already in that LFS, and you brought them home just to melt. (in piece)

GIGO (Garbage In, Garbage Out) principal works all the time.

I had the same thing with my Riccia, for a while, it always had hair algae... then I tossed all away, and got a fresh batch (free of algae) - boom! Now my riccia is always free of algae


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## Trapper (Dec 9, 2004)

Messyroadkil said:


> Calcium!!!! Ive heard many ways to add it BUT you need to think of one that wont ruin your tank.


I add Kent's GH+ reagent to my change water, since the GH out of the tap is only a little north of 1. The stuff recites Ca and Mg salts as its ingrdients, though in what proportion is anyone's guess. There seems to be no patent number, so I can't do a patent search for this.

If we assume that Kent hasn't done something odd, like put only a vanishingly small amount of Ca into its GH stuff, then I reckon I probably have a "virtual Calcium GH" of halfish of my total GH, i.e. somewhere about 2 dGH as Ca++.

Given the prosperity of the tank these days, I doubt I've done any harm.


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## 150EH (Dec 6, 2004)

I don't want to sound like an idiot, but when I first started I planted everything with the lead weight still wrapped around the bunch of stems and had the same problem, all of my Swords, Crypts, etc. would do great but my stem plants would melt away. Do you remove the weights?


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## trenac (Feb 15, 2004)

150eh... Yes, remove the lead weights and plant them in the substrate.


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## 150EH (Dec 6, 2004)

I do, but the newbie (Trapper) might leave them on.


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## Biorium (Dec 24, 2004)

seriously  I got soo much i had to throw away a bunch every week or two. I guess is a thing of nutrients


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## Aphyosemion (Oct 15, 2004)

Okay, there is no way you have a nutrient deficiency that keeps hornwort from growing. That stuff will grow in any water that has adequate light. Back in the day before I knew anything about plants or fertilization I just increased my lighting and BAM, unlimited hornwort growth. With no ferts at all that stuff had to be trimmed and trimmed and trimmed. I didn't use C02 either.
One thing you might wanna try is getting some hornwort or anacharis from another aquarist that is already growing submerged. I don't know about anacharis, but the hornwort I get from the LFS is really bizarre. It seems to be grown emerged or something, because it looks weird and doesn't really grown underwater very well. It is the new sprouts after it has been there a while that are what I snip off to become my new plant.
Just a thought, though. To my knowledge anacharis and hornwort will grow anywhere there is enough light, which is what makes your problem perplexing.
-Aphyosemion


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