Hygrophila pinnatifida Problems

[Judi]

I killed it the first time I tried it. I think it got shaded by a faster growing plant. The next time I tried, it kind of sat there for awhile doing nothing, but now that it's established it's growing like a weed.

[ddavila06]

mine grew great on the substrate but i reorganized and pulled those off and left a few on wood...those few have not been doing anything....=/ slowly but surely dying

[150EH]

I added it to my tank after the PA meeting and was kind of worried because in every plant profile I read it was putting out runners and growing on wood and rocks. Somehow in my tank it has done very little with high light, good CO2, EI dosing with Fe, but planted in Flourite. So I thought it could be two things with the first being it may be a root feeder so I stuffed some Osmocote tabs in my substrate but very little has happened, the other though was the growth had slowed due to high light but from what I'm reading here that's not it either, I'm stumped and so is my H. pinnatifida.

I see it in other tanks looking beautiful with a mound of arching leaves and the burgundy undersides give nice color.

Maybe it's water temperature, I let mine drop a little in the winter so my tank is 76 -77 now, pH 7.2 to 6.6, kH 4.5, gH 1.5, or maybe I need to throw in some gH booster?

[jweis]

Funny, I thought it was just newbie me that was not able to get it to grow. I don't want to change my water parameters too much since the other plants are doing pretty well.

[krisw]

Tim, you might be onto something with the temperature. My tank get pretty warm with the MH light. I will say that it can take some time to get established though, like Judi said.

[Cavan]

The problem here is a lack of potassium. Give it more and that will go away.It's a common problem with that species.

[150EH]

I only use the amount of K used in EI dosing and have no idea what ppm I end up with in the tank, how much more would you try?

[DonkeyFish]

I pull out bucketfulls of the stuff regularly... and I am not dosing. Just to throw out a curveball...
I have noticed when I hack back the stems it will send runners out like crazy. Which I suppose isn't terribly unpredictable, but worth noting.

[scientist0724]

Interesting thoughts. Just wanted to put it out there, but I originally planted Hp in Aquasoil, and it was doing great. Then I decided to move the plants into a tank that was a combination of probably 80% flourite and 20% Aquasoil, and it went downhill. Also, in tanks that had Eco-Complete by itself and tanks with a flourite/laterite mix, it died.

Arlene

[krisw]

Interesting thoughts. Just wanted to put it out there, but I originally planted Hp in Aquasoil, and it was doing great. Then I decided to move the plants into a tank that was a combination of probably 80% flourite and 20% Aquasoil, and it went downhill. Also, in tanks that had Eco-Complete by itself and tanks with a flourite/laterite mix, it died.

Arlene

Mine are all in aquasoil too, bit maybe it likes a substrate that's more earthy? Anyone tried in soil?