ROTALA KILL TANK
Starting a new journal to document experiments on Lythraceae family of plants.
Lythraceae include Rotala, Ammannia, Nesaea, Didiplis, and Cuphea.
Those of you who have followed my other journal are familiar with the struggle that I (and countless others) have had with this family of plants. People usually don't know that these genera are closely related. Once you know that fact, then suddenly you will connect the dots and say - Hey! They all stunt for me! Or you'll start seeing similarities in growth behavior and patterns.
As a rule, this family is prone to shoot tip stunting and curling. Many people grow them well under EI conditions (rich ferts) and others grow them well in lean conditions. Why do the tips stunt and misbehave? No one knows for sure. But I suspect it has to do with nutrient imbalance and CO2. Potential secondary causes may be other aspects of care or other environmental causes. Call it Factor X.
As a rule, if you solve the tip stunting problem for one species, you will solve it for others. There is hardly a case where one species never has issues and another does. Some species like Ammannia (old Nesaea) pedicellata or Rotala Red Cross are very sensitive to this Factor X, while the dozen of so species in the Rotala rotundifolia family are not as sensitive. The fine leaf Rotala species of the wallichii group are somewhere in between.
As a rule, light does not seem to be involved in this behavior. Of course, lower light has a way of slowing down all processes, so demand for resources become less acute. It is fair to say that many of these plants will do better in light-limited tanks. Low light tanks may not produce brilliant colors, but generally, they also have far fewer growth issues.
As a rule, old school, low-tech tanks seem to have fewer issues with tip stunting.
As a rule, KH does not seem to matter much. Near 100% RO water tanks can have lots of issues while other high KH tanks have none. Many of those plants have a reputation for being difficult in high KH water. But I'm finding these plants to be very forgiving with water hardness.
As a rule, these plants (especially Rotala) are not aggressive consumers of CO2. They like higher than typical CO2 levels if in a crowded high tech tank. Dark, soil-bottom tanks with no CO2 at all grow these plants just fine too. But if you going the EI way, don't skimp on CO2.
In my tanks, these plants do better with high light, high CO2, rich substrate, EI level macros and low micros. By 'low micros,' I mean 20-30% of typical EI levels. But this belief is based on several experiments on my Dutch style 180 gal tank. YMMV.
I plan to test several of these beliefs in my new 60-gal Rotala Kill Tank.
Purpose of the Kill Tank:
So I'm starting with the Burr Method and will expand out from there. This is not a controlled experiment - no placebo, no double-blinding or crossovers. It's just a tank that I'm going to throw various conditions at. If low-micro works, great. If high-micros work better, great. This is neither a trace tox experiment nor a nod to the mouth-breathers who spew hate on social media. I'm just starting the experiment with low traces levels because it works so well for burr. But I will definitely try high traces. I will try both nosebleed-CO2 as well as low-CO2. I may even add a MonsterRay to the already-bright tank to push it over the edge, at near 200 PAR at substrate.
Nothing is sacred.
I will try very hard to question my own beliefs and prejudices. I may not like the outcomes, but I will learn a thing or two. And hopefully you will too.
SPECS:
Tank: old 60-gal, 4-foot tank. Tank is in garage, on the floor, in a corner. Was used to raise cichlid fry or a quarantine tank for pike cichlids.
Water: Los Angeles County tap water - liquid rock. KH is around 8. GH is, well, I don't know. It's hard water, that's all we need to remember.
Light: two 4-foot Finnex FugeRay Planted+ that puts about 150 PAR at substrate.
Substrate: inert small-sized gravel. Nothing nutritious in the substrate at all.
CO2: pressurized. 2 bps reacted in-tank with Sera Flore 1000.
pH drop: my tap water is usually between 7.8 and 8.1. pH in tank is 6.4, so let's call that 1.5 to 1.6 drop.
Flow: one powerhead
Filtration: one 'pre filter' for powerhead + one AquaClear hang-on-the-back filter.
Fish: no fish at the moment. I suspect that fish will gasp from too much CO2.
Macros: 6 - 0.75 - 6 as nitrate-phosphate-potassium ppm every other day.
Micros: 0.015 ppm Fe from CSM+B; 0.01 ppm Fe from Gluconate; 0.01 ppm Fe from Fe DTPA (Total Fe = 0.035 ppm) every other day
GH: none added as my tap seems to have plenty of both Mg and Ca. May add Ca + Mg later as an experiment version.
Water change: 90% twice a week. Easily done with a large sump pump out onto the lawn. Takes no time at all.
Rotala sp. Red Cross. Completely stunted in the 180 and planted here.
Ammannia pedicellata. This is the hideous condition of the stems I shared with Tom a month or two ago. His plants are now stunning, gorgeous, and flawless.
Another view of the completely stunted A. pedicellata. This and Red Cross are the toughest plants that I encountered in my Dutch tank. Virtually every other Lythraceae species is easier than these two. So the focus will be on these two species. Red Nesea (Ammannia praetermissa) is supposed to be a very difficult plant, but I find it much easier than these two.
Starting a new journal to document experiments on Lythraceae family of plants.
Lythraceae include Rotala, Ammannia, Nesaea, Didiplis, and Cuphea.
Those of you who have followed my other journal are familiar with the struggle that I (and countless others) have had with this family of plants. People usually don't know that these genera are closely related. Once you know that fact, then suddenly you will connect the dots and say - Hey! They all stunt for me! Or you'll start seeing similarities in growth behavior and patterns.
As a rule, this family is prone to shoot tip stunting and curling. Many people grow them well under EI conditions (rich ferts) and others grow them well in lean conditions. Why do the tips stunt and misbehave? No one knows for sure. But I suspect it has to do with nutrient imbalance and CO2. Potential secondary causes may be other aspects of care or other environmental causes. Call it Factor X.
As a rule, if you solve the tip stunting problem for one species, you will solve it for others. There is hardly a case where one species never has issues and another does. Some species like Ammannia (old Nesaea) pedicellata or Rotala Red Cross are very sensitive to this Factor X, while the dozen of so species in the Rotala rotundifolia family are not as sensitive. The fine leaf Rotala species of the wallichii group are somewhere in between.
As a rule, light does not seem to be involved in this behavior. Of course, lower light has a way of slowing down all processes, so demand for resources become less acute. It is fair to say that many of these plants will do better in light-limited tanks. Low light tanks may not produce brilliant colors, but generally, they also have far fewer growth issues.
As a rule, old school, low-tech tanks seem to have fewer issues with tip stunting.
As a rule, KH does not seem to matter much. Near 100% RO water tanks can have lots of issues while other high KH tanks have none. Many of those plants have a reputation for being difficult in high KH water. But I'm finding these plants to be very forgiving with water hardness.
As a rule, these plants (especially Rotala) are not aggressive consumers of CO2. They like higher than typical CO2 levels if in a crowded high tech tank. Dark, soil-bottom tanks with no CO2 at all grow these plants just fine too. But if you going the EI way, don't skimp on CO2.
In my tanks, these plants do better with high light, high CO2, rich substrate, EI level macros and low micros. By 'low micros,' I mean 20-30% of typical EI levels. But this belief is based on several experiments on my Dutch style 180 gal tank. YMMV.
I plan to test several of these beliefs in my new 60-gal Rotala Kill Tank.
Purpose of the Kill Tank:
- Remove experiments from my Dutch tank, so I can focus the Dutch tank for, well, Dutching.
- Keep mostly Lythraceae plants in the Kill Tank, so I can poke, prod, punish, reward the plants to see how they respond.
- Maintain 20-25 Lythraceae varieties in one small tank that can be altered easily.
- Easy change of conditions that will vary from coddling to merciless over the months and back to repeat and re-test.
- Kill tank has the luxury of being ugly. No need to be pretty. It's a farm. Nothing more than an experiment. If you think the tank ugly, find inner strength to deal with it.
- I plan to explore nutrients first. Why? Easy to do. I am starting the experiment with a high macro + low micro formula that burr740 has tremendous success with. After that, I will try high macro + moderate micro, followed by high macro + high micro.
- After that, whichever nutrient combo does best will remain the default setting and then I will experiment with lower light. Followed by lower CO2.
- Trimming should take 5 minutes. Everything will get hacked down to 6 inches.
So I'm starting with the Burr Method and will expand out from there. This is not a controlled experiment - no placebo, no double-blinding or crossovers. It's just a tank that I'm going to throw various conditions at. If low-micro works, great. If high-micros work better, great. This is neither a trace tox experiment nor a nod to the mouth-breathers who spew hate on social media. I'm just starting the experiment with low traces levels because it works so well for burr. But I will definitely try high traces. I will try both nosebleed-CO2 as well as low-CO2. I may even add a MonsterRay to the already-bright tank to push it over the edge, at near 200 PAR at substrate.
Nothing is sacred.
I will try very hard to question my own beliefs and prejudices. I may not like the outcomes, but I will learn a thing or two. And hopefully you will too.
SPECS:
Tank: old 60-gal, 4-foot tank. Tank is in garage, on the floor, in a corner. Was used to raise cichlid fry or a quarantine tank for pike cichlids.
Water: Los Angeles County tap water - liquid rock. KH is around 8. GH is, well, I don't know. It's hard water, that's all we need to remember.
Light: two 4-foot Finnex FugeRay Planted+ that puts about 150 PAR at substrate.
Substrate: inert small-sized gravel. Nothing nutritious in the substrate at all.
CO2: pressurized. 2 bps reacted in-tank with Sera Flore 1000.
pH drop: my tap water is usually between 7.8 and 8.1. pH in tank is 6.4, so let's call that 1.5 to 1.6 drop.
Flow: one powerhead
Filtration: one 'pre filter' for powerhead + one AquaClear hang-on-the-back filter.
Fish: no fish at the moment. I suspect that fish will gasp from too much CO2.
Macros: 6 - 0.75 - 6 as nitrate-phosphate-potassium ppm every other day.
Micros: 0.015 ppm Fe from CSM+B; 0.01 ppm Fe from Gluconate; 0.01 ppm Fe from Fe DTPA (Total Fe = 0.035 ppm) every other day
GH: none added as my tap seems to have plenty of both Mg and Ca. May add Ca + Mg later as an experiment version.
Water change: 90% twice a week. Easily done with a large sump pump out onto the lawn. Takes no time at all.
Rotala sp. Red Cross. Completely stunted in the 180 and planted here.
Ammannia pedicellata. This is the hideous condition of the stems I shared with Tom a month or two ago. His plants are now stunning, gorgeous, and flawless.
Another view of the completely stunted A. pedicellata. This and Red Cross are the toughest plants that I encountered in my Dutch tank. Virtually every other Lythraceae species is easier than these two. So the focus will be on these two species. Red Nesea (Ammannia praetermissa) is supposed to be a very difficult plant, but I find it much easier than these two.