Reneikii troubles

[angelcraze2]

Is this plant slow-growing or what? I can't seem to grow it nicely. I'm still waiting for it to adjust to my tanks, but the lower leaves seem to decay so I keep trimming the rotten leaves AND the plant, but grows so slowly for me, with small leaves. Or in my 120g with low light, it grows more green. I wish they'd grow taller and get more light, but the let leaves keep dying.

I really want that stem in my 120g. I'm scared to mess with lighting though, there's a good balance with other plants and I don't want to deal with algae. I also like 5000k spectrum the best for the tank. I was hoping my 1w x 18 10k accent LED would penetrate deep enough (PAR) to grow the reneikii, but it doesn't appear to be enough.

I planted them in eco-complete. Should I use something else? Does this stem plant require a lot of substrate nutrient?

[angelcraze2]

The only tank I can get it to grow OK in is one of my dirted 33g tanks. It also has LED lighting, but it grows both the mini and regular version of the plant. Does anyone else find this plant to be finicky?

[angelcraze2]

Ok. I've decided I must have too much shading going on in my 120g. I'm going to try and move plants around so the reneikii gets more light. I noticed one tall stem that pokes out of the amazon sword leaves is growing nicely, but slowly. I really think they need more light than what I have given them.

[Slaphppy7]

Mine took a good while to get going...and they seem to do better with direct light

[angelcraze2]

Ok, thanks Slap! Everytime I buy plants, they seem to transition to the water in my tanks. I think the stems are too short and are too shaded in that deep tank.