I know better but....

[angelcraze2]

So I have an aponogeton crispus and longiplumulosus growout tub and I'm not doing well with it.

My plants are very tiny and a lot have actually died off!

I admit, I hardly take of it, but still, I expected a bit more and even the seeds that fell in the main tank are still small and many didn't make it.

The growout is a 10g or so dirted grow out tub with a 9w LED shoplight. I have a small Elite powerhead circulating water and a heater to keep it at 78°f. I don't really do water changes, so probably missing minerals there. I've topped it off with old tank water from my other tanks, but haven't really removed water.

I got discouraged because they weren't ever doing too well. Do aponogenton seeds take forever to grow into plants?

I'm asking because I finally got the longiplumulosus plant to produce seeds again. This one causes me more trouble, the flower stalks are easy to damage and I only have one mature plant. So I want to do better with them this go.

Any tips for growing out aponos?

[Boundava]

I never had a problem growing out apanos in the 75, but I did have a bit of current in there with the filters and the current makers. Could be the 10 gallon needs a bit more water movement and water changes. I was also dosing with EI ferts and CO2 in the 75 so that could have accelerated things...I did move the seedling into a 10 gallon when they started growing a couple leaves to get them out of the 75 (because they were making a mess of the filter intakes and covering the current makes).

How close is the 10 gallon to your other tanks? I would try to get into the habit of just siphoning out 20-50% of the water when you do WC on the other tanks and see if that helps.

[RiversGirl]

Thoughts that I'd like to share with you:

Asking/wondering specifically about the old tank water that you are using to top off this tank. Do you get it from fully planted tanks? (I think all of your tanks that I recall are densely planted with glorious plants, but am asking just in case you have a fish-only tank as well).

It could be that the original tank's plants have already depleted nutrients, leaving the second-in-line tank's plants hungry. Perhaps try to top off with tap water and see if your plants perk up.


Hopefully you figure out what these plants are missing and will soon have a growing lush tank to harvest from.