Yellow hornwort

[nightfish]

So, its been a while since i have gone onto AC for advice, because actually, everything has been going great! except, 2 or so months ago, i discovered i really wanted to get into a planted aquarium, it looks so much nicer than plastic IMO, that being said, for me, its much harder....I bought some hornwort, it died...i dont let it float, i bury the bottom in the river rock, but the bottom turns dark brown, and very flaky and breaks off if moved, that causes a huge problem, because i now have no plants bunch of yellow hornwort strings. I threw it out, got some ferts, "flourish" potassium, iron and magnesium, when i added potassium it grew and filled up, but was still greenishyellow, nothing like the vivid green i bought it as. now, it says to use it 2-3 times a week if its yellow, i just did it when i did a water change on fridays every week. now the hornwort has broken out of its wrap, and is floating, and it looks very bad! It didnt make sense, all the ferts...what could be wrong? so i thought, the lighting! i have a 36g acrylic bowfront, of course it came with a special light fixture, but it shorted, im not an electrian, i was reassured i would get a new one, even though it was crap, so i threw the other one out. i have had a t8 15w 8000k bulb in an aqueon fixture on top of my slashgaurd. It lights the tank pretty well, but i have come to realize, im not getting no where close to 1 watt per gallon, infact less than half. could that contribute to my hornwort dying?

[Strider199]

I agree with you nightfish, real plants look way better then plastic.

Just because a certain type of plant doesn't work in your tank dont give up. If the hornwort doesn't thrive try another low light plant like java fern.
It took me about 6 months before I found the type of plants my set-up could sustain. It was alot of trial and some error but now I enjoy the look and the plants that did survive my introduction are doing well.

[nightfish]

thanks for your reply Do you think i should try another bulb? i like hornwort alot, its very unique in the way the, i guess, leaves are shaped, and i like the contrast of it with my gravel, and black background. So i wont give up on it, the only thing i havent tried is a different lightbulb. Do you think a should switch it to a, mhmm lets say 50watt light?

[Scrup]

If hornwort is buried it will rot. If it is wrapped by something (rubber band) it will rot under the rubber band.

It is super messy when it dies. Does your tank have a lot of current? I have only had problems growing it without a light, and even then it still lasts a decent amount of time. Current seemed to be the biggest killer for me. Could be a light deficiency though... I've never used ferts and the stuff grows like a weed in all my tanks, but yellows around the filter intakes or outputs.

[nightfish]

I dont have a strong current at all, and the hornwort is placed on the back wall, far from the current of the filter

[Scrup]

I would go with the light then. Try getting a 6500k bulb if you are upgrading.

[nightfish]

i also failed to mention that i have the light on, which is a t8 18inch 8k bulb, on around 4 hours a day, is that sufficient lighting?

[Scrup]

No...its not.

[nightfish]

i figured not, thanks for that transformer depiction ;) with the considered wattage, how many hours do you think would be enough?

[Scrup]

I am by no means a plant expert, but I run mine 10-12 hours a day. You could possibly get by with 8.