WPG for "very high light" plants?

"Elaine T" wrote in message
...
Bill Stock wrote:
"Elaine T" wrote in message
m...

Bill Stock wrote:

wrote in message
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Bill Stock wrote:


The Tropica site lists certain plants as "very high light"

requirements.


Anyone care to hazard a guess how this translates to WPG? I'm

assuming


somewhere close to 6 WPG?

I've yet to see a plant I cannot grow well at 2-3w a gallon.
All aquatic plants are for the most part, low light plants.

Yuo are welcomed to suggest a plant that cannot be grown at 2 w/gal,
I've grown close to 250-300species of aquatic plants over the years.
I've yet to meet one that does not do well at 2 watt gal.

I will say this: more light is not better.
More light= faster growth = faster uptake =more pruning and more chance
of algae.

Regards,
Tom Barr



It's my Water Hyacinth again. It was doing OK for a while, but it's
slowly going brown and mushy now.


Water hyacinth is a bit different than submerged plants. High light for
water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) means the equivalent of outdoor
full sun. I have water hyacinth growing well in a pond where it gets
about 8 hours of direct, strong Southern California sun. It's not
growing as well or as quickly in my other outdoor tank where it only gets
6 hours.

Is your water hyacinth sitting right under your light fixture where it
can get direct light all day?


Yes, they even got sunburnt once, when I filled the tank a bit too full.

They were doing poorly before, but I cranked the light up to 16 hours a
day and they started to prosper. Then they started to go mushy again, so
I raised their temp to 77 and they perked up again. The leaves are bright
green, but the bulbs are going soft and mushy. I can always tell when
they are doing well, they get the long white roots.

I think my lights are losing some of their brightness, although this is
not supposed to be a factor with CF bulbs. I don't know if it's the
fertilzer (too much iron) or something completely different. They
actually seemed to do better before I added the CO2, although I suspect
this is a coincidence. I've also got a minor case of string Algae,
perhaps it's using something they need?

Any ideas?

Well, Tom says it's nutrients and it does sound like they have plenty of
light. Ponders say they need a lot of potash, so give that a try. Perhaps
your other plants sucked too much potash out of the water when the CO2
started. Interesting on the root color - mine have thick clumps of
purplish, almost black roots.

The new root shoots are white spines, before they fill in with the lush
purple you're talking about. I can't imagine what nutrient they're missing,
they get lots of Potash, Trace Elements and Nitrates. Perhaps they're
lacking magnesium.

It was more of an experiment than anything else to keep these things. I just
hope the pond warms up soon, before they all die.

--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com