What's the trick with cabomba?

"Dave M. Picklyk" wrote in message .ca...
Why does my cabomba grow with big spaces between leafs and straggley? Is the
trick lots of light? I only have 2wpg in a 15gal wide. I do PPMD, traces,
and have good values of C02 like 35ppm. All my other plants grow extremely
fast and lush (I have to prune 2-3 times a week) I used to have a bunch of
this stuff but got disgusted with the poor growth that I limited it now to a
little part of the brightest spot in my aquarium. The stem seems to grow
rapidly but the leaf sections grow wide apart and not condensed and thick
like.

It's almost certainly that you don't have enough light. Cabomba really
requires a well-lit tank. For a small tank like a 15g, well-lit
probably means something like 80W. (The watts per gallon rules don't
really work for small or large tanks.)

You might do better with a less light-demanding plant such as
Limnophila, although frankly you might not have enough light for that
to do well either.

- Jim