Anyone have any good tips for keeping cambomba (sp?) looking good/alive?
I LOVE the look of this plant, and when I put it into my tanks it's great for a while...then usually ends up dropping needles and eventually just flat-out melting. Obviously, this is less than ideal.
Is Myrio or Hornwort any easier to deal with?
I like the look of the cambomba better than the hornwort, but if it's just going to keep on dying, then it's not worth the expense and time.
- I have several (re: many, they were hitchhikers...) ramshorns, a couple of mysteries, and two bettas in several divided 20g longs with all live/natural plants
- no filter (it was redundant), heater kept at about 80 degrees
- full daylight CFL 75 watt equiv. bulbs (they have a bluish cast and the plants seem to do really well with them) on for a good 12 hours a day
- ferts with both flourish excel and plain flourish (can't go too much with the excel because I have several types of anachris in there and they can't handle TOO much iron or they'll melt) when I remember...I'm not the best about fertz, no CO2 because I don't want to deal with the pH swings...
- small gravel (tried dirt and I just made a huge mess...) but I use root tabs for the "bottom feeder" plants and I usually leave uneaten food/let waste collect pretty well in the gravel so that helps with root-feeding plants (I just check the water params and make sure things are staying on the level) and I have the snails to help with that as well as my clean-up crew.
So, basically I let it be it's own sort of ecosystem...the snails control algae and help with uneaten food/waste, the plants use the ammonia/nitrite/nitrates that comes from waste and off-put by fish and snails, and I only use fertz sparingly to avoid algae buildup and to make sure the plants are kept "hungry" enough to handle the bioload.
I LOVE the look of this plant, and when I put it into my tanks it's great for a while...then usually ends up dropping needles and eventually just flat-out melting. Obviously, this is less than ideal.
Is Myrio or Hornwort any easier to deal with?
I like the look of the cambomba better than the hornwort, but if it's just going to keep on dying, then it's not worth the expense and time.
- I have several (re: many, they were hitchhikers...) ramshorns, a couple of mysteries, and two bettas in several divided 20g longs with all live/natural plants
- no filter (it was redundant), heater kept at about 80 degrees
- full daylight CFL 75 watt equiv. bulbs (they have a bluish cast and the plants seem to do really well with them) on for a good 12 hours a day
- ferts with both flourish excel and plain flourish (can't go too much with the excel because I have several types of anachris in there and they can't handle TOO much iron or they'll melt) when I remember...I'm not the best about fertz, no CO2 because I don't want to deal with the pH swings...
- small gravel (tried dirt and I just made a huge mess...) but I use root tabs for the "bottom feeder" plants and I usually leave uneaten food/let waste collect pretty well in the gravel so that helps with root-feeding plants (I just check the water params and make sure things are staying on the level) and I have the snails to help with that as well as my clean-up crew.
So, basically I let it be it's own sort of ecosystem...the snails control algae and help with uneaten food/waste, the plants use the ammonia/nitrite/nitrates that comes from waste and off-put by fish and snails, and I only use fertz sparingly to avoid algae buildup and to make sure the plants are kept "hungry" enough to handle the bioload.