Elassoma Gilberti

Okay, cool. I'm glad you're on top of that. You probably know more about fertilizers than I do
I don't think you don't need to collect any more hornwort if you already have some and it's happy. It grows really quickly.

By the way, since I started feeding my Elassoma gilberti grindal worms, they're gorging themselves and getting really fat. I'm hoping to report confirmed spawning activity within the next few days. My camera charger got lost somewhere and I just ordered a new one, or I'd update photos of how shiny and pretty they've become. Once I get fry, you're first on the list of people I'm sending them to.

yay! That's awesome. I have a few very sad pieces of hornwort that are just hanging on. There might be a little new growth, though. They were in the tank at my friends store and she told me aperantly what kills hornwort is current. It hates current, so hopefully what I have in this tank that's filterless will recover, but I'd like to get some more so the tank looks like it's more full of plants. I think the Elassoma will like it better. I'm really liking the Miryophyllum though, I'm even thinking of snagging a couple pieces and trying it out in my 40 gallon to see how it does. lots of new growth on that so far.

yay! That's awesome. I have a few very sad pieces of hornwort that are just hanging on. There might be a little new growth, though. They were in the tank at my friends store and she told me aperantly what kills hornwort is current. It hates current, so hopefully what I have in this tank that's filterless will recover, but I'd like to get some more so the tank looks like it's more full of plants. I think the Elassoma will like it better. I'm really liking the Miryophyllum though, I'm even thinking of snagging a couple pieces and trying it out in my 40 gallon to see how it does. lots of new growth on that so far.

Your friend is not correct. I've grown hornwort in extremely high current situations, and it does just fine. What kills hornwort is a lack of nutrients and low, inappropriately spectrumed light. Proof: Picture of my darter tank, powerhead and hornwort right next to one another: http://smg.photobuck...rrent=001-1.jpg
Here's an Etheostoma spectabile chillin' in the hornwort: http://img.photobuck...imiru/019-3.jpg

I grew it in waters ranging from 7-7.5 pH, 6-20 DH.

Be careful with the myriophyllum genus. Some of the myriophyllum species release chemicals that are designed to kill the other species of plants around them. My myriophyllum aquaticum killed all of my Cabomba caroliniana via chemical warfare.

Odd, I had some hornwort in my first tank and it turned brown and got very hard after most of the leaves fell off, when all the plants around it were doing great. I had 6500k bulbs over it, but at the time did not dose fertilizers or add CO2.

the Myriophyllum I have was collected at the local lake, not sure what type it is, but the other plants seem to be doing well too, so hopefully it is not that kind.

Edited by Taari, 29 August 2011 - 08:23 PM.

I had 6500k bulbs over it...

This is something that I learned recently. It turns out that K value is just the color of the light bulb. It does not represent the spectrum of the bulb. If you look at this image from http://en.wikipedia....lor_temperature , you'll see what I mean: http://upload.wikime...-comparison.png
See? The K value is merely how yellow or blue the light is, what color it is.

This, on the other hand, is a light's spectrum: http://www.fosterand...ctrum-graph.jpg
That image came from this website, where the bulb is particularly advertised as a plant grow bulb: http://www.fosterand...cfm?pcatid=4505
Notice the peaks in the blue and red regions of the spectrum. These peaks and the wide distribution of light at many different wavelengths are important for the plant to be able to get energy. It is possible to create a 6500 K bulb without having a peak anywhere on the spectrum except a few points. Such a bulb would appear like it's good for plants, but if the plants can't access the energy at those few wavelengths, then they won't be able to grow. *nods*

I understand the rest of your plants were growing well. Personally, I've found that Ceratophyllum demersum is more affected by inappropriate light than other plants. I put some of that beautiful healthy hornwort you saw in that picture in my previous post into a 10 gallon tank with a low bioload and 'cool white' bulbs, and all of the plant tissue too deep in the tank to access sunlight died and rotted. The stuff close to the window remained bright green, so I think it was the 'cool white' that killed the rest of the hornwort.

...

Also, here's an ID guide for Myriophyllum spicatum. http://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/node/278
It matters because of this: http://www.sciencedi...043135400000397

Myriophyllum spicatum-released allelopathic polyphenols inhibiting growth of blue-green algae Microcystis aeruginosa
Satoshi Nakai, MCorresponding Author Contact Information, E-mail The Corresponding Author, Yutaka Inoue, Masaaki Hosomi and Akihiko Murakami, M
Department of Chemical Engineering, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, 2-24-16 Naka, Koganei, Tokyo, 184-8588, Japan
Received 1 April 1999; accepted 1 August 1999. Available online 18 May 2000.

Abstract
A culture solution of macrophyte Myriophyllum spicatum was subjected to algal assay-directed fractionation on the basis of polarity and molecular weight. As the water-soluble fraction below molecular weight 1000 was the only fraction to inhibit the growth of blue-green algae Microcystis aeruginosa, it was analyzed by analytical high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and atmospheric pressure chemical ionization mass spectrometry (APCI-MS) in order to identify M. spicatum-released growth-inhibiting allelochemicals. Both HPLC and APCI-MS revealed the release of four polyphenols exhibiting growth inhibition effects, i.e., ellagic, gallic and pyrogallic acids and (+)-catechin. A quantitative investigation of their respective inhibitory effects showed that (1) gallic and pyrogallic acids are more inhibitory than (+)-catechin and ellagic acid, and that the autoxidized products of each polyphenol demonstrated growth inhibition. Finally, when the collective activity of a mixture of the polyphenols was examined, synergistic growth inhibition of M. aeruginosa occurred.

Edited by EricaWieser, 30 August 2011 - 07:10 AM.

Hmm, weird. Well, in this tank the hornwort will only get sunlight. The myriophyllum, there are other types of myriophyllum that are aquarium safe, so I'm not sure if this is the bad stuff or not, but the other plants seem to be growing and doing fine.