water sprite phenominal growth rate

[Maggie]

I have a new tank doing fishless cycling. I filled it on Sept 12, and have had this water sprite in there for about 3 weeks. It started out about 12" tall and maybe 5" wide. I had it floating until I bought some red root and they were getting stuck together, and it was growing too big. So I planted it in the back. It is now almost 20" tall and over 8" wide in three weeks!! 

I'm not a visual artist nor anything other than pure newbie on aquatic plants and aquarium design, but here's what I have. Some plants took a big hit during shipment (many arrived dead), and I've already removed several that didn't bounce back. Some still recovering. I think I need to do some trimming. Air stone is temporary to help the bacteria until I can get a control valve bc it's too forceful.

(FYI the fake plants sitting on the decoration are going to be used for my quarantine tank when I get my fish).

I cannot wait for fish!! I feel like a kid waiting for my birthday to come.

[StephenP2003]

It's some good stuff for sure, loves nitrates. I accidentally killed some of mine by over-pruning it. I thought it could be treated like a stem plant, but apparently you can't just snip stems off the top to propagate. This time around, I'm going to embrace the chaos of its overgrowth.

[Maggie]

My nitrates were so high I had to do a water change bc the cycle stalled! That and I'm adding fertilizer must be why.

[DaveSamsell]

@Maggie, My water sprite grows like weeds.  Very quickly and the plant has a nice texture.  I have medium light and fertilize moderately to heavy at times, but every tank is different.  I will say though, in my Platy tank, those fish will eat this plant down to the stem, LOL.  

[Dandy Pearl]

My water sprite was doing well until it got over shadowed by some Pogostemon Stellatus Octopus and a piece of rock fell on it.

[Maggie]

Update: I cut the long stem on the right (in the pic from 2 weeks ago) at the point where the new rootball was going wild, took a big piece to float in the quarantine tank (babies finally starting to explore it!) and planted the rest in my 10-gal. Here are pics of all 3 sprites growing like mad. 

Edited October 28, 2020 by Maggie
clarity

[starsman20]

I bought 1 8" sprite from the co op 3 months ago. Its now at least a dozen plants in 5 tanks. In the original 36g there are 3.  1 goes almost to the top and the other 2 more than half way.  These things grow like crazy.  

[Jdogtrainer]

This topic made me laugh.😂😪

I think water sprite is so beautiful. I bought a nice plant from the Co-op about 5 months ago. It didn't do too well planted in my gravel, I dose easy green lightly at 2/3 full dose and only occasionally used root tabs. It does back to where it was nearly dead. 

A month ago I pulled it up, trimmed off the unhealthy portions and potted the very small amount left in a 4" terra cotta pot with organic soil and a coarse sand cap. It's finally growing!

[Jdogtrainer]

[Maggie]

 @Jdogtrainer many of my other plants have died or aren't doing well. I guess the sprite loves my water and is forgiving of my lack of knowledge of aquatic plants. I hope yours comes back strong!

[Daniel]

I bought this back in August and floated it. It is like an iceberg as there is more of it underwater than above. This is the above part.

[Jdogtrainer]

5 hours ago, Maggie said:

 @Jdogtrainer many of my other plants have died or aren't doing well. I guess the sprite loves my water and is forgiving of my lack of knowledge of aquatic plants. I hope yours comes back strong!

Thank you Maggie! I've really struggled with plants too. I changed out my gravel substrate for some Seachem Flourite, applied co-op root tabs and all my plants are doing much better. Even my bulbitis is growing fast.