Who has had success with scarlet temple?

[knee]

@Rube_Goldfish You can do buce together with some fast growing plants. But waiting until your tank is balanced will be better, specially for slower growing plants. Letting your tank grow in can also determine which spots will be better for slower growing plants that don't require much light.

[OutBout]

On 3/14/2023 at 4:52 PM, Rube_Goldfish said:

So it's reasonable to reach balance or seasoning with easier to grow plants, then start to add more difficult or more expensive plants? I've been holding off on stuff like Bucephalandra until my tank was more seasoned (not that buce is difficult, just expensive). So it's nice to get some validation for that approach.

A seasoned tank will help, but plants will need to go through a transition period when adapting to a new environment. This is seen in emersed versus submerged, CO2 versus non-CO2, inert versus nutrient-rich substrate growing conditions. Bucephalandra is rather forgiving, but is a slow grower and can take forever to get new growth if CO2 isn't added.

[Rube_Goldfish]

Thanks, @knee and @OutBout!

Sorry, @Xr4tiCrew; didn't mean to hijack the thread!

[nabokovfan87]

Pretty sure I just failed with it again.  Lasted a decent amount of time, light got turned up, but might be too little / too late.  Lost all the leaves and what was 7 stems is now 3.  It's not looking great. 😞  This is the first time I've had issues and it's not from algae, so that's a major improvement.

This plant always defeats me, but I will get it going one of these days.  Planning on modifying setup when I move tanks to allow for better root feeding.  I'm hoping this small tweak helps everything to take off.

Edited March 15, 2023 by nabokovfan87
added clarification about algae

[Xr4tiCrew]

Thinking I’ll be cutting down on the East Green. Tank is a hot mess right now, I have three different types of algae thriving all at once.😬 Iwill be giving it a good cleaning tonight. Not sure the scarlet temple is salvageable at this point. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 3/15/2023 at 3:17 PM, Xr4tiCrew said:

Not sure the scarlet temple is salvageable at this point. 

The big leaves you might want to remove to encourage new growth.  Maybe @knee or @Mmiller2001 or @gjcarew can comment on that specifically.

I do see some small, bright red, new growth which means to me the plant is still there and still kicking.

[Rube_Goldfish]

Someone here suction cups stems of Alternanthera reinickii to the glass, close to the light, until it adjusts to the water chemistry and grow aerial roots. @Guppysnail, I think?

Edited March 15, 2023 by Rube_Goldfish

[gjcarew]

It really does best in aquasoil. It's a deceptively hard plant, it grows at a snail's pace when conditions aren't right so it accumulates algae easily. Ludwigia and tiger lotus are what I'd recommend for red plants a newer setup, as they're a bit more hardy.

[knee]

On 3/15/2023 at 3:17 PM, Xr4tiCrew said:

Not sure the scarlet temple is salvageable at this point.

Remove all the infected leaves and trim the plant, you can trim the stems as well so they're all the same height. It's still salvageable. I'm seeing new leaves already. 

Even if it's just the stem, as long as it looks heathy it can still grow. 

I do understand if you wanna get rid of it tho. If you want an easier red plant, to add to the recommendations above, checkout rotala h'ra and ludiwgia palustris super red.

Edited March 15, 2023 by knee

[Guppysnail]

On 3/15/2023 at 6:36 PM, Rube_Goldfish said:

Someone here suction cups stems of Alternanthera reinickii to the glass, close to the light, until it adjusts to the water chemistry and grow aerial roots. @Guppysnail, I think?

Yes I sure do. All my stem plants get suction cupped to the wall under the light just below water level. Once the acclimate and start growing roots and new growth I slowly move them down until roots hit the substrate. Then I plant them where I want them. 
This has the advantage also of I can see it and I do t have a plant melting to goo in the middle of my tank. 
My AR I put in a glass suction cup planter with a touch of gravel. I let the roots grow into the gravel. It did well. I had an imbalance issue and the tank broke out in GSA. Once that cleared up I tried moving the suction cup planter lower in the tank. Sadly it did not do well for me. 

[Xr4tiCrew]

On 3/15/2023 at 4:57 PM, knee said:

Remove all the infected leaves and trim the plant, you can trim the stems as well so they're all the same height. It's still salvageable. I'm seeing new leaves already. 

Even if it's just the stem, as long as it looks heathy it can still grow. 

I do understand if you wanna get rid of it tho. If you want an easier red plant, to add to the recommendations above, checkout rotala h'ra and ludiwgia palustris super red.

Should I stop dosing EG for now? I trimmed everything up and I’ll see how this goes. If I get the same results I’m going with your plant recommendation. Who else runs the AOC light? What brightness are you running. 

[knee]

 

On 3/15/2023 at 6:35 PM, Xr4tiCrew said:

Should I stop dosing EG for now?

You can still dose the recommended amount but I’d do it once a week only. If you do get more plants or when the plants grow more and fill in the rest of the space then I’ll start dosing twice.

No experience with the ACO light but it seems like a good light. I like the way it turns on and off. Wish all lights did that 

Have you tried running the light at a lower brightness before? How did the plant react to that?

[Xr4tiCrew]

On 3/15/2023 at 8:55 PM, knee said:

 

You can still dose the recommended amount but I’d do it once a week only. If you do get more plants or when the plants grow more and fill in the rest of the space then I’ll start dosing twice.

No experience with the ACO light but it seems like a good light. I like the way it turns on and off. Wish all lights did that 

Have you tried running the light at a lower brightness before? How did the plant react to that?

I started off 2nd from the highest setting then noticed algae starting to build so I dropped it down 2 more. I let that go until I posted about this plant and then the majority said it needed more light so I bumped it back to my original setting. I’ve read that a lot of people run it full power for 9-11 hours a day. With my tank being a 20 long maybe I just can’t do that since it’s  not that deep. 

[Sharon M]

On 3/12/2023 at 12:50 PM, Xr4tiCrew said:

This is where I get frustrated with this hobby.  What works for some does not work for others. Increase the light for better growth, but decrease it to reduce algae. 🤦🏻 I guess it’s all about balance. 

I feel this! 

I grow houseplants, and start my own vegetable seeds, have a garden, blah, blah. 

Aquatic plants are challenging. 

They're underwater so you cannot move them around to better light as you can with a houseplant.
Plus you are dealing with artificial light, which is a poor substitute for sunlight.

Sunlight just cannot be replaced, no matter how great the lights are.

It's tough. I've just come to accept that some plants I cannot grow in my tank. 
I'd love to have some red ones, but I do not think they'd do well.



 

[Rube_Goldfish]

On 3/15/2023 at 10:55 PM, knee said:

No experience with the ACO light but it seems like a good light. I like the way it turns on and off. Wish all lights did that

Can you elaborate on this?

On 3/16/2023 at 10:58 AM, Sharon M said:

I feel this! 

I grow houseplants, and start my own vegetable seeds, have a garden, blah, blah. 

Aquatic plants are challenging. 

They're underwater so you cannot move them around to better light as you can with a houseplant.
Plus you are dealing with artificial light, which is a poor substitute for sunlight.

Sunlight just cannot be replaced, no matter how great the lights are.

It's tough. I've just come to accept that some plants I cannot grow in my tank. 
I'd love to have some red ones, but I do not think they'd do well.



 

That's kind of funny; I've had much more success with aquatic plants than terrestrial plants because I never get the watering amount or frequency right on terrestrial plants, and that variable is completely gone for aquatic plants!

[knee]

On 3/16/2023 at 4:44 PM, Rube_Goldfish said:

Can you elaborate on this?

It’s not an instant on and off like how some lights are. It gradually ramps the light up and down which is better for the fish because it doesn’t startle them. I’ve lost a few bigger fish because the lights would suddenly turn off and it would spook the fish. They’d swim really really fast to the nearest source of light, like ambient light from our lamp or the kitchen light and would hit the glass then mess something up internally. 

It can also help with jumpers specially if your tank doesn’t have a lid. 
 

Most lights also offer a ramp up/down option but you’d have to set it up in their app. With the ACO light it’s already a built in feature.