plant growth

[Tener ds]

hi all,just wondering if plants need time to get used to the tank there in?:dk:
look at this pic:

the plant in the middle,on the floating bogwood, has started to grow fast
every leave has new growth and all the leaves are now lifted up,they have been flat for some time.its almost like its been given the kiss off life.
i did think it was dead 3 or 4 weeks ago but now its like its been woken up.
even the nana on the bog wood has gone mad.

 

[FF MkII]

I'm not quite sure what you are asking.

 

[Tener ds]

Lol, do plants take time to get used to a new tank?
Cos the plant has looked like it might be dead for ages and in the last 2ish weeks
It's started to grow lots.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
Dave it is most likely that the conditions in the new tank are richer in some/all of the conditions that plants need to grow.

You can think of this like a triangle, light energy is in one corner and controls the system, and plants can't grow more than the total amount set by the amount of energy in the photosynthetically active parts of the light (the wavelengths absorbed by the pigments in the graph below).

The other corner has CO2, in almost all high-light aquatic systems growth is limited by CO2 availability. If you increase the CO2 you increase growth (and oxygen production). The final corner is all the other nutrients plants require, the macro-nutrients, nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K), and all the micronutrients, magnesium (Mg), iron (Fe) etc.

Anubias "nana" and Java Fern are classic "low light" plants, this means that they can tick over, not growing but not dying in sub-optimal conditions. This could be low light, but it could also be low CO2 and/or low nutrients. A lot of plants can't do this, they have to grow quickly or they can't grow at all, a lot of "high light" plants are like this often because they aren't really aquatics (like Hemianthus "Cuba" etc.).

Your new tank has conditions that have allowed the Java Fern and Anubias nana to grow more quickly, because there is more light or CO2 and/or nutrients.

cheers Darrel

 

[Tener ds]

Cheers darrel
Just seams odd. That plant has been in the tank for ages and it's only just started to grow.

 

[bigbird]

apart from Darrels science class and superb answer, I find like anything, fish, plants etc all need to adjust to find that right balance. When the condition is right or they have sufficiently adjusted, do they then show their true colours, with plants as well. cheers jk :thumbup:

 

[Tener ds]

apart from Darrels science class and superb answer, I find like anything, fish, plants etc all need to adjust to find that right balance. When the condition is right or they have sufficiently adjusted, do they then show their true colours, with plants as well. cheers jk :thumbup:

think ur right m8,had a good look round the tank after its water change and found lots more new growth in there.must be doing something right lol.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Darrels science class

I should be able to do plant growth, as that was my "real job", before I had to start mucking about with the waste water work etc.

There really isn't any magic to growing plants, if you have enough light, water and even the merest trace of plant nutrients, plants will grow. We used to have a really fine fuzz of green algae grow in our distilled water containers, where the water was about at 10microS conductivity, but we don't get it in the de-ionised water at about 1 or 2 microS.

More light, added CO2 and higher nutrients mean plants can grow more quickly, and you can grow a wider range of them, but has the downside that there is more potential for things to become unbalanced and problems occur.

I'm happy having "easy" plants (Amazon Sword, Cryptocoryne spp., Java Fern, Java Moss, Ceratopteris, Floaters etc) just ticking over at low nutrient levels, for me their primary job is to improve water quality, and they are probably the single factor that has the most effect on improving water quality.

cheers Darrel