New Rotala sp.? Sunset compactica

[antbug]

..... ok really, what's wrong with my R. Sunset?

[speedie408]

Not sure what it's lacking bro, but it's lacking something. Mine grows straight and uniform. Strange since the other plants in your tank are healthy looking. Maybe AaronT can chime in.

[mordalphus]

LOL, That's how mine looks if I don't dose water column ferts. Mine turns dark purple too as it shrivels.

I have some random stems in a few shrimp tanks that look like that. As soon as I put some ferts in it perks back up.

Looks like whatever triggered it to do that started about a month or two ago, so maybe think back to what you stopped dosing?

[StrungOut]

Even lacking something this plant is beautiful, would love to have it.

[plantbrain]

Give it to me for a few days, I'll fix it.

I was thinking of a replacement for R. macrandra red...............

Screams CO2.

While CO2 is fine for the other fast growing more established weeds, the new plant is going to have a tougher time. And this species might need more CO2 than the other plants.

I've seen this many times with many plant species, it's a bad assumption to assume that all plants have the same ability and CO2 demand for a given light intensity, in fact, there's no support for that, but there is support for the opposite

[antbug]

Originally Posted by speedie408

Not sure what it's lacking bro, but it's lacking something. Mine grows straight and uniform. Strange since the other plants in your tank are healthy looking. Maybe AaronT can chime in.

When the stems were shipped, they were placed in a box too small. When I planted them I thought they would straighten out, but as you can see, they did not.

Originally Posted by mordalphus

LOL, That's how mine looks if I don't dose water column ferts. Mine turns dark purple too as it shrivels.

I have some random stems in a few shrimp tanks that look like that. As soon as I put some ferts in it perks back up.

Looks like whatever triggered it to do that started about a month or two ago, so maybe think back to what you stopped dosing?

I'm not sure what could be lacking. I was thinking Ca., but I add 1 tablespoon of Tom's Gh booster every week after my water change. Other than that, normal EI with added Fe.

Originally Posted by StrungOut

Even lacking something this plant is beautiful, would love to have it.

I agree 100%

Originally Posted by plantbrain

Give it to me for a few days, I'll fix it.

I was thinking of a replacement for R. macrandra red...............

Screams CO2.

While CO2 is fine for the other fast growing more established weeds, the new plant is going to have a tougher time. And this species might need more CO2 than the other plants.

I've seen this many times with many plant species, it's a bad assumption to assume that all plants have the same ability and CO2 demand for a given light intensity, in fact, there's no support for that, but there is support for the opposite

That's no fun if you fix it. I want to fix it . Co2 huh? My tank is already 7up. Maybe I should look at a different way of adding co2. Right now I have an inline diffuser and I can't count the bps anymore. Maybe it's time to get a sump? I'll bump up the co2 and see what happens.

[sketch804]

this plant is a thorn in my side! I have it in my tank and the color looks nice, it grows decent. But every time I cut a stem it might live for a bit and then the leaves droop and then it eventually melts and dies..I don't get this plant but it seems to love high levels of nutrients and lots of CO2..good luck for real!

Also from the look of it, looks like it needs some more light..IDK just a suggestion as they LOVE high light..

[muntwo]

I observed similar growth in my Rotala sp. 'Colorata' recently and addressed the problem by dosing with Flourish Comprehensive and Excel. Growth has returned to normal, but unfortunately my experience doesn't help identify a specific nutrient deficiency.

[plantbrain]

Originally Posted by antbug

I'm not sure what could be lacking. I was thinking Ca., but I add 1 tablespoon of Tom's Gh booster every week after my water change. Other than that, normal EI with added Fe.

Co2 huh? My tank is already 7up. Maybe I should look at a different way of adding co2. Right now I have an inline diffuser and I can't count the bps anymore. Maybe it's time to get a sump? I'll bump up the co2 and see what happens.

Well, I dose the same as you, so ferts ain't it. I had a bunch, it doubled in size.

Easy plant.

[JoraaÑ]

Increase a bit Calcium and see what happens.....

[antbug]

Co2 was bumped up and I'll add more Gh booster next water change for more Ca. It's the super compact growth that's got me wondering what's up.

[AaronT]

Originally Posted by antbug

When the stems were shipped, they were placed in a box too small. When I planted them I thought they would straighten out, but as you can see, they did not.

They should straighten out. They can curl in a larger box too and I use the small flat rate boxes when I can so I don't have to charge $7 for shipping like some other guys. I take pride in the way I ship plants.

Here's how I'm keeping it.

ADA 90-P tank
ATI 4 x 39 watt fixture 2 bulbs for 10 hours 4 bulbs for 2-3 hours
CO2 1 bps 24/7
mineralized topsoil with a pool filter sand cap
N 0.5 ppm / day
P 0.1 ppm / day
K 1.5 ppm / day
Trace 10 ppm / day (how much trace do you dose? It likes a LOT)
Excel 10 ppm / day

Water is 2:1 RO to tap. Tap is about 4-5 KH and 20 GH.

Rotalas like soft water. They like LOW macros in the water column. If you had a tank with soft water full of different types of plants including Rotalas and stopped dosing the Rotalas will survive every time and overshadow everything else.

If you're dosing the same as Tom that doesn't mean your tanks are identical. Your water source might be different. Your filtration is likely different too. Like Tom, I too find this to be an "easy" plant, however, there are a lot of experienced growers out there that have a bear of a time growing it. This to me classifies it as difficult.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about. This was in mineralized soil with no dosing and very soft water. The plants are Rotala sp. 'Colorata' and Rotala macrandra 'Green'.

[plantbrain]

Originally Posted by antbug

Co2 was bumped up and I'll add more Gh booster next water change for more Ca. It's the super compact growth that's got me wondering what's up.

This plant grew like Kudzu with my rich water column dosing. KH's are another story. But if you live in Sac, it should be the same as mine.
West Sac and Davis have nasty tap though.

I could simply replace the R macrandra with this plant which no one buys, but is pretty. While I'm jokingly asking Antbug for some, I would not mine getting some again, I sold the plants I got to make room for the Bacopa and the L inclinata for a problem scape spot. Antbug has been over and seen my tanks plenty of times. My Tap is around a 20ppm for alkalinity, around 1degree.

I dose about extra 2-3ppm of Ca++ a week with very low GH to begin with. Not much.

Would adding more hurt? No way.

Stunted tip growth is a classic, he and I got the same plant, mine never did that, it got larger and redder. Real nice plant though.

Still, the plants do nicely with rich ferts, and lower Ca+.........otherwise mine should have stunted as well, but they did not.......thus independent.... of any other factors..........it cannot be due to higher fert levels alone or a contributing factor.

This is informative because it shows the range...... independent of other factors......... for nice growth. Then folks can focus on fewer suspects and figure out the growth issue/s.

I've never once found a plant that does not do well in rich water column ferts. Been at it for 15-20 years, hundreds of species.

Got the tanks and plants to prove it. Doing a simple replacement in my tank will quickly tell you what it is not.

[antbug]

I'm down for the experiment. Will you be around tomorrow? I can stop by. I'll keep one stem to see if I can improve it.

Thanks for the info Aaron. I was hoping you would chime in as well. Great pic! Thank you for sharing.

[antbug]

The experiment is under way. 6 stems were just placed in Tom's 120g. I kept 1 stem to see if more co2 will help. Tom's 1st thought after seeing the stems in person was a co2 issue. The stunted growth is a classic sign.