Old Scale's Misbehaving Glossostigma

[Old Scales]

Apparently carpet plants aren't my thing. Not yet. The Glosso I planted in my new scape nine weeks ago wants to grow up not sideways. 29g tank, quad T5HO Aquaticlife, PPs-Pro ferts, Pressurized CO2 with Glut added too, Eco-complete fine grade substrate. The runners seem to want to stay well above the substrate as they spread and then grow straight up. actually had a few runners as high as the Vesuvius sword plant shown on the right side. LOL I'm going to keep trimming it down and see what happens. Pics of before and after trimming attached. Pictures got reversed. Before shot is on bottom. OS.

 

[bcarl_10gal]

One thing ive read with glosso is it may grow upwards if there is not enough CO2 at the bottom of the tank. Move your drop checker close to the bottom and see what the reading is.

 

[Old Scales]

Hmmm. You may be onto something big time as I have a filter baffle on my HOB. I'll check it out. Thanks. OS.

 

[Brookster123]

OS! New thread?!?! I think bcarl has a good idea there!!

 

[bcarl_10gal]

I dont have any experience with it but I had strongly considered it in my tank and did a good amount of research about it

 

[Fresh2o]

Hmmm. You may be onto something big time as I have a filter baffle on my HOB. I'll check it out. Thanks. OS.

Which HOB are you using? If you have access the the plastic strips commonly found on hinged glass tops, cut one to the width of the HOB outlet, bend it a bit downward and place it onto the lip of the HOB. You may have to take pliers to compress the part of the plastic that would normally attach to the glass top so that it has a tight fit onto the filter. You can alter the curve of the plastic to direct the water along the surface, down the the bottom, or somewhere between. Plus, no noise or splash. I use this with a pair of AC50s in my planted tank.

 

[Old Scales]

Hi David. How's it going? What I have now is a bottle baffle that makes all the flow come out both ends sideways. Hardly any flows straight out and down. This is a leftover from when I had really tall stem plants right in front of the filter. I'm taking it off and will see if it helps. The Fluval 206 canister flow also stays kind of on the top layers. I'm going to put the drop checker way down low tomorrow like bcarl suggested and see what it shows. Thanks guys, I'll keep you posted on the results. OS.

 

[Coyne]

I had the same issue when I gave Glosso a try in my grow out/test tank. Some research suggested that you need to trim it to get it to grow horizontally.

That said, mine eventually uprooted itself and floated to the surface... but I think that might've been more of CO2 and/or fertilizer issue. I hadnt started dosing the PPS-Pro yet and had only just hooked up the CO2 and dont think I was using enough.

 

[Old Scales]

Thanks Coyne,
I think I'm dosing enough PPS-Pro but still maybe not getting enough CO2 in the tank. Drop checker is not quite truse green by the end of the six hour dosing/light period. I'm carefully and slowly uping the bps. The new C3 HOB definitely off gasses the CO2 more than the AC50 did requiring more CO2. And yes, my runners seem to be getting higher out of the substrate and uprooting easily. OS.

 

[bcarl_10gal]

Any updates?

 

[Old Scales]

LOL Hi bc
I'm not giving up yet. It is wanting to grow up more than out. I trimmed it down and pushed some of the longest runners back down into the substrate, A friend is sending me a start of UG. Going to plant it in a section and see how it does. If it carpets better the Glosso will slowly "go away". I got 3 bamboo shrimp yesterday to see how they will do in my water. I'd like to have some Amanos or Cherrys but with a 3" angel they'll have to be pretty good sized. >1". What's going on with your watery money pits? OS.

 

[Brookster123]

Watery money pits haha, ain't that the truth... It's funny how one tank can be doing so well while another is nothing but trouble.. Plants are great in one while at the same time fish are not.. And vise versa.. Luckily it's so rewarding or else the stress and torment would have me posting in the free section on CL.

 

[bcarl_10gal]

OS,

I started a really cool project on my tank and now i think i have everything working well again. Plants suffered a bit though... May post a big update on my tank in my journal today

 

[Old Scales]

Cool! Please do. OS.