# Help With Rotala Rotundifolia



## K_Hedin (Dec 27, 2010)

Hello all,

I have a 10 gallon planted tank. It has a 15 watt T8 bulb. That should put me at 1.5 WPG. It runs for 10 hours a day. The only water movement comes from the HOB filter. There is no aeration other than that but it is pretty heavily planted on the one side and the fish never gasp for air at the top. The tank is inhabited by 6 Black Mollies, 4 Black Molly fry, 1 Swordtail, and 12 Ghost Shrimp. I dose daily with Flourish Excel and make sure that I do weekly water changes of at least 50%. My water stats are as follows.

PH 8.0
AM 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 10 (Did a water change 3 days ago)
GH 13
KH 7

There are currently only two plants in this tank. I don't remember the name of the one but it is thriving with no problems. The other is the Rotala rotundifolia which does alright. It grows a black algae on it I believe, does not grow very fast, looses its leaves, and grows lots of shoots but they never really ever seem to grow and expand. I am just trying to figure out what I can do make it grow better as the red color in the tank would look amazing if I could get it grow better. I have attached 3 pictures to better show what I mean. One is of the entire tank and the next 2 are close up of the Rotala. Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks.


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

The water sprite is eating up all the macros. The Rotala doesn't take them up as fast so it can't compete for the nutrients. If you dose more ferts it will begin to grow and do ok. It also likes more light than you have.


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## K_Hedin (Dec 27, 2010)

So I need to invest in some Flourish? Is there a different fert anyone would recommend? Are there some different red plants anyone would recommend?


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

Try a red lotus. They do well in low light. You could put a fert tab under the gravel for it.


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

your gravel isn't really good for plant purposes and is too shallow as well. 
the wpg rule doesn't work for 10 gal and lower. so right now you're at low-light.
is the bulb daylight? the bulb seems to be a bit yellow which isn't the right spectrum. look for daylight bulbs, should be around 6500K 
dose flourish, it's cheap. lnt.com has them. go to things-pets-aquarium/fish-supplements-and then you should be able to go from there.
water sprite as stated before is sucking up all the nutrients, so maybe place a root tab near the roots of the rotala? 
your algae is probably from the lack of other nutrients asides from excel and the light.


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

Flourish is only trace elements. You need macros too. Or you can use a complete fert tab. I like Aquariumplants.com complete substrate pellets. It has macros in it as well.


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

^or you could use dry ferts. you'll need phosphates, nitrogen, and potassium. if you use dry ferts the n and p are combined with potassium so you won't actually need to buy a separate potassium fertilizer.


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## jetajockey (Nov 11, 2010)

I'd definitely consider changing the substrate out. Go with a good planted substrate, mineralized topsoil if you feel like a project, or just grab a bag of ecocomplete and some comprehensive root tabs.


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