# Leggy Cabomba furcata



## TarantulaGuy (Apr 15, 2009)

I've recently acquired some Cabomba furcata for my tank, and while it's growing fast, it's extremely "leggy," lots of stem between the nodes. From what I understand of this plant that's a sign of low nutrients. I'm giving PPS pro dosing regime a shot, (first time with it, I've traditionally dosed EI). High light, 96 watts of T5HO, 3 6500k bulbs and one 10000K bulb, lots of CO2 pumping in as well. I guess my question is what specific nutrient (or combination of nutrients) am I lacking that is causing the C.furcata to be so leggy? My Limnophila aromatica is growing like a champ, as are the other plants in this tank, the furcata is really my only problem. Low phosphates perhaps? My anubias do have some old growth that showed phosphate deficiency but that was pre-PPS dosing under the "neglect dosing at all" scheme I had going.  My dry ferts I mixed up my dosing solutions with are both rather old, couple of years probably, might also be a culprit.


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## wet (Nov 24, 2008)

Give it a harsh trim (leave the bottoms) a couple of times then see what you think.


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## TarantulaGuy (Apr 15, 2009)

Will do. I just gave the whole tank a pretty harsh trim a day ago, I'll give the C. furcata a few more then and see what happens. I have since doubled my fertilizing as well, as I'm not entirely sure as to the "freshness" of the ones I'm using. Haven't seen a major increase in algae, so I assume the plants are still sucking it all up, but haven't tested the water to check.


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## wet (Nov 24, 2008)

Nice. It sounds like a healthy tank. 

Just 2 cents: I think C. furcata is a lame plant. Things I think look great by L. aromatica and I think you'd be able to shape beautifully: Rotala sp. 'green', Rotala macrandra 'green' (gets awesome colored tips with a great green on most of the stem), like any other Rotala (the disparity in leaf size is awesome.), Mayaca sp., Ludwigia arcuata, Ludwigia brevepis, L. palustris/glandulosa (this would look awesome), A. reineckii and all sorts of stuff. 

Another way of putting it: after growing it once, C. furcata not been on my want list for a tank.

Phone, typos, sorry


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## TarantulaGuy (Apr 15, 2009)

Good information. While I usually can grow healthy plants, I've never had that "artsy" ability to actually make a tank look nice.  Plant selection up here is a bit more limited, especially in the winter when I don't really trust the shipping services here with the cold to get me plants that show up alive. I just got some A. reineckii the other day, along with a few stems of what was labeled Myriophyllum tuberculatum (I think a mislabel, but it was almost dead when I got it, so I need it to grow out some more to find out). Ludwigias are virtually non-existent currently in both my LFS's, as are just about all rotalas other than rotundifolia, which I've a couple stems of. That, and I have some Blyxa in the foreground, and a few stems of a Pogostemon, and several Nymphaea zenkeri. Hodgepodge assortment to keep the bleak winter from driving me crazy up here.  The C. furcata was a novelty for me up here, hadn't kept a Cabomba before, and wanted to. I could see how it would drive one crazy though, I've had similar experiences with a few other plants before.


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## wet (Nov 24, 2008)

PM me if you want to give some of the redder Ludwigias a shot for shipping from West Coast Continental US to AK. The stuff is so resilient and hardy I bet they'd make it. You can trade me back for stuff later <3


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## herns (Aug 28, 2007)

Dont shade them. Cabomba Furcata needs good lighting. They turn red-orange in high light.
One of my favorite plant.

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/plantfinder/details.php?id=107


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## TarantulaGuy (Apr 15, 2009)

Thanks wet! I don't think lighting is the issue herns, it's in the middle of the tank basically, under the full hood of t5HO lights, not shaded by anything. I probably will switch out the 10k light and one 6500k light for some aquamedic pink or giesemann plant bulbs though, currently they're crummy catalinas (I *loathe* everything catalina).


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