# My experience with Lagenandra meeboldii 'pink'



## BryceM (Nov 6, 2005)

_Lagenandra meeboldii_ is a plant that has been around the hobby for a while, but has recently made some large gains in popularity. I first acquired a specimen from Aaron Talbot in February of this year. He sent me a plant with three leaves which was a bit smaller than the one in this photo:










He also sent a small piece of rhizome, maybe 3 inches in length with no leaves and only a couple of small buds.

Needless to say, the plant found my aquarium to be to its liking. I left the small piece to float and within a couple of weeks it had sprouted large enough leaves to plant. A couple of months later it was more than big enough to sell.

The roots of the larger plant were placed in the substrate and the rhizome was left at the surface, much like I've done with anubias. After only a week or two, the plant started throwing up new leaves with great gusto. At this point, the plant is _the_ major feature in my 180g tank:



















As you can see from the photos, the leaves are much darker. It's a deep, deep maroon color. When the plant was small, its coloration was more like the one in Aaron's photo.

I have a few guesses about why it is doing so well in this setup. My Eco Complete substrate is now over two years old and has only been vacuumed once or twice during that period. Crypts are doing quite well where before they only grew slowly for me.

Lighting in this 72"x24" tank is 39Wx4 T-5 with TEK reflectors for 11 hrs/day and Metal Halide 150Wx3 for 4 hrs/day. GH is 5, KH is 3, and pH is kept between 5.85 and 5.95 by pH controller. My drop checker is usually yellow by the time the MH's kick on at mid-day. Ca:Mg ratio is about 3:1.

I usually keep NO3 at around 5 ppm and PO4 around 1 ppm. With levels that low I'm pretty careful to dose religiously. I do a 20% waterchange three times per week with reconstituted RO. Temperature is kept between 76 and 78 F. I dose 60 ml of Tropica micros three times per week and 30 ml of Flourish Iron three times per week.

I will admit that hair algae has become a nuisance lately so I've been playing around with the ferts a little. I ran the NO3 up over 20ppm and PO4 up over 2ppm for a few weeks. I also cut way back on the micros to the point that Rotala 'Vietnam' turned green and stunted severely. None of that seemed to affect the meeboldii much. I'm now back to my regular dosing and it's still putting up new leaves.

It's big enough now that I recently started to remove older leaves. Each one is considerably larger than the palm of my hand.

I have a few small pieces of rhizome "in the oven" so to speak, so hopefully there will be some to share soon.


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## ingg (Apr 8, 2007)

I jusat picked one up for my 75g, also from Aaron (boy, doesn't the guy just always seem to have the _coolest_ plants?!?). Hope it does even half that good, fantastic specimen Bryce!


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

What a gorgeous plant! I love the dark maroon color. How about a px of the entire tank. I'd love to see how it fits in!


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## missewell (Jul 12, 2007)

That plant is definately a center piece plant. I have not seen anything like it. The color is so vibrant. Wow, lucky you.


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

Beautiful plant, Bryce!


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

Thanks for sharing your experiences Bryce. I wonder if your lower pH is part of the reason for your success? I'm sure your insane amounts of light don't hurt either. 

I've always been growing mine in richer substrates, such as Aquasoil or mineralized topsoil.


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## BryceM (Nov 6, 2005)

Tex Gal said:


> How about a px of the entire tank. I'd love to see how it fits in!


I've really been neglecting the 'scape and battling with algae lately so I've been holding off on posting any full tank shots. Maybe in a few weeks when things get back to "normal".


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## doug737 (Jun 1, 2004)

that is awesome good growing!


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

BryceM said:


> I've really been neglecting the 'scape and battling with algae lately so I've been holding off on posting any full tank shots. Maybe in a few weeks when things get back to "normal".


I know what you mean. Just had flooring installed. Had to relocate tank and upset things for a week. Now I see some BBA forming. Have to crank up the CO2 and be vigilant about dosing. It sure is sensitive to slight changes!!  I just trimmed off a lot of my Bolbitus. I am seeing some new sproutsm though!


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