# Can I grow Marsilea quadrifolia?



## racialfish (Aug 15, 2006)

I have a 55gallon tank w/ 160watts of shoplight. I am ordering a 130watt 48inch coralife aqualight to bring my lighting to about 3.8 wpg. Correct? My substrate is tahatian moon sand, gravel, and laterite all combined. I am running diy co2. Could I grow four-leaf clover successfully with this setup?


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## Aquadise (Jul 26, 2006)

With that setup, you can grow anything. Marsilea quadrifolia don't need alot of light so hopefully with your high light setup it would stay closer to the substrate.


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

Marsilea doesn't typically require very high lighting, and is relatively slow growing compared to glosso. You'll have more than enough.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

I keep seeing your thread title pop up for some reason... maybe I’m just checking the listings wayyy too often. But...

Yes you can grow M. quadrifolia, it is not very demanding. Just be careful with 3.8wpg, as you have DIY CO2 and it is easier than you think to fall off the ball when your CO2 values are fluctuating and dosing is not constant.

Also, M. quadrifolia is not always 4 leafed underwater, there are a few different kinds of this plant and only the true quadrifolia will grow submerged 4 leafed clovers, but all will grow 4 leaves when grown emerged. Soo... you might need to do some digging before you find the true form. Otherwise you will end up with a darker green, more leggy, 1 leafed glosso-like plant.


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## aquabillpers (Apr 13, 2006)

racialfish said:


> I have a 55gallon tank w/ 160watts of shoplight. I am ordering a 130watt 48inch coralife aqualight to bring my lighting to about 3.8 wpg. Correct? My substrate is tahatian moon sand, gravel, and laterite all combined. I am running diy co2. Could I grow four-leaf clover successfully with this setup?


If you plan to use the Coralife 130 watt light with the existing 160 watt fixture, you will have about 5.4 watts per gallon. With that and DIY CO2, you should be able to grow just about every kind of algae known to man, and probably will. 

Where are all the mathematicians?

The 160 watt fixture yields about 2.9 watts per gallon. That will be sufficient to grow just about anything that you want to grow.

Good luck!

Bill


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