I wanted to share a bit about this great little plant.
First of all, it's been growing like crazy in my tank (and from what I've been seeing on this forum, it grows that way for everyone who has it) . It's reached a max hight in my 48" tank of about 4-5" to the leaf tips, and only 2-3 inches just looking at the 'bulk' of the body of the plants. Runners shoot out daily with 'pups' that grow quickly, even in shaded areas or in thickets of roots under my stem plants.
The most impressive thing to me was a recent test I put it through. I set up this tank from scratch after moving a couple months ago. I've been battling the usual algae problems and certain areas with poor water movement. Three days ago, things started getting MUCH better and I decided it was time to trim off affected leaves.
I had some E. quad in the front corner where circulation is poor, so there was alot of detritus trapped in the area and most of the leaves had algae on them. I was getting frustrated trying to cut a leaf here or there with algae and leave the good ones, so I decided to put a couple of these plants to a real test (no risk since I've got plenty runners to replace them with if it went sour) . So I picked 2 pretty good size plants and hacked them completely down to the crown. I left no leaves at all on either plant. 3 days later and they both have 2 and 3 new/fresh leaves growing. They didn't even flinch.
Despite the fact that it grows ALMOST fast enough to get out of hand if not watched, Echinodorus quadricostatus has become one of my new favorite plants. I hope everyone has a chance to try it out at least once. I'm taking all my runners to the next NASH meeting to get it spread to as many folks as possible.
Anyhow, just wanted to share that info. Anyone else have some good/bad experience with it?
-Dave
