[Essen]

My 60G has about 6 Pogostemon Stellatus. It grows tall but there is not branching. Also after pruning the bottom piece is roting. Only the top replanted part grows back.

The tank has very high CFL (6700K) light and I dose Seachem ferts. What am I doing wrong here?

Thanks
Essen

 

[hedson_25]

maybe not enoght lighting...

 

[Carlos1583]

are you fertilizing enough? Have enough CO2? what type of substrate do you have?

 

[Essen]

I have CFL 2 x 65 for 12 hours and 4 x 65 for 8 hours (total 6) and I dose Flourish 30 ml and Iron 40 ml/week. I also dose
Excel -10 ml daily and Potassium/Nitrogen/Phosphorous - 5 ml twice a week.

I have CO2 set up for 3 bps. It is a very heavily planted tank and plants grow very fast.

Fish population is the higher side with
25 Cardinals, 22 Embers, 8 Rummynose, 7 SAE, 3 Clown Loaches, 4 Corys, 5 Otos and a few RCSs.


I have laterite/Eco complete substrates (3inches thick).

Essen

 

[Avalon]

It's likely a lack of nutrients. This plants tends to like them a little on the medium to heavy side, but they must be kept consistent. Unless it stunts, it will not likely develop side-shoots, but it can. The only problem is that it takes too long for it to do so, and by that time you need to prune it.

It will easily sprout side-shoots when topped from the bottoms. They keys are ample light (don't shade), good CO2, and a solid amount of Nitrogen and Phosphorous. I recently did this with mine and the bottoms grew many new stems. You may need to up your dosing, especially if the clipped stems are rotting. N should be around 10ppm, with P being around 1ppm. It will grow easily in many parameters, but a heavier amount of ferts seem to help propagation.

 

[Essen]

Thanks. I will dose a little more of N and P. I have to move my Tiger Lotus to another tank. Its leaves are covering 70% my tank (60G) now. The TG is more than 2 ft tall.

Essen