will cuba grow without co2

Help needed will cuba grow without co2and easy carbo i have ada amazonia substrate in the tank so.will good light and that substrate be enough for it to grow


regards craig

Good article on PFK - www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/content.php?sid=3037

No experience of the plant myself but looks like you should be ok with the substrate and light levels.
requires a lot of nitrogen as well as carbon. There will be a lot of carbon available to the plant from organic material in your substrate initially, and possibly up to 1 to 2 years depending on the organic content of the substrate. The nigtorgen will come from the nitrates generated by the fish in your set-up, the plant will compete for nitrates with the bacteria in your filter. The organic content of your substrate will also be replenished by fish waste as its broken down, this will also help with the available carbon for the plant. You may eventually need to look at using easy carbo but sohuld not be for quite a while.

See the thing is its going to be a shrimp tank so wont have any fish waste and the bioload of shrimp isnt that big

In my opinion you will need CO2. You just cannot have a lot of light and no CO2. The more light you have the faster the plants will grow. The faster the plants grow the more nutrients(C,N,P etc) they need.
You can have CO2 in shrimp tank and shrimps like slightly acidic water.

Yep, you will need to inject co2 to grow hc.

Also, some shrimp will be affected by co2 injection, and ferts. Such as CRS. RCS or Sakura shrimp would be fine however.

Now one can say you need CO2 for sure. Craig you saw my red cherry tank and cuba is growing slowly but healthy.
I'm not using any fertilizers or additives. Only shrimps,food and water changes.
By the fact at the moment its growing better than one in my nano tanks.
I would say - I recommend CO2 for hemiantus and over 0,8W/L of light but as you know Craig you can grow this without. (or maybe its only me thinking its growing healthy??)

I beleive that Cuba in Manius tank is on some quality substrate and water paramaters are good enough to grow it without CO2, or I'm completely wrong

Why I'm thinking so , is the fact that cuba is geting most of nutritients from water not from substrate, good substrate releases fertilizers slowly in to the water,

My Cuba in low tech tank gone in week time, water parameters were quite good but substrate wasn't from top shelf.

Cuba is Demanding plant so even with CO2 You might be unsuccessful with growing it

So in my opninion some fertilizers and carbo fert should do for Your Cuba.

I might be wrong but hope that I'm not

AquaticGardenShop wrote:

I beleive that Cuba in Manius tank is on some quality substrate and water paramaters are good enough to grow it without CO2, or I'm completely wrong

Why I'm thinking so , is the fact that cuba is geting most of nutritients from water not from substrate, good substrate releases fertilizers slowly in to the water,

My Cuba in low tech tank gone in week time, water parameters were quite good but substrate wasn't from top shelf.

Cuba is Demanding plant so even with CO2 You might be unsuccessful with growing it

So in my opninion some fertilizers and carbo fert should do for Your Cuba.

I might be wrong but hope that I'm not

Im afraid Dan ya wrong:-( hemiantus cuba in my red cherry tank is groving on aquaart shrimp sand and as ya know this shrimp sand has no fertilisers coz been designed by aqua art for shrimp keepers. Im not using any dry o liquide fertilisers eighter coz I have sakura red shrimps and they cost me over 20€/each so cant risk:-)
Light I have it only 0,64W/L 6500K silvana T5.

First time I have heard of HC being grown without co2 or ferts, in fact to the best of my knowledge it is one of the most demanding plants available.

Oh and Sakura shrimp for 20 each... really...? I must have a house deposit swimming around my tanks then!

omen wrote:

First time I have heard of HC being grown without co2 or ferts, in fact to the best of my knowledge it is one of the most demanding plants available.

Oh and Sakura shrimp for 20 each... really...? I must have a house deposit swimming around my tanks then!

Omen you more than welcome to see my farm.
You will have chance to see hemiantus cuba growing without any ferts and CO2.
And its red sakura shrimp not sakura shrimp - there is big different between them in price,color and as you know they 2 different species.

You have more chance to grow Cuba without CO2 then to grow Utricularia graminifolia !
CO2 is not everything, there is quality of the plant, water paramaters and your skill

As i sed I didn't grow cuba but know from people that some of them grow it without CO2,
and it grow very slow but fine.

manius112 wrote:

Omen you more than welcome to see my farm.
You will have chance to see hemiantus cuba growing without any ferts and CO2.
And its red sakura shrimp not sakura shrimp - there is big different between them in price,color and as you know they 2 different species.

Manius could you post some pictures of the tank with HC? I would really like to see it.
thanks

Have to admit ive seen his sakura tank and hc is growing great and very healthy


craig

NosIreland wrote:

manius112 wrote:

Omen you more than welcome to see my farm.
You will have chance to see hemiantus cuba growing without any ferts and CO2.
And its red sakura shrimp not sakura shrimp - there is big different between them in price,color and as you know they 2 different species.

Manius could you post some pictures of the tank with HC? I would really like to see it.
thanks

Im sorry for quality of pix but its only iphone I could use today. Im home tomorrow and Saturday so will try to use my camera to do some nice pix.

Red Sakura tank - over 1 year old HC



Little 20l tank HC over 1 year old




Spare tanks for CRS with 2 months old HC





CRS tanks with HC 2 months old.





It may take time to grow HC without CO2 but it is possible and I thing CO2 its not most important thing for Cuba. Its light make this plant grow healthy.

Impressive! I've never seen hc grown without co2. How often do you do water changes? Do you add anything to the tank at all bar water? Do you not find the hc leaves yellow at all?

Can you post photos of sakura shrimp you bought, these are mine:
picasaweb.google.com/1146512086398222919...#5670070770918733762

as for all my 22 tanks Im doing 20% water change every week and Im not using any fertilizers only some mosura plus to TDS up but only for CRS and Taiwans. For all other shrimps Im using tap water.

I will do my best to catch some red sakura by my camera but coz of hemiantus cuba my camera has problem to do proper pix. even on iphone its very bright.
Soon as will have some time will try to catch few.

I like color on ya sakuras. Looks very nice. I have only few in my tank and they have to stay with normal RC. They breed ok for me but offspring ar not as good as I would like to have. Im going to get some more sakuras next year coz Taiwans are my target so dont have any money:-)

Someone who was visiting me today make good point on my cuba growing without CO2. He said is coz its growing in shrimp tank and shrimps clean leafs and all dirt and he can be right but I have cuba growing in other tanks with only few shrimps and its nice and healthy too.
When I compare to tanks where different is only light (different angle and hight over tank)it makes me sure CO2 is not as important and cant be taken as solution to grow hemiantus cuba.

For me the most impresive think in Mariusz HC is the size of leafes. They are so small
Standard HC in high tech tank with fertz will have way bigger leafes if not pruning regullary, and I see that You don't have that problem
Good job Manius !


Dan.