Hygrophila Polysperma

[LilyRose Tank]

I bought several stems of this plant, expecting it to grow well. Well it did. A little too well. I understand it's a water weed, but how do I control it and get it to look like all the pretty versions seen online. I am new to planted tanks, and I am enjoying it, but how do you control a weed?

 

[fm1978]

In short, you can't, well, probably not that one anyway...
 
You just need to prune really, really regularly. Because of that plant's explosive growth in just about any conditions you just need to cut it back often. Certain water conditions will slow it's growth a bit but I sure wouldn't begin to change the water if all your wee fish are doing well!

 

[DerpPH]

regular trimming and you can sell the trimmings of the stems online too

 

[508]

I had some and it grew like crazy, though for some reason it slowed down now. I only have 2 stems left and I'll probably replace them with something different eventually. It also grows roots out of the stem which looks pretty terrible so I can't say I'm a huge fan of this plant. 

 

[daizeUK]

Polysperma does grow like a weed, but it does not look pretty unless it's healthy.  A few months ago I got it growing beautifully with plenty of liquid carbon and full ferts and in return it rewarded me with large, lush green leaves and tidy stems.  Since then I have reduced my lighting and it seems to be unhappy again.  It still gets the same carbon and ferts so I can only assume it prefers a certain minimum of lighting which I'm not giving it any longer.  It shows its displeasure by growing stragglier with paler and/or smaller leaves, lower leaves melting and roots growing from the stem.

 

[DrRob]

I have a similar experience to Daize. Once established it grows like crazy, until it reaches the potential of the space and starts to starve itself of nutrients, CO2 or light. I filled and entire 20 gallon with it once by accident. Well, it wasn't really an accident, just more than was intended.

 

[LilyRose Tank]

Ok, the roots are coming out all over the place,min fact the lower half of my tank at the back looks like a maze of spiderwebs, maybe I should rethink this plant. It's leaves near the waters edge are bronze-pink, certainly not the pretty colour I was hoping for.also, the leaves are crinkly, maybe too much heat coming from the lights for it to cope with?

 

[daizeUK]

I believe that pink polysperma can be a sign of low nitrates.  Some people deliberately starve it of nitrates to get it to change colour.

 

[l_l_l]

Polysperma is a great plant, I don't feed it anything in my tanks and they grow fairly well.
At the beggining, it was a bit roughed up, struggling because I didn't feed it anything, but after about 2-3 months, it established itself and somehow managed to deal with the small ammount of fertilisation it gets and now thrives in this.
It's a great plant if you plan to use it as a background plant.

 

[Zikofski]

i used to have Hygrophila Guanensis lovely plant, but like yours the spider webs of roots was not nice to see and annoying in my eyes, plus it grew like crazy very green and healthy in my tank but just so much of it, you can see it in my pic below on the right hand side of the tank its the BRIGHT green stuff at the back