Salvinia help?

[Quin]

I tried salvinia twice in my first aquarium and I'm hoping to not spend money on any more. I brought an order home tonight for my 5g and I'd like to hear from people who have kept it, since the internet hasn't been helping

In the first tank the water flow was very minimal as it was a betta tank. It had two moderate/high lights on the lid. I also had a snail eating some of it. pH 7.5-8.0

This tank has higher flow, enough to make them swirl on the surface (I'll likely turn this down). It is cycling with similar lights of adjustable height. No inhabitants yet. Same pH

Is there anything I need to be doing differently? I can add ferts if needed.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Ferts can never hurt. I tried Salvinia for a while and it really flourished:

Then it died off, no clue why. Happened the same way in my 29g tank. Maybe some other members can make some other suggestions.

 

[Quin]

Ferts can never hurt. I tried Salvinia for a while and it really flourished:
View attachment 122492
Then it died off, no clue why. Happened the same way in my 29g tank. Maybe some other members can make some other suggestions.

My internet dig found a lot of stories saying their salvinia did well and then also suddenly died. I wonder what could have caused that?

 

[James7]

Mine never really took off which is a shame as I think it looks great. I don’t understand why though as the guppy grass, java moss, Anubis and hygrophilia all seem to thrive in the same tank. Maybe there just wasn’t enough nutrients for them all to survive and they were outcompeted but I dose weekly with seachem flourish and excel.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

My internet dig found a lot of stories saying their salvinia did well and then also suddenly died. I wonder what could have caused that?

That happens with most of my floating plants, except frogbit--that stuff just never quit growing for me.

 

[StevenF]

lighting, water current, and CO2 are not your poblem. 90% of the time when a floating plant dies it is because of a nutrient deficiency. the suspect deficiencies are :
Nitrogen (nitrate)
Potassium
Calcium
Magnesium
Phosphate
Sulfur
chloride (mainly a problem with very soft water or RO water)
Iron
Manganes
Boron
Zinc
Copper
Molybdenum

You don't want to have a zero reading for any of these nutrients.

Salvinia gets all the GO2 it need from air and does well under a wide range flight levels. It doesn't care about water current and water spraying on the surface of leaf. It can even grow if it is totally submerged for weeks. I have it in my tank now.. I have also had duckweed (might still do, trying to eliminate it); I have killed it and duckweed off completely due to nutrient deficiencies. It doesn't care about ph or Kh. but like all plants it does like at least some GH

In short if it doesn't do well or die off you have a fertilizer problem. A nutrient deficiency can take weeks or even moths too develop. It simply takes time for any nutrients in your substrate to run out. When the substrate runs out of one or more nutrients, plant growth will quickely slow, then stop, and then the plant dies.

Mine never really took off which is a shame as I think it looks great. I don’t understand why though as the guppy grass, java moss, Anubis and hygrophilia all seem to thrive in the same tank. Maybe there just wasn’t enough nutrients for them all to survive and they were outcompeted but I dose weekly with seachem flourish

Some plants can handle low nutrient levels better than others. so what you observed is common. also no fertilizer is perfect. Many manufactures don't include all the nutrients plants need or ether assume your tap water has them or the fertilizer simply doesn't supply enough. Also some sources of iron are PH sensitive so what works for some people but not others all depends on what is in or is not in your water and your PH. I would suggest you try a different fertilizer. I was using seachem flourish when my duckweed died off.

 

[itiwhetu]

It needs to be just one plant deep, so not stacked on top of each other, also it doesn't like heat, so prefers a cooler tank, higher oxygen content.

 

[Quin]

Nitrogen (nitrate)
Potassium
Calcium
Magnesium
Phosphate
Sulfur
chloride (mainly a problem with very soft water or RO water)
Iron
Manganes
Boron
Zinc
Copper
Molybdenum

You don't want to have a zero reading for any of these nutrients.

I see you mentioned copper there. This is gonna be an invert tank so I can't have any copper present. Is that going to be an issue? Also I will start dosing ferts, thank you

 

[StevenF]

I see you mentioned copper there. This is gonna be an invert tank so I can't have any copper present. Is that going to be an issue? Also I will start dosing ferts, thank you

Plants will not grow without copper. Humans have iron based blood. Shrimp however have copper based blood.. So shrimp and people can't live without it either. most fertilizers on the market provide about 0.001 milligrams per liter (0.001Part Per Million (ppm)) of copper in ta tank. The EPA limit for copper in tap water 1.3 PPM .And most of that copper comes from copper pipes. not fertilizer.

My tap water has 0.05ppm of copper in it. May water is hard and does tast bad (but passes EPA requirements) so I have always Used RO water I only found out later that it has high copper levels. I make my own fertilizer I use in my shrimp tank and dose the tank to 0.01ppm, 005PPM. My blue dream shrimp are happy and breading. I have gone up to 20ppm and not seen any adverse effects so 10 or 20ppm is not the max limit for the shrimp or snails in my aquarium.