Propagating Elatine Triandra

Propagating Elatine Triandra

(Elatine Triandra)

By Joy Twentyman-Crock

I’ve grown Elatine Triandra as a carpet in my 2.5 gallon tank with a fair amount of success.

The 2.5 gallon standard has a 26 Watt Power Compact shop light. I perform 50% water changes once per week. CO2 is supplemented using two 1 liter bottles to generate CO2 and a DIY inline CO2 reactor powered by a ViaAqua Powerhead 180. This provides CO2 levels above 60ppm. I dose 20ppm KNO3, 1ppm KH2PO4, 8ppm Flourish Potassium, and 1ml of Flourish Comprehensive three times per week.

Planting Elatine Triandra to form foreground carpet is very similar to planting Glosso. A pair of needle nose tweezers will make this task much easy, although you’d best have a descent chuck of time set aside for this somewhat frustrating and definitely time consuming task. The Elatine Triandra should be separated it into individual plantlets which can then be planted an inch or so apart. Over then next few weeks it will fill in to form a lush carpet.

The Elatine Triandra spreads so fast that I have to thin it at least once every month. If I let it go too long it will get too crowded and start growing up becoming more of a bush. I trim the plants by topping the stems that are getting too long and removing any plants that are starting to grow into areas where I don’t want the carpet.

Due to its fast growth, Elatine Triandra is an excellent indicator of iron deficiency. If the tank becomes too low in iron, the edges of Elatine Triandra’s leaves will turn yellow. A slight increase of the trace mix dose usually fixes this problem.

Elatine Triandra is a somewhat demanding plant that will form a very attractive carpet if provided with good growing conditions and high light. Under lower lighting, it will grow upwards and act more like a regular stem plant. It will grow under lighting anywhere from medium light to very high light.

Bibliography

Victri.Net 2004-2005, Elatine Triandra [On-line] http://www.victri.net/plants/_elatine.html, May 3, 2006