Marsilea quadrifolia

T

Tempest

AC Members
Jun 8, 2002
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Wichita, KS
Are any of you familiar with this plant? I think the common name is aquatic clover. I got the urge to redo a ten gallon tank and I've ordered some of this from Florida Driftwood. Their info said that it does well in low light but some other information I have found seems to dispute that.

My ten gallon has 1.5 watts per gallon, DIY CO2 with a Vortex reactor and I'm adding onyx substrate along with the gravel it now contains.

I was planning an area towards the front of the tank with pure onyx and using the Marsilea as a low growing plant in front of some smallish pieces of driftwood. Do you think the Marselea will grow with my conditions?
 
Nothing like replying to your own thread. :D I just found a post on Aquabotanica about the plant but I'm still wondering if any of you have used it. The post there seems to indicate I may be okay.
 
I grew some of it in two of my tanks a few years ago. It propagated *very* quickly, but what started out as four-leaf clover ended up more like 1- or 2-leaf. I'm not sure how to continue getting four-leaf growth. Personally, I didn't care for the way it looked so I ripped it all out and chucked it. Funny thing is, I had a little bit sitting in a bowl for several weeks and the emersed growth was very much four-leaf, and it would "fold up" at night and open up in the day. The leaves were much smaller, though. "Accidental discovery," I guess.

It's really up to you if you like the look, but mine ended up looking like little green ladles sticking up out of the ground. Not for me. You should have no trouble growing it, though. I saw a new runner within three days of planting. Very hardy.
 
Originally posted by Tempest
The Vortex reactor is from Plant Guild.

http://www.plantguild.com/html/power_reactors.html

I made a DIY gravel tube reactor for my 55 gallon but couldn't figure out how to make a tiny reactor for a small tank.
Click to expand...

Wow, that's expensive! It doesn't look like rocket science either. With my 10-gal I have a 2L pop bottle with the jello-o recipe. All I do is stick an aistone on the end of the tube and jam it between my sponge filter and the glass. It works great if I put in tons of yeast, to make up for all the CO2 that doesn't dissolve. I've been looking for a better alternative, but I'm not willing to spend $50 US, that's nuts. Then again, I'm considering buying the Christel Kasselmann book, and that's about $120 CAN, so I guess I am nuts :)

Let us know how the Marsilea works out. I think it looks like a cute plant. Up here we get Tropica, but you guys have the option of ordering online, so maybe you have the advantage. I've never seen it in stores here.
 
Yeah, the Vortex was expensive. What's odd is that it's the same price as the reactor for the larger tanks. They threw in a bubble counter too I guess as a freebie that I don't need with the Vortex but plan to set up on my 55 gallon. I needed something good to dissolve the CO2 in the 10 gallon cause I have an eclipse hood on it and I'm losing CO2 that way. It seems to be doing a good job.. I use a 1 liter bottle of yeast mixture. My kH is 8 and the pH ranges from 7.0 to 7.2...
 
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