Micro sword plant (Lilaeopsis)

[lovemybarbs]

Gorgeous tanks!

 

[Fish_Boy]

I bury my micro sword completely so it wont pop up!! It comes up through quickly and then spreads rapidly. You will want high iron substrate for them to grow fast. I get about two new plants a day right now.

So you're saying that you bury the plant completely under the gravel or sand? and then it grows out of it? Or am I reading that wrong?

Also how deep should the substrate be, do you have to bury it a certain depth in or do you just get enough substrate to cover the whole plant over?

 

[prolude006]

Yes i bury the plant completely..might see a small leaf sticking up as it settles. The plant has enough stores to get a leaf out to get light after that. My substrate is not that deep. Id say about 2-3" in the front where they are. roots don't usually go down in an aquarium they spread horizontally. The closer to the water the warmer it is for the roots.
Although if I could go deeper I would.

 

[Fish_Boy]

So how much lighting do these plants need? I'm thinking an eclipse aquarium wouldn't provide enough light, the 29 gallon gives 36 watts

 

[California Roll]

I put Microsword in a 3 gallon Eclipse with Florite and it covered the tank so I am pretty sure an Eclipse will work. It still might be slow. I started having an Algae problem so I had to cut back on the number of hours I kept the light on. THis definitely slowed things down. Also after a while the Florite gets exhausted which also slows growth.

 

[Fish_Boy]

oh ok, well I was actually thinking of getting a 25 gallon tall it's 24X12 by 20 inches high with 2 15 watt lamps that's 30 watts for a 25.