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FAQs on Water Sprites, Ceratopteris
Related Articles:
Water Sprites,
Ceratopteris
Watersprite in an aquarium growing in as a floating plant. |

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Water Sprite problems
2/5/08
Dear Crew,
I bought 2 sprigs of Water Sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides) about 5 weeks
ago. Initially it was doing well, producing strong green violins and opening
into large fronds. However, the last week I have noticed that the growth seems
very weak. The new violins are small and white. The older material is producing
lots of offshoots and has taken on a wilty, almost melty appearance. I take it
the plant is not doing well and is trying to put off pups to survive. I have the
plants floating (they were rooted in the gravel at the LFS) in a 10G tank lit
with 2 10W compact fluorescent bulbs. The inhabitants are 9 Glowlight Tetras
which I feed tropical flakes once a day 5 times a week and freeze-dried
bloodworms once a week. My pH is around 7.6 and I keep the temperature at 79F. I
do not have CO2 injection or add any fertilizers. From what I understand this
should be taking over my tank.
Any help you can provide will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Evan
<Hello Evan. On paper at least things sound good, but the "watts per gallon"
rule doesn't actually hold with very small tanks or very big tanks. It only
really works for medium-sized tanks in the 40-50 gallon size range. This will
sound counterintuitive I know, but tanks as small as 10 gallons actually need a
huge amount of light to get rapid plant growth or to cultivate bright-light
species. If you're wondering, you need about 70-100 watts of light over a 10
gallon tank to get solid plant growth with light-hungry species! It's all to do
with the surface area of the tank and the depth of the tank, which don't scale
precisely with the volume of the tanks sold to aquarists (in other words, a 10
gallon tank isn't a scaled-down version of a 55 gallon tank, but a completely
different shape. In fact it is a tank with a proportionally smaller surface area
that the 55 gallon tank, but proportionally greater depth. This isn't to say you
*can't* grow plants in very small tanks -- you can. It's just that some degree
of trial and error seems to come into play, where you have to experiment with
various species to see what works in your particular tank. From personal
experience, things like Java fern, Anubias, Cryptocorynes, and so on work
brilliantly in small tanks and can be used to make nice planted tanks. This is
likely one of your issues. The other issue will be fertilisation: plants need
fertiliser, either added to the water or put into the substrate. Ceratopteris
does best as a floating plant, so the liquid fertilisers are the way to go. You
could try this to see if it helps, but if that doesn't, I'd suggest just trying
some other plants, preferably ones tolerant of low-light conditions. Cheers,
Neale.>
Referencing your website (specifically Ceratopteris article) 2/28/07
Greetings,
<Hi there>
I was looking into referencing certain specific points from your Ceratopteris
article titled
Water Sprites, Ceratopteris apparently, found in the Aquarium Gardner series. I
would greatly appreciate any information as to how to properly reference the
page in question, as there doesn't seem to be a date or much specific
information of any kind.
Much appreciated!
Ian K
<Mmm, was generated by me... about five years back. Cite by the URL:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/PlantedTksSubWebIndex/ceratopteris.htm
Bob Fenner>
Ceratopteris Purchases (in PA)
Dear WetWebMedia folks:
<cheers>
I have searched, unsuccessfully so far, for an aquarium store where I can
purchase some water sprite. None of the stores in my area of PA carry
it because they consider it a nuisance plant in aquaria.
<what part of PA are you from? In in Pittsburgh.. have seen Elmer's Aquarium
Monroeville carry it almost weekly. Also what of That Fish Place in Lancaster?
There are also the aquarium societies in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia that have
tons of it at their monthly meetings>
I lost the crop of it that I had many years ago and would like to replace it.
Thanks, Mike Case
<this will not be tough to find Mike... at worst, do a keyword search of the
genus on Google.com with the word "purchase"... and you will find a
vendor. Anthony>
Watersprite
Hello Bob : I found this site when I used the Google search
engine. I typed in " Ceratopteris cornutus" Years ago I
used this specie of WS. Now all I can find is a watersprite
called "Ceratopteris Thalictroides"
Is this type of WS available from you and if not can you lead me to it. We live in Florida now.
Please reply.
Respectfully, Charlie
<cheers, Charlie... neither Bob nor Wet Web Media have anything to sell to the public. We are volunteers and in the information/content/photography biz. To find the plant that you seek let me suggest that you browse the various suppliers on our links page of WetWebMedia.com or continue keyword searches with the scientific name. There are so many plant suppliers online that I suspect you will find a source within minutes. Best regards, Anthony>
Lighting
Howdy Bob,
Just another question on lighting arrangements...On my 120g
48x24x24 tank which I will eventually set-up, I have see-sawed with questions
about lighting. For keeping a variety of corals, I want to eventually setup
my tank with sufficient lighting to help them thrive. I currently have a CSL
PC 4x96wt ABS fixture, I really don't want to deal with MH lights now or in
the future for a number of reasons.
<I hear you...>
My idea, if I want to increase light
intensity, is to add a 2 bulb VHO fixture with one actinic and one regular
bulb to the top of my tank. Will these lights together provide sufficient
light to grow a wide variety of corals?
<Yes, a very viable plan... some of the higher intensity corals might have to
be placed higher up in the water column, no big deal>
Does the fact that most of the top of
my aquarium will be covered create a problem as far as overheating or poor
oxygenation?
<Not covered in the way of air circulation I hope/trust... and do your best
to not have to have anything between your lighting and the water surface
(fixtures, fittings disallowing metal contamination...>
By the way, your advice on throwing in some water sprite and
covering my PC in my FW aquarium has really dented my algae problems, thank
you. Dave
<Ah good to hear back on... Ceratopteris works wonders.
Bob Fenner> | |
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