# Water Sprite?



## MFNRyan

I put a little in all my tanks, they told me it grows like crazy. One of those tanks has the light it came with, the other has a full spectrum an the last has a actinic light, with led's in the back and it is sitting right by a window. I didn't put much in that tank just because I'm so unsure of how it will work in that tank. Let me know what you guys think


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## Restricted-

You should show us pics! I wouldn't mind seeing it


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## MFNRyan

Here it is in three of the tanks.. The smaller one it seems to not stay in the dead zone keeps ending up under the filter and getting pushed down into the tank and spun all over the place. Hope that doesn't kill it! lol


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## Restricted-

Oh nice! I don't know anything about the lighting but I'd say the plants look pretty cool


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## MFNRyan

I wanted some sort of live plant in my tank an hear the floating stuff is the easiest to keep alive. It also helps keep the water nice so thats a plus. I just need to find out if it will be ok with just ambient light or if the led's an actinic lights will be alright for the plants in that tank.


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## Restricted-

I see.. I just buy what I like and put it in my tank hoping it lives


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## MFNRyan

That makes two of us man!! lol.. Problem is mine never make it past the first few days ha ha


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## Restricted-

Haha, well my java moss got all torn up by my baby cichlids, amazon sword just dissapeared, completly except for one leaf on the top of the water, and my java fern are turning brown and breaking :/ I just got iron and potassium fertilizer for them though hopefully that helps. And I just added a water onion !


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## MFNRyan

Yeah i wouldn't know at all man.. my swords died in 3 days an they told me it was one of the easy ones to keep alive lol. I checked my light it was full spectrum too.. Hopefully this stuff is easier to grow. I'll let ya know how it does for me


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## Restricted-

Sounds good!


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## DiPpY eGgS

READ THIS and then ask some more questions!!

General rule: 1 watt per gallon for the lowest light plants with a kelvin rating between 5500k-10000k.

Use a timer, have lights on for 12 hrs a day..

A very important thing that I could share is that plants (for me anyway) do much, much better when the tank is pretty full of them.

Every tank I had did much better when it had lots of healthy plant life from the beginning.

I would plant those water sprite plants in the substrate, and get a different real floating plant for the top. My .02$


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## BRUNER247

I don't think that's sprite. Looks like what I have. & it grows best not planted. For me anyhow. Mine grows like crazy with just natural light.


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## MFNRyan

Thanks Dippy. These guys had it floating and told me it grows faster when floating an once it gets big to plant it so it will settle? does this sound right to you? Thanks Bruner that follows what I was told so maybe thats how the stuff works. Who knows what the real name is of it though lol


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## BRUNER247

Mine was given to me by Lfs that called it sprite & was identified by members here as sprite but imo its wisteria or however you spell it. Couple plant guys here said its not sprite. Sprite has thin leaves. Wisteria has broad leaves. I noticed you have big leaves like mine. Google the two, you'll see the difference.


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## Sacrifice

BRUNER247 said:


> Mine was given to me by Lfs that called it sprite & was identified by members here as sprite but imo its wisteria or however you spell it. Couple plant guys here said its not sprite. Sprite has thin leaves. Wisteria has broad leaves. I noticed you have big leaves like mine. Google the two, you'll see the difference.


I had some, and my leaf size changed based on whether or not I had it planted in the sub. If I let it float it would get big broad leaves, but if I planted it the leaves would get really thin. Interesting plant, but I just didn't like it floating around in my tank so I ended up trashing it all.

Here's a pic of a huge clump that Zip gave me about a year ago.



















OH and here's a pic of it planted. Notice how some of the leaves are starting to get skinnier, the long they were planted the skinnier they got. The broader leafed ones were just planted.


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## BRUNER247

Well maybe it is sprite, none of mines planted.


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## MFNRyan

I got it because i wanted a floating one to keep some dimmer places in the tank for my new fish. Help keep him calm and keep the water cleaner for him. I have a 48" long tank with a 18" bulb. I keep it right in the center. Do you think this will provide enough light for the plant? I moved it over to the side to cover the side the plants on for now cause I wasn't sure but that leave the other half of my tank empty. My light is a 10,000k T8 bulb. What Lights did you use sacrifice? Give me some help here cause I'm no good at this. I was told I need the watt's to equal my tank gallons to keep plants alive. an that they are going to be better off planted. The guy that told me keeps very nice planted tanks so i know he is very knowledgeable on this stuff.


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## Sacrifice

If your plant is really water sprite it will grow with pretty much any light. It's a hardy plant and I actually found it to grow better when left floating. As far as lighting goes I've changed so many times. But in that pic it was under a T5 fixture. I've had it growing under T8's as well. It's pretty easy to grow, but I liked it much better when it was floating. Only problem that I had was that it would get flipped around because of my HOBs. I ended up trying to tie it to the center brace on my tank for awhile. I regret breaking up that large chunk that I had growing. It made a very nice shaded area in the tank. As you can tell from the pic it would even grow up out of the water.


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## jp80911

I think pretty much any light will work as long as it provides the right color temperature, they are hardy plants and grow very fast.


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## MFNRyan

So even an actinic light will be ok? Thats what I have on my 125g. Also I have the same problem in my small tank with it getting flipped around by the filter. I move it to the dead side of the tank and it slowly makes its way back to the side with the filter!! GRRR


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## jp80911

I don't think actinic light is good for plants, it's good for coral or invertebrate in reef tank tho.
just cut a piece of styrofoam and jam it in the aquarium to keep the plant from getting to the filter side. or bring the water level up so the output from your HOB can only push it away but not flip it over.


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