Odd adelae behavior

[pappydew]

So I recently found that my little adelaes weren't looking so hot...The older leaves were beginning to turn brown and wilt. Newer leaves stopped producing dew...and the even newer leaves just refused to open up. I realized the pots were getting too dry just sitting in sphagnum so I replaced that with standing water. After a week I didn't see any changes. Then I realized that the bottled "RO water" actually had some "negligible amounts" of salts (sodium sulfate, sodium bicarbonate) added back. So I decided to play it safe and ditch that source. But yesterday I read about adelaes appreciating more indirect sunlight so I tried turning off the light directly above the pot. Oddly enough one of the plants started producing dew again and the newer leaves are starting to open up more. Right now I only have ~65w CFL over the entire enclosure (closer to 80w before turning off the light) which is a 10 gallon aquarium and I know of people with a lot more than that. Anyone have any idea what is going on here? Are younger adelaes possibly less tolerant of high light?

 

[blokeman]

I would have to disagree. I have adelae sprouts coming up here and there to my ignorance of how well they propagate via their roots. They are under three T5HO's, 8-10 inches from the plants, and they are fully red and are definitely not lacking in dew. They can take loads of light, but make huge(greener) traps under lower light levels.

Your issue might be the heat generated by the light is drying up the dew, I've noticed over time that the traps that are closer to the lights tend to be less dewy, and sometimes burn if they get too close.

 

[pappydew]

The thing is though that the plants are about 10" from the light and the temp maxes out at 80F...is that too hot?

 

[blokeman]

Nope. But I wouldn't worry too much, adelae are tanks, they come back from drought, live through flooding, will come back from a 1/2 inch root. Flush the media with pure water a couple times, maybe the salts have accumulated, otherwise, repot in new media after rincing off the old. any no-nutirent mix will work. tray method with 1cm RO water. It will suffer dieback from drying out, but will ALWAYS come back, I've yet to find a way to get rid of it in my terra.

 

[pappydew]

Would a 50/50 of peat and pearlite suffice? I have a bunch from transplanting a Sarr.

 

[blokeman]

Yup, and if you add a little silica sand, it will help too. The substrate won't be as chunky and will promote oxygenation of the roots. Peat and perlite would work just fine though.