I recently moved all of my S. repens from my heavily planted 10 gallon to a 2.5 gallon Caridina tank. The main reason I moved it was it just didn't fit in to my 10 the way I wanted it to. It was doing alright in there, but growing pretty slowly which I thought was pretty normal.

I have had it in the 2.5 for about a week and the growth has been substantial. In that week it has been in there, it has grown noticeably vertically and has already shot out new leaves. I am impressed and also baffled at this new growth. S. repens is a relatively slow grower so to see this explosive growth in one week makes me think it is really favoring this Caridina tank.

In the 10 gallon it was planted in sand capped dirt and relatively high light with no co2. The 2.5 is a gravel capped dirt set up with high light and no co2.

There are a few differences that come into play and I'm not sure which it is. In the 2.5, it is much closer to the light source which I'm sure has helped. The gravel is very coarse which has maybe allowed for better root growth. Other than the lighting and gravel, the tank is soft water with a TDS of 80, a gh of 6 and a ph of 6.8. Does S. repens do better in soft water or is it simply the lighting and substrate that is making the difference?