Leaves turning yellow...

[Sandy Clay]

I have added Anubis to my tank. There are 3 of them in different sizes. So far they seemed to be doing ok, but now I am noticing a few with yellow leaves. (I have grown houseplants all my life) I have treated the tank with metro and prazi-pro just lately. Do I "need" to fertilize these plants or would the meds cause a problem? The temp is around 83 and I do 50% water changes every other day. Sand on the bottom, but, very thin layer. The plants I have tied to driftwood until they attach themselves. Thanks for any info.

[Oscarsx]

Hi, sounds to me like you have iron and potassium deficiency. Fertilizing would help your plants get healthy again.. what lighting do you use and how long is your photoperiod?

- Oz

[Lenin]

You should take plants out when dosing meds, they're a biological filter so they start absorbing the meds hence how they look now. This creates two problems the meds might not be having the desired effect since the plants are taking them out, also it affects the plants.

[Sandy Clay]

I have one of those new LED fixtures.
Gosh , I did not know that about meds! If I take the plants out will they be ok in a bucket of water till I put them back in?

[Sandy Clay]

Oh, sorry, I leave the lights on from 7 a.m. till 9 p.m. The aquarium does not have any direct light, it is in a northern room.

[Oscarsx]

I highly doubt metro would cause this to his anubias, I recently treated my tank with metro also and I had to ill effects on any of my plants, it's very unlikely thats the reason for his discoloration.

I'm wondering if op has overkill lighting in his tank! Forcing his plants to grow to quick with no nutrients, that can cause a million problems, stunted growth, holes in leaves, brown/yellow leaves etc.


- Oz

[Oscarsx]

Sandy clay, google this "aquatic plant deficiencies chart" should come up with a good amount of information to your problem.

- Oz

[Sandy Clay]

Thanks

[lipadj46]

+1 to what was said above. Too much light not enough ferts.

sent from an undisclosed location using morse code

[Sandy Clay]

Wow there is ALOT of info there! I will have to check the plants closely when I get home and compare them to the lists. Thanks again!

[Sandy Clay]

You think I have too much light?? I could leave it off during the day...it would only be on from 4 till 9 then. That's not enough is it?

[joshvito]

how long have you had the plants in the tank?

were they grown emersed before you placed them in your tank? This could be the emersed growth dying off due to now being submerged.

[Oscarsx]

You think I have too much light?? I could leave it off during the day...it would only be on from 4 till 9 then. That's not enough is it?

Well lets see, how many watts is your fixture, type of bulbs being used & the distance from the fixture itself to the substrate, 5 hour photoperiod is good enough with no ferts or co2..

It all depends on how much wattage your pushing out and distance.. let us know!

- Oz

[Sandy Clay]

I have had them for about 3 months. I bought them at PetSmart...they were in a little container with no water. They have put on a few "new" leaves.

[Oscarsx]

I have had them for about 3 months. I bought them at PetSmart...they were in a little container with no water. They have put on a few "new" leaves.

Yep i have the same ones, came in with a container with small pieces of gel? Mine have been growing like crazy also.

- Oz

[Sandy Clay]

30 gallon 36" wide aquarium. I do not know the wattage, I will check tonight and see if I can find out.

[Sandy Clay]

Yep those are the ones! They seemed to me like they were doing good, and then the leaves started turning yellow. Maybe I am leaving the light on too long. I just thought they needed as much light as possible :(

[Oscarsx]

Lighting could be the least problem with your plants turning yellow, my bet is on the nutrients deficiencies. Only reason i brought up lighting is because if your putting out too mucb ligbt your forcing your plants to grow too fast with not enough nutrients in the water column.. where is if it was low light, everything would balance itself out.

And no my friend, anubias are low light plants... they can even grow with no light, haha.

- Oz

[Sandy Clay]

Live and learn I guess! I will look them over really good tonight and see what I can figure out. Thanks for all the info!

[Oscarsx]

Live and learn I guess! I will look them over really good tonight and see what I can figure out. Thanks for all the info!

Hey no problem, keep us updated!

- Oz

[joshvito]

maybe add a photo?

[Sandy Clay]

I will take some pictures tonight. I tried to identify the problem from some pics I seen...but, still not sure. Sorry I forgot to check the wattage of the lights too.

[Sandy Clay]

Here is a photo. I have another one , but, I can't get it uploaded to photobucket. Someone remind me again how to attach a photo please!

[Sandy Clay]

http://s1057.photobucket.com/albums/t389/CalliRose214/?action=view&current=DSCF0288.jpghttp://i1057.photobucket.com/albums/t389/CalliRose214/DSCF0288.jpg

[joshvito]

http://i1057.photobucket.com/albums/t389/CalliRose214/DSCF0288.jpg

Looks like phosphate deficiency to me. (this is my reference (http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/fertilizing/62876-plant-deficiency-picture-diagram.html))
You should remove the damaged leaves (yellow and holes), by pulling the petiole in the opposite direction it is growing, parallel to the main rhizome. Also, if you cut the rhizome into two sections, it will encourage more growth.

I would try dosing Seachem Flourish as per bottle instructions. However, this may be costly if you are changing a large amount of water often.

[Sandy Clay]

Thanks I will check that out. This is my Angel and Ram tank...I don't change as often. The plants in the Discus tank look about the same though.

[Oscarsx]

Check out the DIY CO2, it's very cheap and super effective for a tank your size, start dosing some nutrients, also cheap for a tank your size... you won't be disappointed in the results. Although doing all that for one plant might be overkill, add some more and do some aquascaping! ;)
- Oz

[eaglesfan3000]

I just added a couple of Amazon swords in clay pots a couple of months back. They are sprouting new leaves but the olders ones are getting holes, I guess they must need some ferts. Is the API root tabs safe for discus? What would be the dose for a small clay pot?

Thanks
Bob

[dbfzurowski]

Hi,
When I was into planted tanks(low-tech, no C02) I did a lot of research.... Came to a conclusion that fertilizing is the most important thing in planted tanks. Lighting? no! People will say 4-5WPG(watts per gallon so ~240W light fixture over a 55G tank....yea) I had a 80W (maybe less)home depot fixture with one 8000k bulb and one 10000k. I fallowed this guy http://www.rexgrigg.com/ferts.htm and had a jungle in my tank!!! Stopped dosing and in 3-4weeks plants started turning yellow/brown and slowly die off. So listen to everyone and start dosing ferts.

[Orange Crush]

Looks like phosphate deficiency to me. You should remove the damaged leaves
I took an organic gardening class at school over summer qtr. and I learned not to remove leaves that are turning yellow from P deficiency because, the plant is keeping itself alive by absorbing the P from some of the leaves. If you remove yellowing leaves it will only cause other leaves to turn yellow until you get the balance of light/nutrients correct.

[fish042099]

petsmart is not good for plants!

[fish042099]

they abuse their plants by putting them in no water with little light