Magicide Posted November 16, 2005 Report Share Posted November 16, 2005 (edited) I have two Amazon Swords (no camera for pics) that appear to be melting. On each of the two one of the leaves started getting a pale spot last week and it spread across the rest of those leaves and down the stalks over the course of a week. I clipped them when it became clear the leave was toast but now the spots are appearing on another leaf. The only fish in the tank I can see doing anything to the plants is a small pleco but it spends all of it's time on the driftwood or sometimes when I turn on the lights early in the morning it's on the rocks near the wood. All the other plants appear to be doing well although the new leaves appear to be very pale compared to the old leaves. The chelated iron levels are fine so I'm wondering if it's lighting? The other problem I have in the tank is a semi-severe algae bloom. I have the pleco and a fish which I forget to write down the name of. The second fish looks like a Dwarf Flag Cichlid and the people I got it from told me they used it for algae control. The plants and decorations are all clear but the glass is covered in small strands of green algae. Edited November 16, 2005 by Magicide Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vallisneria Posted November 16, 2005 Report Share Posted November 16, 2005 Are you fertilizing your plants at all? How much lighting do you have on the tank? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magicide Posted November 16, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 16, 2005 I'm fertilizing every second day and running tests daily until I can figure out the routine I can best use to maintain a stable tank for plant growth. The lighting is 60 W of 6500K over 50 gallons. This weekend I will be getting about 3 watts/gallon, just need to drive a long ways to get it. I don't think it's lighting as I've had the two sword plants for 3 weeks now and they were green and healthy until now, though the new leaves were a pale green so I do think there is some sort of nutrient deficiency in there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vallisneria Posted November 16, 2005 Report Share Posted November 16, 2005 What kinds of ferts are you using? Liquid ferts you add to the water or root tabs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted November 16, 2005 Report Share Posted November 16, 2005 It sounds like your pleco is getting the midnight munchies! If you're not dosing macros (NPK) then the damage may be too much for the plant to recover from. Put 1/4 of a Jobe's Fern spike under the swords, and things should help out a bunch. Just watch out when you uproot the plants, these spikes disolve in water very well, and you'll have an algae problem if your CO2 isn't up to snuff. You mentioned getting more light... CO2 is more important than light. Almost all algae problems are CO2 related - feed the plants right, and they'll out compete the algae every time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magicide Posted November 16, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 16, 2005 I am using Nutrafin Plant Gro. I looked for tabs and couldn't find them at the LFS so it's on my to do list if I can find a place in north to west edmonton that carries them. I'm thinking Aquagiant might. I have one Hagen CO2 ladder and it clearly isn't enough for the tank. I'm thinking of getting another ladder and then hooking the two of them up to a compressed CO2 system rather than the yeast system they come with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted November 16, 2005 Report Share Posted November 16, 2005 I believe that Nutrafin PlantGro is only traces - maybe some K. You really need to fertilize with maconutrients, too - Nitrogen (as NO3), Phosphorus (as PO4), Potassium (as K+). You can take care of everything pretty affordibly with dry ferts from hydroponics stores. Pick up some KNO3 and K2PO4, and you're set!! You can pick up the Jobe's spikes at Home Depot, or any gardening centre. Basically, using ferts from the LFS is about as expensive as you can go; and, unless they carry Seachem, you're not likely going to get the macros you need. Hope this helps! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garhan Posted November 17, 2005 Report Share Posted November 17, 2005 (edited) Your current lights of 60 waats for the 50 gallon is very low. Remember the minimum requirement on medium size tanks (20-90) is 2 watts per gallon. Edited November 19, 2005 by Garhan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garhan Posted November 18, 2005 Report Share Posted November 18, 2005 Swords also generally do not melt. Well at least from what I have raised it has never happened in +/-20 years. having said that I have had 2 experiences where there was a severe die off of swords, but I think that can be contributed to 50% water change of very cold tap water during the fall or winter months. Again looking at the EPCOR water resources site our water currently is running at 0 to + 2 degrees at full volume. The swords ended up loosing there colour and then slowly faded away to where the only thing felt was a skeltal structure of fiberous viens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magicide Posted November 18, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 18, 2005 That is what happened with mine. The plants leaves turned yellowish and then faded away leaving only the outlines of the leaves. But it only affected one or two leaves on each plant at once while the others were healthy if a little pale. I chopped them off and did a 25% water change today so we'll see what happens in a few days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garhan Posted November 19, 2005 Report Share Posted November 19, 2005 (edited) Leaf die off is not total uncommon to healthy plants. Out with the old and in with the new. Like you did, just cutoff the dead leaves. I would be more concerned if the plants old growth started showing signs of pin holes in the leaves and then those holes get larger. traditionally that would be a k problem. Check out the following, not sure if it still works. http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_nutrient.htm Edited November 20, 2005 by Garhan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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