Giant hygro question

[midnightmadman]

The leaves on my 6 Giant hygro keep falling off. I am down to 1 leaf left on the six stems. The stems look healthy though.
Any ideas why? Everything looks pretty good.

[montanafish gal]

I am just throwing out a guess, but I've heard others say that sometimes the plants existing leaves will die off when replanted, but that the plant will regrow new leaves. Do you have enough light? using any ferts? hopefully someone with more plant expereince will chime in to help you.

[midnightmadman]

I am just throwing out a guess, but I've heard others say that sometimes the plants existing leaves will die off when replanted, but that the plant will regrow new leaves. Do you have enough light? using any ferts? hopefully someone with more plant expereince will chime in to help you.

They were planted maybe a little over a month ago... but looked good for a while and then slowly it started to happen.

[chonhzilla]

I had one while back, I also lost lots of leaves but the reason to why it happend was because I didn't have enough light. It ended up looking like a tree.

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i22/chonhzilla/DSC01477.jpg

[midnightmadman]

I did two things today. I increased my light output and overall area of the light. And I added a power head for more circulation.. I only had my return from the mag 7 moving the water...which isn't terrible, but now with the 802 added its really moving.

[jpappy789]

IME hygros will lose the bottom leaves as it grows...I've been told its a normal "palm tree" effect. If they are losing all the leaves though, that may be a problem.

[midnightmadman]

IME hygros will lose the bottom leaves as it grows...I've been told its a normal "palm tree" effect. If they are losing all the leaves though, that may be a problem.

They really only started with about 2 leaves per stem.. the stems are about 8" high with only 2 joints.

[Turbosaurus]

what's your tank size and ligthing (type, wattage and schedule)?

[midnightmadman]

what's your tank size and ligthing (type, wattage and schedule)?
90 Gallon
3 Florescents - 120 watt full spec. about 10 hours.
Also a lot of daylight from two windows.

[chonhzilla]

Mine was under 2 wpg with pressurized CO2 and it still came out looking like a palm tree. But I didn't mind, it looked cool.

[midnightmadman]

I had two energy saver bulbs in my home made canopy. They were supposed to be 75 watts each, but the "light" didnt seem nearly as much as the 3 florescent bulbs. It was even less then 2 bulbs imho but it looked really good with the shimmers.

[timwag2001]

did you find any tiny little holes in any of the leaves that are on the plant or the ones that fell off?

[midnightmadman]

Ok guys, I have new sprouts coming out... the only problem is EVERYTHING is getting covered in brown algae now.. Help!

[jpappy789]

How old is the tank? Diatoms are common in newer setups...I've had them last as long as 6-8 months.

[midnightmadman]

About 2+ months. Before I increased my light so much it was fine, maybe I need to find a balance. The only plants that were suffering were the giant hydros, swords and fern looked fine

[chonhzilla]

I recently recovered from a Diatom outbreak about a week ago. I did 2 15% water changes weekly ( Wednesday and Sunday) for about 4 weeks, then left for the three day weekend and completely blacked out the tank until Tuesday morning. Its been about few days now with no signs of Diatoms. I will now return to my once a week water change. We'll see how it goes.

I Hope this helped.
-Chonh

[mgarrido]

Add presurized co2, and with 2wpg your hygro could be more than happy. Diatom are very common in new tanks. Also dose excel if you can.

[midnightmadman]

I heard water changes make diatoms worse because they come from the tap water.

[67chevelle]

They(diatoms) happen in all new tanks IME,and I have heard it has something to do with the glass leaching,not fresh water.