Leaves turning brown. Colored lighting to blame?

A

asincero

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Jan 16, 2006
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The hood of my tank has two flourescent tube bulbs. I covered one of the tubes with a pink translucent sleeve to give the lighting of my tank a cool pinkish hue. I, however, left the other tube alone. So it's half colored, half white.

I just planted a bunch of amazon swords in the tank. I don't have any fish in the tank yet, as I pretty much just started a fishless cycle of the tank. However, I read the high levels of ammonia wouldn't be bad for the plants so I went ahead and started planting.

I've noticed the leaves on some of the plants are looking brownish, and "wrinkled". Could this be due to insufficient/bad lighting? I have the lights on a timer, and the plants get at least 15 hours of light a day (12 hours straight, then a break, then another 3 hours, then another break). Would the plants prefer all white light?

Or maybe it's due to a lack of CO2 in the tank, since I don't have any fish in there yet. I'm going to go to Petsmart tomorrow and buy one of those CO2 injector thingies. I'm not really in the mood to build the DIY one, and I have two bags of unused gravel to return anyway. That should cover the cost of the device.

Thanks for any insights you all can give me!
 
How many watts per gallon do you have? Also they might need fertilizers and co2 I'm sure will help. I don't know about the pink covering but I'm kind of thinking its not a good idea... but I really don't know on that one.
 
The pink covering won't do any harm to the plants. If you like a pink look, go for a low kelvin rating on your new tubes that you bought. I would assume that the plants look that way because of a shock from moving it. My amazon sword turned brown starting with the veins for about 3 weeks and then fully recovered. CO2 injection is a good idea as you have no fish putting CO2 into the water column right now. Just keep in mind that high nitrites > 120 ppm are not too benificial for the plants and could actually start to poison them under prolonged exposure so you might want to do a few waterchanges later in the cycle when Nitrates rapidly rise.
 
The problem is you're not getting enough lighting in your tank. The colored slips only prevent even more light from getting through the tank. I would removed them. If you like a pinkish hue. I assume you are running standard hood lights, walmart has some GE aquarays that give off exactly that color light. It's in the fish section.

The Hagen ladder is a good system. Don't use the yeast packages it comes with, go to the grocery store on your and pick up some yeast and sugar. Also, you can save some money by pricematching drsfostersmith.com price at petsmart.

Recipe for Hagen Nutrafin Canister
Fill with sugar until the first inside line/rung
Fill with water to the top line
1/4 teaspoon of active rise yeast
1 teaspoon of baking soda

-John N.
 
Thanks for the info folks!

Yea .. I bought the Hagen system today from Petsmart. Two of them in fact, since it says on the box that each one is for a tank up to 20 gallons. Since mine is 36, I figured I needed two. But just my luck, one of them must have been a returned item since it's missing the cap :(. So I'll have to do with just one until I can get another. Unless one is actually enough ... my tank isn't heavily planted (yet). I just have 5 amazon swords in there for now. Do I really need another Hagen?

Also, when I start putting fish in there will I still need the CO2 injectors since the fish will be putting out CO2 too?

Also John N., whats wrong with the "Activator" and "Stablizer" that comes with the Hagen? If your recipe is just as good, or better, I'll definately go with your recipe since replacment Activator and Stablizer is like 8 bucks a pack or something.
 
5 amazon swords will completely fill that tank if you don't keep up with pruning. They do start small but man can they grow.

Many swords are raised emeresed and then sold to pet stores. Swords have different leaves for emersed versus submerged and the plants will generally experience some die off during the moving around. It is natural.

But you have 2 bulbs over a 36 gallon tank, is that 2 15 watts or 2 20 watts. 2 20 watts is probably the absolute min and will make your swords grow really slow. 2 15 watts just won't be enough to see any real growth and adding CO2 to a low light setup with ammonia being dosed will lead to algae city.
 
TKOS said:
5 amazon swords will completely fill that tank if you don't keep up with pruning. They do start small but man can they grow.

Many swords are raised emeresed and then sold to pet stores. Swords have different leaves for emersed versus submerged and the plants will generally experience some die off during the moving around. It is natural.

But you have 2 bulbs over a 36 gallon tank, is that 2 15 watts or 2 20 watts. 2 20 watts is probably the absolute min and will make your swords grow really slow. 2 15 watts just won't be enough to see any real growth and adding CO2 to a low light setup with ammonia being dosed will lead to algae city.
Click to expand...

Wow .. thanks for this additional info. Yes, they are 2 15 watt bulbs. Since you say 2 20 watts are the minimum, what would you say is the ideal?

I'm glad to hear that those amazons will fill the tank ... that was the effect I was going for. I wanted it to completely hide the filter tubes and water heater (and now the Hagen ladder(s)). I read that they can grow out of control rather quickly, but looking at what I bought (with them being so small right now), it's kind of hard for me to picture them growing enormous.
 
Hi , What eaxctly is this Hagan ladder you speak of?
 
You're looking for about 2.0-3.0 watts per gallon (wpg) for Amazon swords to be sucessful. You currently have 30 watts over a 36 gallon which is less than 1 wpg.
Consider upgrading your light to a Compact flourscent (CF) check out ahsupply.com for retrofits. 2x36 watts would probably do the trick, more light = more work.

The hagen packets are standard yeast and baking soda. So it adds up when you replace them. On top of that, these packets often have been sitting around and the yeast is not as effective, so low CO2 bubble production.

My recipe is a great alternative to it. And will increase the output for CO2. Instead of purchasing two ladders systems. Consider getting a Gatorade or 1-2 liter Juice bottle, and using that as your reaction canister with 1 ladder. Drill a small hole through the cap (smaller than the tubing, and use pilers to pull the tubing through). Attach this bottle with your hagen canister or another bottle using a T-valve, and have one line going to your ladder.

the recipe for the bottle is:
2 cups of sugar
1/2-1 tsp of yeast (more yeast means faster reaction, needs to be replacement faster)

-John N.
 
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