The leaves on all my plant seem to be too large.

[Cityfish]

The leaves on all my plant seem to be too large. The one that troubles me most is the red melon sword (Echinodorus barthii). The leaves were smallish paddles at the end of long stems and it was very beautiful. Now all the leaves grow long and look more like the leaves of my Red Rubin (Echinodorus sp.) They have also become very dark almost purple. My Bacopa Carolina leafs have tripled in size. Originally they were aprox 1/4 -3/8 “ now they grow to an inch or more and really crowed things. I am ready to yank the Bacopia as it is now ungainly and kinda ugly. Red Tiger lotus- (Nymphaea zenkeri) leaves 5-7” across the same plants at the Lfs are much smaller.

I have been dosing with NP&K, flourish & flourish Iron. I have a fluorite substraight, high light and CO2.

Does this sound like nutrient deficiency, or perhaps nutrient excess or imbalance?

I have been searching for info on nutrient telltales but have not found “oversized leaves” as a possible symptom/cause.

Any suggestions

Thanks
Tony,

[sarcare]

A picture might help--it could be that the plants you selected just grow too large for your space, and you'd do better with plants with more delicate leaves. My bacopa has pretty big leaves, but my melon sword has not got leaves like my red rubin yet. I also have a tiger lotus, and the leaves are pretty small--but to get them to grow bigger, you need to prune some of the leaves, particularly the taller ones. They then will focus their energy on growing the remaining leaves bigger.

[Cityfish]

Regrettably my photo skills and camera are not up to the task. These are the best photos I could produce at this time. The photo of the sword does not show the leaves I am concerned about very well; as I have recently pruned(butchered) the deformed leaves. There is one of the deformed leaves showing in the center. I am still recovering from HGA & BBA and have been doing a lot of pruning, uprooting and replanting.
Now that the tiger lotus’s are producing all monster leaves, will they always produce giant leaves? BTW both TL plants are makin babys.


http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k296/cityfish06/PICT0414.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k296/cityfish06/PICT0415.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k296/cityfish06/PICT0412.jpg

[RockabillyChick]

i think your plants are fine. they are just growing, as the plant gets bigger, its leaves get bigger too.

[reiverix]

Looks like normal plants to me. Bacopa gets quite large under high light with a slight bronze tint to the leaves. Tiger lotus just gets big if you let it grow.

[misopeenut]

if you wanna make it small, keep cutting it and tease it. eventually itll get smaller :)

[webcricket]

The red melon sword will eventually be all deep red striped leaves. It's what the plant does as it matures. Any new growth (unless it's a runner) will be red. ;)

[Cityfish]

Thanks everyone… Maybe I’m just feelin a bit overwhelmed. Now that growth has really taken off, my tank seems crowded and the growth chaotic. One thing you have to remember about this hobby is that everything grows…sometimes it grows fast… I am still suffering and trying to recover from the newby disorder of wanting every fish and plant I see. . So I guess I need more space and a better plan than the “oooowh I like that one” technique. Soon as I move I will be able to start several new tanks. I want a larger planted community, a Coral Reef tank, a hospital/quarantine, and I hope to rescue a giant Nile puffer-(tetrodon fahaka) I am going to look at a new used tank for him tomorrow 4’x2’x2’ 130gal “the wet dream” with one fish. :rolleyes:

[twig]

that tiger lotus is going to be a problem. They do grow very big and do so fast! I have a 77 gallon and i have to trim it once a week to keep it down to fit my tank! :o

keep an eye on it as i bet it can easily take over your tank if you're not careful.

[SnakeIce]

The sword plant looks like it has been grown out of water and the "deformed" leaves are simply what the leaves look like when the plant grows underwater. Eventually those leaves you like will decay since they were made to work above water and don't do well submerged.

[Cityfish]

I’ll bet you are right, and the plant was grown out of water. None of the new leaves have looked at all like the ones originally on the plant. Good to know that I’m not screwin up the plant, but nonetheless disappointing.

[Goatman]

If you feel like the tank is getting crowded and overgrown, do a big slash and burn... Leave the choicest leaves, and rip out the rest. Get some new plants and try your hand at them. If you're new, don't try to resign yourself to one particular tank layout... Find what you like, and run with it. If you know that you can grow plants well (which is pretty obvious judging by the pics), then look into developing an aquascape instead of just a cluster of plants. If you like a tightly packed tank, look at dutch scaping... If you dig on pristine natural scenes, look into Takashi Amano's Nature Aquariums (ADA). Your plants having large leaves is not by any means a problem, but a marker that you're doing something right.

[Cityfish]

As I learn more about acquascaping I am becoming fond of the Amano style. I have not seen nor heard of the Dutch style, I will have to look into it. Slash and burn is what I’ll do for now. This first tank, my learner-tank has been a huge success( thanks in large to everyone at Aquaria central) . I am now thinking of it as a grow-out tank for my next few tanks.