Brown/dying leaves - trim, cut or leave?

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Alwaysusa

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Jan 4, 2011
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Hey all,

Aside from the aesthetic of the tank, does the same hold true for aquarium plants as it does for garden plants? Should I cut the offending leaves off completely, trim the dead edges, or leave it until it is practically falling off itself?

This is on a Sword plant by the way. It came with several brown spots on the leaves and there's been no miracle recovery, so it's time to do something.
 

tanker

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Sep 1, 2003
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Jessica
Get rid of the entire bad leaf.
 

BettaFishMommy

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agreed. removing the dead and dying portions allows the plant to better use its 'energy' on the healthy areas.
 

dundadundun

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agree with everyone else... gardening is gardening, aquatic or otherwise.
 

spacefish34

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Yeah,remove the leaf as close to the crown of the sword as possible.Don't pull it or you may pull up the whole plant.And,swords are heavy iron and especially potassium feeders.I use Brightwell Florin-Fe(iron),Florin-K(potassium),and Florin-Multi which is their general fertilizer.Good luck...
 

CoryWM

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Nov 11, 2008
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Hey all,

Aside from the aesthetic of the tank, does the same hold true for aquarium plants as it does for garden plants? Should I cut the offending leaves off completely, trim the dead edges, or leave it until it is practically falling off itself?

This is on a Sword plant by the way. It came with several brown spots on the leaves and there's been no miracle recovery, so it's time to do something.
If the leaves are consuming themselves, it's a sign they're starving for nutrients. Cutting the leave off can hurt the plant as a whole. It then loses the nutrients it was robbing from that leaf.

If you have shrimp in the aquarium, dead leaves are much appreciated. Micro-organisms thrive on the dead leaves. Same effect as putting in the almond leaves for shrimp etc.

A perfectly balanced aquarium, which is admittedly very hard to achieve, you'll never have dead leaves. Leaves will be years old. You'll just cut them off to get room back in the aquarium.
 
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