onion plant leaves turning brown

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jenricae

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Dec 27, 2005
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Hi, i have a couple of aquarium onion plants in my tank. I've noticed that one of the leaves is turning brown from the top of the leaf down. It's grown to about half an inch of brown over the past few days. This is a relatively new tank and was just cycled about a week ago. I tested the Nitrates today and it came out at between 5-10ppm.

I dose Excel carbon every couple of days and i've been giving liquid ferts twice a week. Do i need to up the ferts until the Nitrates hit 20ppm? I understand that's the ideal.

Light levels are at 1.5w per gal and i leave them on for about 8-9 hours a day. The Java ferns and Anubias in the tank seem to be doing okay, although i noticed a couple of the java fern leaves turning a darker green. Again, is this a sign of needing more ferts?

Thanks!
 
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Plague

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Aug 4, 2010
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Miami, Fl
I have onion plants growing under 1wpg too from mgamer. Though I don't dose excel in that tank. All I dose is Flourish once a week. It is growing new leaves.
 
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asukawashere

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Amanda Wenger
Wait... that doesn't look like a Crinum sp. onion plant. Did you by any chance buy this as a "dwarf onion plant" (Zephyranthes candida)? (google images will provide you with pictures to compare yours to). The so-called "dwarf onion" is actually a marginal, not a true aquatic, and like most marginals, will eventually die off if kept fully submerged.

If that's what your plant is (from the look of the leaves I suspect that to be the case), that's your problem. Pull the plants out of the tank, and plant them in a pot of very moist sand or soil. They eventually get pretty white lily flowers. :D
 
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prober

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Dec 20, 2010
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Yeah, that looks nothing like my onion plant. It has round leaves instead of flat.

I dose Excel with onions and they are fine. The only plant I had do some melting was hornwart and that eventually made a comeback and now is doing great. I don't have crypts or Vals so I cannot comment on whether they can be acclimated to Excel also but I suspect they can if you start slow enough.
 
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asukawashere

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jenricae said:
Oh man! I feel ripped. It was labeled as Crinum at the store. So they can't be in a tank at all? they were fully submerged in the store...
Click to expand...
They can tolerate a few weeks submerged, but sooner or later they start to die off, like you're seeing. The only way to stop the dieoff is to take them out of the tank. If you leave them in there, they'll eventually kick the bucket.

I would go back to the store you got them from (assuming this was a fairly recent purchase) and complain. Unless it was a chain store, in which case they won't do anything, and you're better off just finding a pot like I said.
 
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Sigrid

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My three Thai onion plants grow wonderful long green leaves. The only time I notice blemishes on them is *IS* when some undiscovered swamp snail has chewed holes in them...then it's hunting and squishing time. Angels/Scalare smile while standing by awaiting fresh meat.

By the way Thai onion plant leaves are flat like grass blades and not rounded.
Look at my avatar picture. They are on the left side of the tank.
 
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