heat killing plants?

Liz

Liz

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Mar 25, 2005
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I noticed recently that my plants are not doing so well. It just occured to me that I recently put in a heater, and the temperature now ranges around 80-82 degrees. Could the temperature be hurting the plants? In particular, my moneywort isn't doing so great.
 
Well, it is usually around 73-74, and I got some Dwarf Puffers and that's on the lower end for them, I'd prefer around 76 but I still have yet to figure out the heater completely....
 
If I was to make a generalization, 74-78 is the optimum temp range for alot of tropical plants that we keep. But there are individual plants that do vary from that.

I'm not sure what moneywart is, I have a book with scientific names but little or no common names put to them. There are only a limited few plants that will continue to do fine when the temperatures are sustained above 80.

Moneywort(bacopa monnieri) is supposed to tolerate temps from 60-86 with most of that range in its optimum for growth. The increased temps might be causeing faster growth that is useing more nutrients than befor. If you had a slight deficiency befor the higher temps would excerbate that without supplements.
 
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Most plants in my tanks are fine at that temperature, the only one I've had issues with so far is Java fern, and I'm not sure if the problem was too much light or heat - it's been moved from a high-light tank at ~84F to a lower light tank at ~80-82F and it's doing very nicely now. All my tanks are fairly warm, rarely below 80F, because our apartment is hot - there are many floors below us, so it's difficult to keep it cool even in the winter.
Can you post specifics, with pictures if possible, of exactly what's happening to your plants? It's possible they're suffering from a nutrient deficiency. It would also help if you can post things like the type of lighting, wattage, photoperiod, fertilization routine, CO2, anything else related to the plants. It's easier to help solve a problem if we have a full 'picture' of the tank :)
 
The moneywort is starting to get "stalky", the lower leaves are browning/ falling off. Also it is getting roots up along the stem, not sure if that is normal or not. My Red Temple is getting these roots up above gravel up through the stem, too.
30 watts, fluorescent, around 14 hours a day, 10 gallons, gravel with peat substrate, flourish excel, hagen plant-gro.

I've had these plants around.... I don't know, several weeks. They have been fine up until now. I recently added the heater and I recently put in a aquaclear mini filter to replace a Pennplax Small World filter. I broke the Pennplax filter cartridge and put the sponge thing in with the sponge in the new filter but I think my cycle might have started over, I was in the hospital for a week and I came home, no water changes while I was away, and my nitrites and nitrates are testing almost nonexistant and my ammonia was around .25.
 
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Long internodes and lower leaves dying sounds like a lack of light, but I'm surprised - TMK, 30W over a 10g should be enough for many tpes of plants. I've got a 10g with 30W of PC spirals, all the plants I've had in the tank have done well. Is it possible the stems are crowded, so maybe light isn't getting to the lower leaves?
Are you fertilizing with trace elements? Plants have a reserve, but after a few weeks they will have exhausted it. It's possible they're missing a nutrient, but what you're describing really sounds like a problem with light, rather than ferts.
The roots above gravel are normal, most stems seem to do this. If you lay the stem along the gravel and plant those roots, the stem will probably grow a new stem from each node. If they're left as they are, I imagine they use these roots to help take up ferts from the water column.
 
SnakeIce said:
If I was to make a generalization, 74-78 is the optimum temp range for alot of tropical plants that we keep. But there are individual plants that do vary from that.
The increased temps might be causeing faster growth that is useing more nutrients than befor. If you had a slight deficiency befor the higher temps would excerbate that without supplements.
Click to expand...

I tend to agree with SnakeIce. It could be that your plants have depleted their nutrients. Are you dosing with anything?What your light wattage to tank volume? Co2? Kh?
 
My advice would be to stay out of the hospital. Sudden changes in temperatures will cause plants to struggle. I think the answer to your question is yes.
 
I don't have cO2 but I do use flourish excel, and hagen plant-gro for other nutrients. I also use Jungle tabs in the gravel. It is possible that some of the plants are blocking other plants, I have some cabomba that seems to just kind of go everywhere that could be blocking some of the light.
 
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