plants losing leaves

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LiveMermaid07

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Jul 7, 2009
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Hi,

My dwarf lily and one or more of my amazon swords are losing their leaves. Not all of them, but I find a leaf or few floating in the water every week or couple times a week.

This is in a 29g,
has 2 T-12 light bulbs,
diy co2,
somewhat recently planted seachem and api root tabs under these (they were losing leaves before and after adding root tabs),
I usually dose flourish once a week,
and if I remember later in the week I dose - I think it's called - Nutrifin micro nutrients.
Lights are generally on for 8 - 12 hours a day.

Why are they losing leaves??

My lily was doing great, the dwarf bulb had grown 2 large plants, I separated them from the bulb in the last 3 months (or 2 months...?), the bulb still had a small plant on it so I had planted it elsewhere. But the 2 larger plants kept losing leaves and then in about a 12 - 24 hour period all the java fern and some of the lily's had been covered in what I later discovered was thread algae. I did not know that at the time and threw it all away.

After that I took the bulb out of the tank it was in and replanted it in this one, it has grown 2 small plants (and separated from one of them), and they too are still losing the occasional leaf.
????????
:help2:
What am I missing???

Thanks.
 
I've had the lily bulb for about 2 years, had been doing great till several months ago it just started digressing.
 
interesting problem. Do you have a drop checker in your tank? This could be a co2 related problem because since you have much more plants in your tank the needs of your plants are much greater then they used to be so you might want to consider adding another co2 bottle.

Is there maybe an animal in the tank the took a liking to your plants? could the plants been injured in some way like a rock falling and cutting some of the roots? Do the other plants in your tank have the same problem?

Do you have a picture?
 
No drop checker. I only added the co2 (3L bottle) in January, they were losing (the lily, I added more swords earlier January) leaves before that too.
I also dose excel once a week, I want to think I was using half strength, but I'm not sure, I've already melted most the plants that didn't like it.

I've only ever seen any of the fish eating the lily leaves that are already rotting. They leave the healthy ones alone.
As for the swords, the otos clean them, but no one ever seems to eat them.

No plant injuries that I've been aware of.

I don't have any pics, the plants themselves don't show any signs (which is why I don't know if it's one or all of the swords, but I don't think it would be all the swords, I think I have 9 - some are just plantlets - so I would think it would be a lot more leaves floating if all of them were having problems.)

The only other plants having problems... let's see.. 3 of the 6 or so anubia's are having trouble growing new roots / rhizome, but those are relatively new and they are slow growing, so not necessarily a problem.

I added a batch of microsword last month, I can't tell if it's dying or being eaten, I thought I had a couple new leaves, but it's slowly disappearing and I have found some floating, but the floating bits don't seem to be dead. So I've just been gathering those up, tying them with a small bit of plant anchor and dropping them back in. I figured they might just be getting used to a new environment?

The sags seem ok, reallllllllyyyyyy slow, lol, but ok. (An old one - dwarf sag, last Oct. - 2 new ones last month, a curly?, and a giant.)
The moss is good too.
All the java fern died, March or February, it actually happened in 2 tanks at the same time. It was very fast, in only about 12-24 hours all of it had either died and been covered with thread algae or just covered with it. I thought it was some weird spider web thing so I threw it all out and scrubbed everything around it. It had touched one sword and the lily plants and they didn't look good after that so I cut off the 'bad' parts of the sword and threw out the 2 large lily plants (They looked worse than the sword). That's when I put the bulb back in this tank.
 
oops I forgot, I have one 'new' crypt (last summer) it's about 3 inches tall, I had 7 seven leaves but one recently shriveled up and died, and the other leaves are getting pin holes in them.
But, I had accidentally disturbed it with the vacuum a couple or few weeks ago, with that and I had tried using that tetra correct pH stuff (only used 2 tablets a few hours apart - it says one tab per 10g) earlier (only it caused the fish more stress than just having a lower pH) and just had a major parameter swing (in part perhaps because I forgot the last several water changes to add nitraban - it helps with swings in pH and alkalinity), so I figured it might just be melting?
I don't know. :(
 
It sounds like to me you have a lot of factors changing in your tank right now. That might be stressing your plants and causing your plants to lose leaves. I would try to keep things as stable as you can and don't make any changes for at least two weeks. Then in two weeks see what's wrong. If you still are getting lots of thread algae (are you sure it's thread algae) could it be claudo or spigro? then start to try to change one thing at a time then wait a couple weeks see if that helped or not. If the plants seem to be growing better then you're on the right path. If they seem to be growing worse you might have to revert back to old conditions then try again.
 
Whats your PH and KH? That should tell you how your c02 injection is. Also post the rest of the water condtions nitrate, nitrite ect..

How many Watts per gallon? What kind of diffuser are you using?
 
rockhoe14er said:
It sounds like to me you have a lot of factors changing in your tank right now. .
Click to expand...
For the last 2 -3 months, yes, before that as far as I know everything was stable (but was starting to lose the lily leaves anyway).

rockhoe14er said:
If you still are getting lots of thread algae (are you sure it's thread algae)
Click to expand...
It was only that one time. After cleaning it out it has not come back. (In either of the 2 tanks it happened in.) No, I'm not positive, it looked like white spiderwebs and totally encompassed my java ferns. It came about all of a sudden, never had it before or since.


Whats your PH and KH? PH has re-stabilized (and was possibly before I tried the 'correct ph' - was recommended on different thread I should try and keep at 7) at around 6.4 ( The fish showed more stress signs trying to keep at 7ish than they had at lower ph, so I'm going to leave that alone for time being.)

KH, I need to retest. (I only have strips - Jungle - btw, don't know how accurate those are. The ph I have the liquid test and strip.)
That should tell you how your c02 injection is. Also post the rest of the water condtions nitrate, nitrite ect..
Nitrites I have been having trouble keeping down, changing water frequently. After changing 16-18g I can get it down to about 1. But it jumps back up rapidly.
Nitrates have stayed below 20 (the strips only say 0 then next # /color is 20, it doesn't reach the 20 color. I figured the plants were taking them in?)
How many Watts per gallon? 1.37 - 2 20w t-12's
What kind of diffuser are you using? I have just been using an airstone, and an airline adjuster - the twisty kind - set to minimum. Only a very thin stream of bubbles comes out and it's positioned below the filter flow to help (theoretically lol) spread it around. Plants did have noticeable improvement when I added this.
 
I only got test strips (jungle) a couple weeks ago, as far as I remember (and yes I'm thoroughly embarrassed but I have been trying to fix and find out what is wrong)
generally ph is 6 - 6.4
alkalinity 40ish to 80 but sometimes less than 40
hardness usually around 75 give or take (has finally settled back to this, disappeared for one or 2 tests)
nitrites: for the first several tests before changing as much water as I could without leaving the fish high and dry (approximately 16g) would read 10, after the wc would read 3.
Nitrate above 0 but less than 20

Second to last wc was Thursday.
Test readings before Monday's wc
pH 6
Alkilinity less than 40 , but above 0
Hardness 75ish (back to normal)
Nitrite 1 or less than 3
Nitrate closer to 20 than has been

After wc
pH 6.2
Alkalinity same (less than 40)
Hardness between 25 and 75
Nitrite .5 or 1 hard to tell (but less than it's been in weeks finally!)
Nitrate 10?
 
source water (i have previously tested a dechlorinated jug that had been sitting out for a day but i didn't write it down)
this was taken a few minutes after pouring and dechlorinating
pH 6.8
alkalinity 40
hardness 25
nitrites 0
nitrates 0
ammonia 0
 
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