Plants rotting? Tearing? Need Help!

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Jan 1, 2008
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I don't know what is going on but the red crypt I have appears to be rotting away. It looks like a big fish took a bite out of the top of several leaves and the "bite mark" round areas look wet/damp like they are bleeding from an open wound. The leaf ends seem to be disintegrating and frayed a bit as if they were torn off by a large round set of teeth. In the top picture you see it best with the middle leaf with this big "c" torn into the end. The leaf against the wood on the left is torn off as it leans into the wood. The middle picture shows that damp "wetness" on the leaf in the right. One of the lower leaves seemed to have turned to water and I was able to just pull out the messy, wet, soggy leaf. There are no fish in the tank nearly this large to do this so it must be the water I think. My tall anubia (not sure what kind but it has stalks) is turning brown in some areas. The bottom picture is a leaf I had to trim but you can see the brown growing again on the end. These pictures are terrible (camera phone) and I'll try to get better ones but some of you know what is going on by these symptoms.

I've tried to supplement more light (I've got a 16 gallon with 15 watt light) and have ample fertizilier - I added Seachem's flourish yesterday and a cap of iron plant grow supplement today. I will remove my carbon from my filter which was there just to clean out the tank after first cycle. The 28 watt lamp and CO2 are on its way from Big Als and I didn't think this would happen but there could be other causes.

Fish in the tank: 3 cories, 2 otos, 2 danios, 2 bumblebee gobies. None of these could do that much damage.

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crypts tend to do this anytime theres a change to the aquarium. lighting co2 ph looking at them can do it. Its called crypt melt google it and i'm sure you'll find tons of info. :)

as for the anuba ... i'm not sure
 
wait to get CO2 before doing anything. Depending on the plants, you really do need new lighting and CO2.

It's coming this week, Friday the latest. In the meanwhile, the other anubias is rotting. I gave it a LOT more light yesterday and that seemed to make the change more than anything else. Here's a picture of today which you can compare to yesterday when it was actually green... it's bizarre.

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How about this for an answer - overnight my pH shot up to 7.6. I became a little suspicious when I saw the gobies and otos playing around happily and everyone else seemed lethargic. It turns out that none of the other fish like a pH above 7, which is usually rock solid in my tank. My understanding is that most plants prefer 7 or lower (acidic) to thrive and which might explain the beginning of the rotting.
 
My amazon swords melt like your pictures as well. I read it is because of plants adapting to your tank.
 
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