Hornwort Issue

[Sara0229]

I am new to plant keeping and about 2 weeks ago I bought a bunch of hornwort. I then added sand to my tank so I put the plant in a bucket of water. Once the dust settled and I put the plant back in it lost much of its leaves and most of the rest turned brown. I thought I was going to loose it but it is quickly making a come back. Three stems have shot up like crazy and the other stems are all getting a nice shade of green. There are still a lot of brown leaves on the plant and they are slowly falling off and getting stuck on the filter intake. My question is what should I do with these dead leaves? I thought of maybe putting it in a bucket and trying to shake off the dead leaves. I also thought of trying to clip off the stems that have most of the dead leaves. I don't want to kill it as it's becomming, partly anyway, a nice looking plant. What do you suggest?

 

[mtv8dmarine]

When leaves go yellow or brown just remove them. A plant will be better off spending its energies growing new leaves than trying to repair bad ones. The same goes with aquatic plants as with garden ones...they all require some bit of pruning. And welcome to the forum by the way!

 

[Sara0229]

Thanks. I'm totally new to aquarium plants. I have many regular plants but have always been intimidated by aquarium plants. I am surprised at just how fast the hornwort is growing! I have a 55 usgal and one stem is almost at the top of the water already!

What do I do with the weight? I've heard remove it and don't but if I do remove it I'm not sure the sand will be enough to anchor it.

 

[mtv8dmarine]

As long as you have a few inches of sand to anchor it in it should be fine.