How Do I Know If My Plant Is Decaying In My Tank?

[DJ_$ure$hot]

Just wanted to find out what signs to look out for on plants that are starting to decay?

 

[Colin_T]

they lose colour and generally go yellow or brown. The leaves often start to fall apart and when you touch them they break up in your fingers. Healthy plants should have green or red leaves and stems that are firm to touch.

 

[xcharmanderx421]

they lose colour and generally go yellow or brown. The leaves often start to fall apart and when you touch them they break up in your fingers. Healthy plants should have green or red leaves and stems that are firm to touch.

oooohhh boy that means practically all my plants are dying. damn sand setup. well... that and no co2 and bad lighting.

 

[waterdrop]

Start with the lighting. That makes a bigger difference and is easier to do. If you are under 1watt/gallon, you could see whether you could just fit a second light of same type as what you have.

Plant food in a bottle is also easy. There are several good kinds that have some iron in them and you can clear out any excess that might have happened if you maintain your tank with regular weekly water changes.

(Special plant substrate is the next step harder probably and finally CO2)

Also, choose easy plants like java ferns and others that are to be found by searching "easy plants" here on TFF.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[rdd1952]

Don't be too quick to blame the sand. I have always used sand in all but one of my tanks and have no problem with plants. I don't use CO2 either. I mainly have easy to grow stem plants like val grass, hygrophilia, java ferns, amazon swords and anubis nana but they grow fine. Quite a lot of plants sold for aquariums are not true aquatic plants and won't live under water. A good rule of thumb is that most plants with varigated leaves will not live when completely submerged. That could be your problem.

 

[sirichmond]

We also have sand in our tank, with all real plants at first some of them did go a touch brown so we use Ferropol 24 we have a 200l tank and it takes 3 drops a day (lasts ages) but it is better than some you put in once a week as gennerally the plants will use all the iron before the next dose!

Also we found a great plant is Wisteria (not sure how its spelt) it grows readily and produces high oxygen for the fish

Hope some of this may help.