Plant advice

[JPW003]

Hi everyone

I've attached three pictures of my plants. Some of the leaves as you will see are struggling (tank is two months old, fully cycled and water is good - 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrite, 5 Nitrate). I've recently added 6 Seacham Flourish Gravel tabs to this low-medium lighted 54l aquarium and wondered if I should trim/cut these leaves off or will they repair? If I'm to trim them, how and where do I trim? Or will they genuinely heal themselves!?

I have three plants in total - I think these 2 are Amazon Sword/Echinodorus (although could be wrong!) and one small plant that is okay so far. Therefore not hugely planted, but in time I'd like to get more if I can succeed.

For info, I'm not adding any CO2 and my lighting is on for 8 hours per day - 12pm till 8pm.

Any advice greatly appreciated!

J

 

[Munroco]

The tabs should make up for any deficiencies in your substrate. You can cut the leaves off without any problem. Best do it as near to the bottom as you can for aesthetics.

They ARE amazon swords btw. Amazon swords can get very large, and you will probably find one gets bigger than the others and shades them out. It does the same for any other light loving plants that grow near it.

 

[JPW003]

Great, thank you Munroco!

 

[Byron]

I basically agree. The leaves are showing signs of nutrient deficiency, but the Flourish Tabs will (certainly should) fix this. Only the new leaves will benefit; the older leaves which if you look at the crown of the plant will be the outside leaves, will not ever improve. But the new leaves that arise from the inner centre of the crown should be fine, that is what you want to see. I can see a few in the photos and they look good by comparison.

If the older outer leaves are still connected to the crown by white tissue and a very gentle tug straight up does not break them off, the plant may be transferring some nutrients from these leaves to the new growth. But if the leaf stem at the crown is brown, the leaf is not connected and you might as well remove it; a gentle tug will break it off at the crown.

 

[shabash]

I can’t tell from your pictures but if you have buried the rhizome of the plant then that also could be a cause.

 

[JPW003]

Thank you Byron. Effectively, the Crown of the plant is the centre hub, to which all leaves grow from, right?

 

[JPW003]

Thanks for the info Shabash. Is the Rhizome of the plant the same as the crown? Apologies, know very little about plants.

J

 

[Colin_T]

Thank you Byron. Effectively, the Crown of the plant is the centre hub, to which all leaves grow from, right?

Yep.

Sword plants don't have a rhizome. Just make sure the roots are buried and the leaves are above the substrate.

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Most sword plants are grown out of water and will shed their terrestrial leaves after a month or so under water.

You can tell if a plant has been grown out of water by seeing if the leaves flop down when the plant is removed from water. If the leaves flop down and don't stand up when out of water, the plant has been grown under water.

If the leaves stand upright when the plant is removed from water, it is either a marsh plant or has been grown out of water.

 

[JPW003]

Thanks Colin! MMuch appreciated.

 

[Byron]

The medium and larger species of Echinodorus do actually have a rhizome whereas the smaller species are stoloniferous (Kasselmann, 2003). But most would think of the rhizome as just a thickened root. The largest I have seen on any of my aquarium plants was between 2 and 3 inches in length. It can be buried, though I have had plants where the rhizome ended up on the surface due to the plants' enormous root system literally pushing it out of the substrate.

Echinodorus are also what are termed rosette plants, meaning the leaves grow out in a circle from the crown, new leaves appearing in the centre. The crown should not be buried, or the leaf petioles (stalk) may decay.