Plants Not Thriving

[Geoff-]

I have been trying live plants for a few months, and have some plants that are surviving but not looking as nice as they did in the store.

I have a 90L tank, pH 8.0 no ammonia/nitrites and nitrates < 20ppm doing weekly 50%-70% water changes.

I have a crypt that displays brownish leaves although it is still growing slowly. I have two amazon swords, the inner leaves of the second one look a bit pale although they too are growing. Java fern that looks OK sending out plenty of roots. And I have a new crypt where the new growth is coming out brown, the old leaves are still a light green colour. This is following the pattern the previous crypt displayed where the old growth was OK and the new growth isn't very good.

Lighting is standard AR620 tubes - 2 x PL18W Triphoshor / Tropical Mix 7.1K / 14K bulbs.

I have tried fertilising with osmocote buried in the sand substrate but I think all it did was spike my nitrates, seems to be slowing down now so I will relax my water change schedule.

I'm thinking there just isn't enough useful light coming from these PL18W tubes? Is brown growth symptomatic of insufficient lighting?

I also have some new stem plants with broad green leaves having purple undersides.. these are dropping leaves like crazy so they're about to get thrown in the bin as the leaves clog my filter intake.

 

[ian]

there is enough light in there to grow the plants you have mentioned Geoff. Have you got any pics of the affected plants? I'll probably put a whole British 50p on the main plants affected are the swords? You have to remember that a lot of aquarium plants are grown emersed, they are then flooded in our tanks and they take a little time to get used to the environment. It's always best practice to start pruning dead and dying leaves straight away. This will also help promote new growth in the new environment. Show us some pics and we'll see if it's normal, C02 related, etc etc.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

+1 there

 

[Geoff-]

ok here's some pics.. first up my oldest crypt, the leaves are a bit brown although I've heard crypts sometimes do this. It's growing, which is a good sign:

my two amazon swords (I planted them a bit close!!) are also growing.. gee I looked up some photos of when I bought them in May and they were only a few leaves each. The one on the right has some leaves that are quite pale compared with the rest.

This is my new crypt, the new growth is also brown

And finally these are the bastar.. illegitimate children that drop so many leaves.. although maybe they're just adapting too?

Gee I looked back at when I planted some of these in May and I have had some decent growth (the plants that have changed are because the old ones weren't true acquatic species)
May:

July:

Good call on the pics guys, it's shown me things aren't standing still at least!!

 

[ian]

they don't look bad to me Goeff!

However, i spy a couple of none aquatic plants in there and that's your problem. The 3rd pic down is a Hemigraphis colorata species, and needs to be gone. This is why it's dropping it's leaves...they normally last a while submerged, but personally i would get rid and try some Hygrophila species.

The crypts look healthy to me though Geoff, and remember to keep on top of the trimming for the first couple of months.

 

[Geoff-]

bloody hell.. i thought the LFS would be safe to buy proper aquatics from! thanks that explains why they're shedding like it's going out of fashion (silly me, bought a few).

thanks for the tip, time to go shopping again

 

[ddevine123]

your tank looks great i keep thinking the same with my plants cause they grow so slow

 

[coldcazzie]

Your crypts and swords look fab. For the record, crypts can be either green or brown, and some of mine manage to have both colouration on one plant, so stop panicking that its not normal! if you remove the non-aquatic plants, replace with hygro as Ian suggests you'll be good to go. Some java fern or anubias would look lovely on your rocks and provide another contrast

 

[minnnt]

I was expecting to see a big yellow mess! They look super healthy to me Geoff. Remove the non aquatic plants as mentioned. As for the Crypts, i would expect them to go totally brown with the looks of them. Mine started off green and ended up brown and yours look like they're in that transistion period. It is quite common as they adapt to your aquarium conditions. the variety is Wendtii Brown. There is also a green version that stays green.