# yellow/light brown spots on plants



## lovingod (Apr 8, 2004)

:? I was wondering if someone could tell me why my plants in my planted tank are starting to turn yellow/light brown. This is my first planted tank of course. 

I have 4 small angels, 4 small coreys, 2 gold mystery snails and 3 cichlids (cichlids soon to be moved). I do a 50% water change at least every other day and use Seachem Flourish at least once a week in the tank.

I'm sure this is something I'm doing wrong but could use some feedback.

Thanks,
Rhonda


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## Gomer (Feb 2, 2004)

well, sounds like a nutrient problem....or light

What size tank and how much light?

Flourish does not provide any macro nutrients, so that could be part of the problem. ..most likely nitrogen

here is a list of nutrient deficiencies
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_nutrient.htm


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## lovingod (Apr 8, 2004)

Well, I'm on a small budget so temporarily I went with a simulated natural, full-spectrum 20 watt light bulb which fits in the existing fixture for the tank.

It's a 29 gallon tank. Thanks for the info on nutrient deficiency.

Rhonda


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## Gomer (Feb 2, 2004)

ah..that is the problem

you won't get anything to grow (well..a very few # of plants can barely survive) with that little light.

You CANNOT change the bulb to get more light. Your only real option is to retrofit the canopy with a 1x55 AH kit (www.ahsupply.com) or get a whole new light steup.

What plants are you trying to grow?


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## Steve Pituch (Jan 25, 2004)

Rhonda,

Yes, the 55 Watt bulb will give you about 2 Watts per gallon which is about perfect. The Flourish provides Iron and other _*micro*_nutrients but I think you are going to need the NPK _*macro*_nutrients Nitrogen (N), Phosphorous (P), and Potassium (K). You can add N and K from Greenlight Stump remover available at plant nurseries and the P from a Fleet Enema. We can give you the amounts.

If you do this you really only need to provide a 50% water change weekly.

Regards,
Steve Pituch


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## lovingod (Apr 8, 2004)

Tony,

I have quite a few plants in my tank but would have to look up some to remember what they are...I know I have lily bulbs, fern, swords and I think ludweigia - not sure if that's how it is spelled. 

I had more but didn't get them in a planted tank in time and they died. Oops...my fault...we were too busy dealing with sick fish at the time!!

- - - - - - -
Steve,

Will the items you've mentioned to me hurt my fish in any way?? We just went through a terrible month where we lost all our fish due to sickness that was brought home from a convention. I certainly don't want to go through that again.

Please let me know what dosage I need to use. Thanks.


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## Gomer (Feb 2, 2004)

it doesn't matter what fertalizers you add, you need more light to grow plants. 20watts over a 29g is just a slow death for vertually all plants.


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

Rhonda,
Used properly, none of those chemicals will hurt your fish. I have had at least 1 aquarium for the past 25 years. Since I discovered how to grow healthy plants, I have had the healthiest looking fish ever. The whole tank becomes a much more viable entity if your plants are healthy.


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## Steve Pituch (Jan 25, 2004)

Rhonda,
Sorry for the delay. Don't feel bad if you are a little confused at this time. I will try NOT to complicate things further. I think you have two choices. They are termed low-light, and high-light. Low light is a little simpler and cheaper: it doesn't require you to add CO2 to the tank with a do-it-yourself mixture of yeast and a bottle.

Low-light:

You would need to purchase the AH Supply 36 Watt kit, and one 36Watt 6700K bulb for about $58. You need about 18 inches of clearance in your hood for this to fit. Otherwise you would need to consider a different hood.

I think if you purchased a 36 Watt light kit from AH Supply at www.ahsupply.com you would have what is considered low light. It would obtain its CO2 from decomposition of fish food. Growth of the plants is slower. In this case I would add nutrients to the tank at a lesser rate. I would go with 5 ppm NO3 (nitrate), .2 PPM PO4 (phosphate), and .2 ppm Iron and traces (micronutrients) added.

NO3: Greenlight Stump remover is 100% KNO3. Not only would it give you the NO3 but it wold also automatically supply the needed K (potassium) You would add 7.8 grams of KNO3 (approx 1 and a half teaspoons) to the tank once or twice per week.

PO4: You need to make a working solution by mixing one-half teaspoon of the fleet enema (non-oil type), (the one containing PO4 in the formula) with 250 ml of water. Use 1 TABLESPOON of this working solution once or twice per week.

Iron and traces: Use 5 ml of Flourish once or twice per week.

High-light

You would need to purchase the AH Supply 55 Watt kit, and one 55Watt 6700K bulb for about $61. You need about 22.5 inches of clearance in your hood for this to fit. Otherwise you would need to consider a different hood.

For NO3, PO4, and Iron and traces double the doses from the low-light setup.

Since you have more light the plants will want to grow faster and you will need to add CO2 since the plants will need more carbon. Do-it-yourself (DIY) CO2 is easy to make and very cheap. You just add yeast to a bottle to generate CO2 and feed it into the water. I will leave the details to others here. You can search on this forum or others for the info.

General
Once a week before dosing you must thoroughly clean the tank glass of algae and trim the plants of algae. Doing this will minimize its growth and eventually the algae will be so minimal that you will hardly notice it. After doing the cleaning do a 50% water change, and then add the nutrients.

The water change does two things: it gets rid of the algae you just loosened from the glass and gets rid of the wastes in the tank. It also resets the nutrient levels so you don't end up with too much of a nutrient if it isn't being consumed as much as the other nutrients.

This should be all you need. I would NOT purchase any test kits for now, as this nutrient regimen and the water changes guarantees the proper concentration ranges. For more info you can go to "memberlist" on the front page and look up all messages from user "plantbrain" who is Tom Barr. He is the guru in the Western Hemisphere of this planet on the subject of planted aquaria nutrition.

Regards,
Steve Pituch


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