# Plants dissolving



## jimmyd (Nov 8, 2010)

Hey everybody,

I'm suddenly having trouble with my java ferns and anubias. The leaves seem to be dissolving and I'm not sure why... I've never had this problem before. You can clearly see from the attached picture what's happening to them. Any ideas?

I should note that I just completely overhauled the whole tank. I had a plain gravel substrate, but dug that out and replaced it with mineralized topsoil, Eco Complete, and some crushed coral. I also have a T5HO fixture with 2 24W bulbs and dose with Flourish and Flourish Excel.

Thanks,
Jim


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## ddavila06 (Jan 31, 2009)

that java is starving...and in too much direct light probably, or so i been told with mine ha! post a pic of your anubia if you can please


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## Skizhx (Oct 12, 2010)

My java fern sorta has a bit of that going on as well...

For me I had let it dry out while I was doing unusually long tank maintenance while the water was low from a water change.

Also lost my anubias to it, and I think some x-mas moss.

Doesn't look 100% like that, but it's pretty darned close.


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

did you bury the rhizome? sorry if you think i'm asking you a stupid question but... sometimes you might forget the simple facts. or it could be adjusting the new enviroment.


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## jimmyd (Nov 8, 2010)

Thanks for the input so far everybody. Starving and direct light definitely could be factors. I'm not too sure what to do about the latter other than maybe put some cloth on the tank lid over that section of the tank to block some of the light. Floating plants would then run the risk of blocking light to my wisteria, which likes the intense light.

When I was swapping out the substrate in my tank, all my plants were in a shallow bucket where many were emersed for hours and the water got pretty cold. Maybe that had a longterm effect on the plants.

Neil, that's not a stupid question, but no I didn't bury the rhizome. In fact, I didn't bury anything at all. There was some old gravel stuck to the roots so the plants sunk to the bottom easily when I dropped them in. So right now, roots and all are just resting on top of the Eco Complete. Maybe once they've had time to dig into the substrate a bit I'll see different results. I tried to bury the roots but this quickly became a lesson in futility.

Anybody have any other thoughts or insight or should I just ride this out for a month or so and see what happens? It's only been a couple of weeks since the tank overhaul.

Also, if lighting is an issue, is there another plant that would be similar to java fern but like high lighting? Maybe a micro sword or something?

I'll try to remember to take a picture of the anubias when I get home tonight.

Thanks,
Jim


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## Ekrindul (Jul 3, 2010)

What size is the tank? If it's a 20 gallon tank say, then you have a bit more light than necessary unless you are providing enough carbon and fertilizer for that light amount. Hard to say if the lighting is too much without knowing the size of the tank. Also, without knowing whether you are using pressurized CO2 and what your dosing routine is, anything said about your lighting is guesswork. 

Do you have the same amount of plant mass now that you had before you swapped out the substrate? Same type of plants? Wysteria is a very good competitor for nutrients, so if it was recently introduced and nothing else was changed, you could see deficiencies in other plants that are less competitive. In other words, what has changed besides the substrate, if anything?

Adding crushed coral and EcoComplete will raise the KH of your water (I'm assuming that's why you added the coral), obviously. This change if significant enough might have an effect on the plants, but nothing they won't rebound from. 

Without knowing more, that's all I can say. I would advise to prune leaves that show deficiency as they are a lost cause and look into the questions I asked above as they should be the questions you are asking to find a solution.


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## HolyAngel (Nov 3, 2010)

+1 Ekrindul ^^

It looks to me like you have a potassium deficiency, ie. holes in the leaves. 

Like Ekrindul said, without knowing the tank size, it's hard to say about much else, but assuming you have a tank smaller than a 55Gallon.. That should put you at having medium-to-high light.. 
You do have a good substrate, but I didn't read anything about you're fertilizers.. are you dosing any? because if not, you definitely need to, as i'd bet on that being you're entire problem. 

I would look into EI Natural or using Seachem's line of ferts(excel,nitro,pot,phos,comprehensive) depending on you're budget and what you want to do. If you are dosing ferts already.. then we'll need more info on your setup, also if you're running co2 or not would help as well.


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## jimmyd (Nov 8, 2010)

Good questions everybody. Here are some bullet points to answer them...


Tank Size: 20 gallons (high)
Dosing: Flourish Excel (carbon) and Flourish (NPK). I add 8 to 10 ml of Flourish Excel every time I do a water change and 2ml every day after that. I drop in about 1.5ml of Flourish twice a week.
Plant Mass: More or less the same as it was. The wisteria has grown a bit, but I also got rid of the ludwigia repens and some anubias.
CO2: No pressurized CO2. The Flourish Excel and the churning of the water by the HOB filter are the only sources of carbon.
KH: I always had very, very low KH so adding the crushed coral and eco complete definitely caused a spike.... I think I went from about 1 degree to 5 or 6.


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## Ekrindul (Jul 3, 2010)

My advice would be to remove 1 bulb from the fixture, as 1 bulb of T5HO is enough for a 20 gallon high using just Excel and Flourish. More light will just cause deficiencies and algae. You might want to look into dry dosing KNO3 (maybe 1/4 tsp twice a week) along with the Flourish. It is cheap and a 1 lb. order will last a long time.

The plants should recover, though, even if you change nothing, but you will probably be happier with their health if you bring down the light and add some additional fertilizer.

This jungle was grown under a single bulb of T5HO:


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