# Nutrient deficiency?



## nightfury3 (Nov 30, 2015)

I started a planted 10 gallon tank a few months ago, and it has a good amount of various low-to-mid light plants in it. I had many issues with keeping these plants alive when I first added them to my tank, and had many melt away and not return. I recently added a new light, and that seems to have stopped the melting. Many of the plants grow quickly. However, the leaves are turning yellow and eventually transparent, and even the anubias is looking sickly, with yellowing leaves and dark spots. This is my first planted tank, and I have no idea what I'm doing. I think it's some kind of deficiency, but I'm not sure what. I have root tabs and dose with API plant food, but that is all in terms of nutrients. Any suggestions for what it might be and how to help it?


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## hellobird (Nov 11, 2015)

You could try dosing extra potassium and iron.
Potassium is great for fixing up problems with plants, if the "dark spots" are holes forming in the leaves it is likely you have a deficiency here.
Yellowing leaves can be numerous deficiencies, so it's kind of hard to be sure, but iron is always a good place to start. I use Seachem's range.


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## kitkat67 (Mar 10, 2015)

What do your ammo levels look like?


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## olgamc (Jan 2, 2016)

My understanding with anubias is that they don't need additional fertz and do well in low light. If you are adding fertz for your other plants, you might be harming anubias. (I have seen this in other forums). You might want to plant them in a shady part of tank.

It would help, I think, if you could post some more details about your tank:
what kind of substrate
list of plants
what light
what fertz/how much etc.

Who is living in the tank? What are your ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels?

Pictures?


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## nightfury3 (Nov 30, 2015)

Thanks for the replies everyone.
I have regular small-grained gravel and this light:http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...VXSG96TCYYRW&ref_=pd_ys_c_rfy_rp_2619533011_1
I have only a single betta living in the 10 gallon tank, but naturally high nitrates in my tap. If I mix spring water with my tap it usually goes in around the 20ppm range.
Sorry the two pictures aren't very good. I hope you can see the dead leaves in the second one.


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## nightfury3 (Nov 30, 2015)

As far as the plants I have:
1 Anubias Nana (yellow, no growth, black spots)
Some Java fern (little growth, black spots)
Brazilian Pennywort (grows like crazy, a little bit of yellowing and stem and leaf melting)
Amazon Sword (Grows slowly, old leaves die, going yellow, transparent, and brittle)
Various crypts, not exactly sure which kinds: 3 kinds. Small crypts (Droopy, yellowing, now growth, never recovered from initial introduction to tank.). Small red crypts (growing well, old leaves getting transparent). Tall crypts (Curling leaves, good growth, no yellowing)
Unidentified Plant from bulb pack (Growing alright, old leaves died, new ones curly)
Water wisteria (One stem growing well, other stunted. Some older leaf decay)


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## olgamc (Jan 2, 2016)

Hmm. Do you have just one of those lights? The q/a is confusing - it says that the light is 6w, but 600 lumens. 600 lumens = 10w, so I am not sure what to believe. If it's 6w it's not enough, for a 10g tank you need at least 10w.

Amazon sword and wisteria both need 2-3 w per gallon. Out of curiosity, is there anything special about the spot where the one wisteria stem is growing? I think I would add more light, maybe try a 13.5w cfl in a table lamp over the tank for a while. Do put your anubias in a shady spot though if you do that. Btw, your anubias doesn't look bad to me. They are very slow growers, I think you can expect 1 new leaf per month.

I am also wondering about c02 and iron, since you have no soil in the tank and only 1 betta. I know nothing about fertilizing though, except for what I said before.


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## olgamc (Jan 2, 2016)

Oh, and red plants need more light, 3-5w per gallon.

How long are your lights on btw?


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## olgamc (Jan 2, 2016)

Here is about java ferns:

Java ferns do not require any special lighting, and will actually suffer if the lighting is too strong. They will flourish under the incandescent bulbs provided in small, basic aquariums – but they will do especially well under subdued fluorescent bulbs. You can tell if the lighting is too strong for the Java ferns by looking at the leaves. If they start to become brown and transparent, you should cut back on the lighting until the plant recovers.

The one thing to remember with Java ferns, is that they require a regular fertilizer. Because they have no “true” roots, they get most of their fertilizer from the water column. If you want your Java fern to truly thrive, you should add a liquid fertilizer after every weekly water change. Tab fertilizers are useless with Java ferns, since they don’t have a proper root system to utilize them.

http://aquariumtidings.com/java-fern/


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## hellobird (Nov 11, 2015)

Watts per gallon doesn’t really apply with LED, since they can be a lot brighter but use less power. The light you have is fine for low light plants, your pennywort and wisteria might to better floating though, if its not already. 
I can definitely see potassium deficiency in your anubias, and I’m pretty positive I see iron deficiencies as well. Crypts and amazon swords especially are iron hogs, you can buy iron root tabs for them if you don’t already have some.
If you don’t see any improvement, try setting up the desk lamp like olgamc suggested and seeing if that helps at all.


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## nightfury3 (Nov 30, 2015)

So it's recommended I get something like Flourish? I use Aqueon Plant food (sorry I said Api in the original post), usually dosed at 10ml at the water change once a week, and about have that one other day.


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## nightfury3 (Nov 30, 2015)

Now my tall crypts have turned yellow overnight and are melting.


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## olgamc (Jan 2, 2016)

did you change anything?


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## nightfury3 (Nov 30, 2015)

No, but this is what's been happening with most of the other plants. The yellowing comes on fast.


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## olgamc (Jan 2, 2016)

All your params are stable and you haven't done a water change and you haven't added anything to the water? Sure? 

Crypts apparently melt easily, but recover. They really don't like change or replanting, and they don't like Excel. They like established tanks with "dirty" substrate. I gathered this on other forums.


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## nightfury3 (Nov 30, 2015)

My params haven't been stable since I started the tank. It's been through constant spikes of ammonia and nitrites that I still can't figure out the cause of, and changing a water source due to high nitrates in my tap. Currently ammonia's a little high, which I was assuming might be because of the plants dying. It's due for a water change today, so it's been a week since the last one.


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## olgamc (Jan 2, 2016)

Ahha, so #1 I would try to keep your params as stable as possible by doing daily testing and small water changes. If you see ammonia or nitrites at 0.25, do a 25% water change. Warm your new water to the same temp as aquarium before you put it in, and add it slowly. Pick dead leaves off, they are no use to the plants anyway.

#2 Don't do too good a job of vacuuming - got this on another forum, but also know from experience that my anubias did way better with some waste. I know it's not good for the fish, but you only have 1 in a 10G, so see if you can strike a balance.

#3 Classify your plants into med-high light and low light and plan the tank accordingly. Maybe you have to replant some to get them closer or farther from light.

#4 Keep your lights on for 10-12 hours a day at consistent times. If you can, try this: 5 hours on, 4 hours off, 5 hours on. It's recommended for natural planted tanks (soil-based).

You'll have to strike that fertz/lights/co2 balance eventually, which I know very little about, but if you keep all other parameters stable it will be easier to make small changes and watch the difference.


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## nightfury3 (Nov 30, 2015)

Thanks, I'll follow your advice.
As far as ferts go, what would I benefit from? Should I use flourish, Iron, and potassium? Or would it be more beneficial to stick to what I've been using? And how do I determine if I need CO2?


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## olgamc (Jan 2, 2016)

No idea about the fertz. Basically nutrient deficiency is because the plant is not able to absorb the nutrient. That can happen if a) there is not enough nutrient for the amount of light or plants' needs or b) not enough light or co2 or wrong ph for the absorption to happen. So because there are so many variables, the best way to start figuring this out is by stabilizing your light and other conditions. If you know that your plants are getting the right amount of light, the right temperature and ph, then you could try upping the iron or co2.

Please keep in mind, I really have absolutely no experience with fertilizing, so I am really hoping that someone else will chime in.

fyi, the plants in my soil based tank are doing waaay better than the plants in gravel only tank, but the gravel tank is not dying. No fertz in either. I have a red sword, wisteria, anubias and water lettuce.


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## nightfury3 (Nov 30, 2015)

Maybe it might be more beneficial to switch to a different substrate... But I should be able to keep them alive at least in this substrate.


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## olgamc (Jan 2, 2016)

Honestly, when I was doing research it seemed that a soil based tank is a lot less maintenance - no filter, no additional fertilizers, no co2, no vacuuming, very (and I mean very) little water changes. So now I am experimenting. You can try googling natural planted tank or walstad method. There is a sticky from OldFishLady in planted tanks too that's really good. I have a journal for mine, so you can follow it too if you want to learn from my mistakes ha-ha!

But yes, they should be surviving if not doing well in the gravel tank as well. Mine are in a 5G with one 13w cfl bulb and 3 guppies. I wouldn't say they are flourishing exactly, but at least they are not dying. They are also still kind of new, same age as yours I guess, about a month.


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## nightfury3 (Nov 30, 2015)

I've been really wanting my tank to eventually be very heavily planted (I love those tanks that are stuffed with plants), but I've sort of bumbled my way through even just a basic setup and am sort of afraid to try anything like soil. But maybe I will try it after I get my tank to stabilize. And after lots of research (if I had done that in the first place I would have saved myself a lot of headaches.) I'll check out your journal.


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## olgamc (Jan 2, 2016)

I actually think that soil based is way easier to start than a gravel one. I didn't have a big budget for plants, so I just did mine in a 1G. I figured that way I can propagate enough from it to fill a bigger tank over time. Not trying to convince you to rip up your tank or anything, but you could set up a smaller jar with a few plants and see if they do better. I just always like having a back-up plan, but that's just me.


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## hellobird (Nov 11, 2015)

Soil substrates are easy, a lot of the time they make it so the tank will basically take care of itself, all you have to do is make sure you give your tank a waterchange every week or so. Crypts and stem plants apparently benefit greatly from a soil sub, but I don't believe it would fix the problems you are having with your anubias and java fern, since they absorb nutrients through their leaves. But I could be wrong! For a heavily planted tank, an inert sub such as gravel is going to make it a lot harder on you in the long run, as plants will always be needing you to provide them with nutrients they could otherwise get from soil.
Either way I'd suggest picking up some flourish to begin with and see how you go with that. If you notice no improvement after a couple of weeks, pick up some iron and potassium.
Recommended dosage I found on the Seachem help forum is 2 drops/gal for flourish, 2 drops/gal for iron, and 1 drop/gal for potassium. I've been following this since I set my tank up and have had no problems with dying plants or algae blooms. I dose flourish once a week with waterchange, iron and potassium is every other day. You'll learn what certain deficiencies look like with time and be able to adjust your ferts accordingly.


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## nightfury3 (Nov 30, 2015)

Thanks hellobird for the ferts advice. I'd rather sort this out before I change the substrate. Once things look fine I might try changing over from gravel before I add more plants.


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