48l Tropical Aquarium

[Byron]

Could the same thing be happening with my water lettuce? I notice it seems to go through phases of boom and bust, I call it. Times when I'm binning handfuls of the stuff because there's just too much of it, other times it seems to be dying back, losing leaves and some yellowing, and I'm picking a lot of dead bits out of the tank every maintenance day. Then it starts to boom again, with no change in ferts, maintenance, lighting, temp etc.

Probably. All plants need a period of of vegetative rest. This is in the winter for temperate zones and many plants drop leaves and seem to die (but roots are still living), but in the tropics the plants just "take a siesta" and likely during the drier part of the year and the rains being food and new growth and flowering.