Aquarium Plant

[mark4785]

I'm new to aquarium plants so i'm not that knowledgable when it comes to naming them. I will try to describe the issue I'm having with a particular plant as best as I can.

Basically, I purchased an aquatic plant which didn't come with a tag explaining its actual name etc. It is a slim plant but I was told it would grow to the water surface in the aquarium and would frequently need to be trimmed back. I have attached a photograph of it below.

Although 75% of it looks green it appears to be turning slightly yellow towards the lower quarter of the plant and some of the leaves are detatching and floating in the water. The one's floating in the water are 50% transparent and have lost their green colouring.

Each and every plant has its roots submerged in sand substrate and I have placed a Tetra plant fertiliser right next to the roots for each plant (3 in total). 2 of the 3 plants are doing fine (they are in the foreground and are called 'Anubias' and 'Cryptocoryne') but the one losing its colour is towards the backend of the aquarium and is situated near a aquarium air stone.

On to the questions...

1.) Is the plant which is losing it's colour more delicate?
2.) Should it be situated anywhere near an aquatic air stone?
3.) Is it getting enough nutrients? I place plant fertiliser tablets near the plant roots for each plant and there is 10ppm of nitrates for them to consume. The PH is 7.4.
4.) Should I remove the plant bearing in mind I can't risk it rotting in water containing very delicate fish?

Mark.

 

[Biulu]

What about your lighting? It looks to me that the plant is not getting enough lighting, hence losing leaves at the lower part. If I am not mistaken this is an Elodea and they have quite high light requirements....

 

[mark4785]

What about your lighting? It looks to me that the plant is not getting enough lighting, hence losing leaves at the lower part. If I am not mistaken this is an Elodea and they have quite high light requirements....

Hey, the lighting consists of 2 T5 24w strip bulbs integrated into the lid of the aquarium. They are switched on for about 6 hours from 9pm to 3am.

 

[ian]

the plant is an elodea densa, once it gets a grip it will grow like wildfire.

1. It does lose colour as it sprouts new shoots.

2. No plant should really be near any airstone, airstones drive off c02 which is important in planted tanks.

3. I have found Elodea takes more ferts from the water column, as its not really a root feeder. do you dose the water column at all?

4. Its an aquatic weed, some people introduce it to soak up excessive nitrates. Its up to you if you leave it in, it looks healthy to me.

 

[Biulu]

Ok, and how big is your tank?

 

[mark4785]

the plant is an elodea densa, once it gets a grip it will grow like wildfire.

1. It does lose colour as it sprouts new shoots.

2. No plant should really be near any airstone, airstones drive off c02 which is important in planted tanks.

3. I have found Elodea takes more ferts from the water column, as its not really a root feeder. do you dose the water column at all?

4. Its an aquatic weed, some people introduce it to soak up excessive nitrates. Its up to you if you leave it in, it looks healthy to me.

No I don't dose the water column and have never really understood what that is all about. What instruments/chemicals would this involve?

I will move it away from the airstone ASAP.

Ok, and how big is your tank?

The tank size is: H 52.5CM, L 81.5CM and W 36CM.

It's capacity is 120 litres.

 

[Biulu]

The easiest is to take a liquid NPK fertilizer and now and then add some trace chemicals. Your light is not the highest, but it should be ok for the elodea. You might also try to space them out more so the lower parts get more light.

 

[ian]

i would recommend a plant fert called Tropica Plant Nutrition Plus, as this contains all micro and macro elements you'll need to keep your plants happy.

 

[mark4785]

The easiest is to take a liquid NPK fertilizer and now and then add some trace chemicals. Your light is not the highest, but it should be ok for the elodea. You might also try to space them out more so the lower parts get more light.

Would that fertiliser contain anything that promotes algae growth? I know the fertiliser tablets that I use don't contain any nitrate or phosphorus but obviously I don't know much about the product you mention.

 

[mark4785]

Just done a quick search and found that the 'Tropica Plant Nutrition Plus' is loaded with phosphorus and Nitrate. I want to completely avoid that sort of nutrition so I don't induce a massive algae problem.

As for the NPK fertilizer, my search only returned NPK tomatoe feed!

 

[mbsqw1d]

I enjoyed my Elodea Densa, it grew like mad! Until my Dwarf Gourami decided to rip it to shreds
If I'm not mistaken, should your lighting be closer to the red end of the spectrum, you shall get long, thin growth. The blue end of the spectrum will promote slower yet strong, fuller growth. (I sound like a hairdresser )

Elodea can also be good for fighting off red algae. DO NOT flush any Elodea down the drains BTW!

 

[mark4785]

I enjoyed my Elodea Densa, it grew like mad! Until my Dwarf Gourami decided to rip it to shreds
If I'm not mistaken, should your lighting be closer to the red end of the spectrum, you shall get long, thin growth. The blue end of the spectrum will promote slower yet strong, fuller growth. (I sound like a hairdresser )

Elodea can also be good for fighting off red algae. DO NOT flush any Elodea down the drains BTW!

Presumably my lighting is at the red end of the spectrum you're speaking about?

 

[mbsqw1d]

possibly.. it's not a bad thing! If you really want to get into 'planted tanks' then yes, you would have to look at your lighting in terms of it's spectrum (colour temp) measured in Kelvins (K). For example, you might want to look at changing one of your bulbs to a different type:

http/www.hagen.com/uk/aquatic/product.cfm?CAT=1&SUBCAT=112&PROD_ID=01016150030101

whilst having the other bulb as a standard.

 

[mark4785]

possibly.. it's not a bad thing! If you really want to get into 'planted tanks' then yes, you would have to look at your lighting in terms of it's spectrum (colour temp) measured in Kelvins (K). For example, you might want to look at changing one of your bulbs to a different type:

http/www.hagen.com/uk/aquatic/product.cfm?CAT=1&SUBCAT=112&PROD_ID=01016150030101

whilst having the other bulb as a standard.

Thanks for the information. I didn't know there was such a strong relationship between light specification and plant growth. I will ask my LFS if they think I need to upgrade my T5 bulb to a T8.

As mentioned above, 2 out of my 3 plants look very healthy, and a poster above was of the opinion that the Elodea looked healthy so i'm not too convinced the lighting is an issue. I don't want to heavily plant my aquarium so in a sense it's not a 'planted aquarium' if you understand what I mean. I thought planted aquariums looked like minature jungles and needed specialist C02 units and light settings; I don't want to go down that road!

 

[ian]

Just done a quick search and found that the 'Tropica Plant Nutrition Plus' is loaded with phosphorus and Nitrate. I want to completely avoid that sort of nutrition so I don't induce a massive algae problem.

As for the NPK fertilizer, my search only returned NPK tomatoe feed!

this is old thinking in planted tank keeping. Most people on here use TPN plus as their plant food. Fish infact don't produce enough of the above and even a shortage can cause algae blooms.

NKP is Nitrogen, Phosphorus and potassium. Theses are what are found in TPN plus, these can be dosed on there owns, which most serious high tech planted tank keepers dose thier tanks with. TPN plus contains these so can be dosed as a whole.