Browning foilage??

[Maya~4Ix12chen]

I just noticed that some of my plants leaves are turning brownish. What could cause this to happen?? They look like regular house plants look when they dont get enough water.

I am using a Penn-Plax, aquari-lux 40 Watt & is 48 inches long (My tank is a 55 gallon)
My tank gets about 12 hours of light a day. I just took my pictus catfish out of the tank so there has been no fish in it for 2 days now & I think it's only been since yesterday that I noticed the leaves turning brown.

Can anyone tell me what I can do or why this may be happening? I am sorta new to keeping live plants.


Thank you

 

[tear-scar]

You have only 40 watts over a 55g tank? To grow plants you'd need a minimum of 110 watts . . . Basically, you have only a third of the lighting you'd need just for "medium" lighting.

 

[Maya~4Ix12chen]

Thanks for letting me know. but on this package it says that this bulb stimulates plant growth. hmmm What's that all about if it's only a 40 watt bulb??

 

[StarOrbs]

I have 60 watts from 2x30W from Home Depot over my 55 gallon and I'll tell you soon if my one lonely plant lives. The bulbs are within the right spectrum of 5000K-6700K and they are full spectrum so we will see.

 

[Tomo]

Are you using a reflector? This may help your plant if it wants more light.

 

[tear-scar]

Probably the bulb itself is a good bulb for a planted aquarium-- there's just not enough of it.

 

[Maya~4Ix12chen]

My bulb is 48 inches long and there is a spectral graph on the package but I hardly know what it means enitrely. But my light does have a reflector on it

The plant that was turning brown seems to still be growing but it don't look too well. I may end up loosing it however all the other plants seem to be doing quite well.

 

[tear-scar]

As a note, plants also have "die back" stages-- right before they grow back. A good example of this is the java fern-- all leaves die eventually, but this happens right before the plant sends off lots of new leaves-- or new plantlets growing on the spores of the dying leaves. Other plants, like Aponogentan, simply die back and then grow back in cycles. A lot of plants do this for various reasons . . . Some plants, like m. micranthemoides, overgrow near the top so they choke out the leaves at the bottom of the plant. There are lots of growth related reasons for plants to die back-- doesn't mean you shouldn't try to improve your tank conditions.

 

[Maya~4Ix12chen]

Thank you
I'll be keeping an eye on the growth in my tank



mmm I love pepsi lol