Clear

[christine]

I have a floating plant in my 10 gal, but some of its leaves are clearish looking. Maybe they don't have enough chlorophyll so I put them in some water out in the sun for a while. Is this the right thing to do?

 

[Dubby]

That would perhaps help it turn greener. It will also encourage algae to grow, so dont overdo it

If you dont have enough light in your tank then this is going to be a short term solution.

 

[Silly me]

I have some sword leaved grow completely clear, I dont know why, all my other plant are doing well, and I have 3.8w fullspectrum lights per gallon..

its not lights.. Iron and Mg help in turning leaves green?

 

[sinistral]

What kind of a plant is it? It does sound like an iron deficiency to me...

 

[Dubby]

Christine:

What kind of and how much lighting do you have in your tank? How long do you have it on?

Sillyme:

In your case it certainly is a nutrient deficiency as you have loads of light Do you use CO2? And do you use root tabs?

 

[Bangin]

Sillyme:

In your case it certainly is a nutrient deficiency as you have loads of light Do you use CO2? And do you use root tabs?

That's what I was thinking. Swords use nutrients like no other. You'll need root tabs or other nutrients to keep them happy. As soon as my sword plant really got going, my nitrates went down to zero. They are hungry little suckers.

 

[Silly me]

Yes I do have root tabs and everything.. I add iron to tank in hudge amouts but I never have a reading of 0.1 for more than two days, and the cost of iron is so much that I can keep adding it.

Thats why I think its not lights. I am the first one to always just say, uhm add more light,

That would perhaps help it turn greener. It will also encourage algae to grow, so dont overdo it

I was just saying that more light doesnt aways makes plant greener.

 

[Dubby]

Silly me:
What do you have in your substrate? Do you use laterite or something similar?

If you are measuring iron in the water then that is definitely going to go down rapidly...but question is whether the substrate is leaching the iron or retaining it for slow release.

 

[Silly me]

Dubby thank for trying to help.. But dont worry, I'm working on it.

I was always looking at light as a limitig factor in all my tank and now upgrade replaced and build very nice canopys with all the lights that I afford, but this only resolve 50% of the problems.

I have to move my tank soon ( tileing the room) and I want to replace the gravel with some from a stream close by.

 

[christine]

I have 2 lights in it that are each 15 watt asnd theyre on all day except night time. By the way... now after they were out side the parts of the leaves that were just clear are now brown. Should I just get a new plant or just trim these leaves off?

If it is iron deficiency how do you help the plant w/o hurting the fish?

 

[Dubby]

christine:

If these are fluorescent lights then you have enough for moderate lighting. You can trim the leaves.

Try using a liquid fertiliser like Leaf zone.

 

[christine]

Thanx dubby, I will try that.