Green Spots On My Plant

[fish nutter]

hi guys,

in the last few week some green spots are appearing on my sword along with brown patches.

Any idea what it is?

How do i get rid of it?

thanks

 

[lljdma06]

Do you have a picture? Do the green spots rub off easily?

 

[fish nutter]

here is a picture... and no they do not come off

Thanks

 

[RadaR]

Well the leaf looks pretty much dead. Therefore it's a magnet for algae because it's leaching small concentrations of ammonia. Dead leaves also dont repair/manage the cells so it's easy for algae to latch onto.

 

[fish nutter]

Well the leaf looks pretty much dead. Therefore it's a magnet for algae because it's leaching small concentrations of ammonia. Dead leaves also dont repair/manage the cells so it's easy for algae to latch onto.

oh... well the whole plant looks like this... what can i do to improve tank conditions so my other plants don't die?

 

[ian]

Whats your lighting, c02, what ferts are you dosing at the moment?

 

[fish nutter]

i am dosing 5ml flourish once a week (i have a 55gal), lighting is 8000K 40 watt and a power GLO 18000K 40 watt.

I have got drift wood so i have a tint - not shure if it does anything

 

[ian]

you might want to be adding some source of carbon to the tank, most peeps start off on liquid c02, as in Easycarbo/Flourish Excel. Personally, i would dose the Flourish daily, then the ferts wont tend to run out over the course of the week. You also might want to look into Tropica Plant Nutrition plus, this will add the macros you'll need and you can just use this all in one plant food rather than just Flourish.

 

[fish nutter]

how much flourish should i dose daily? and how much excel should i dose daily?

thanks

 

[ian]

For 55 g you'd want to be looking at 2ml of flourish, to start with and excel, about 5ml to start with and then up it if needed.

 

[ShinLi]

I've had these problems in the past as well, and it's definitely a nutrient/co2 problem. I also only had the problem with the sword plants, other plants didn't really seem affected (I only saw they didn't grow as fast as they could, but they didn't die) If you've planted it quite recently the sword plant might be adapting to it's underwater state, and that way the old leaves are dying. However if new leaves either aren't growing, or dying quickly as well it might definitely be a problem with nutrients. I suppose it's best to remove the dying leaves, and hopefully that might kick-start the plant in making new leaves. Do you have more plants in your aquarium that show yellowing leaves or holes in them? Do be careful not to add too much nutrients in your water, as then the plants might not be able to use it quickly enough, giving algae a better chance to flourish.

 

[ian]

overdosing nutrients is better thank under dosing, algae performs better with low nutrients that high nutrients. This is a common misconception ShinLi.

 

[RadaR]

overdosing nutrients is better thank under dosing, algae performs better with low nutrients that high nutrients. This is a common misconception ShinLi.

Yep. Excess nutrients do not cause algae.

 

[lljdma06]

overdosing nutrients is better thank under dosing, algae performs better with low nutrients that high nutrients. This is a common misconception ShinLi.

Yep. Excess nutrients do not cause algae.

Awww, my little ones have learned well...

When I started dosing macros in excess about 5 years ago for a high light tank that I had (yeah, I had a high light tank once, awful, too much pruning!) the planted expert in the LFS where I purchased supplies looked at me like I was nuts. You'll still encounter plenty of contrary literature. Kh and ph are still being advocated to measure CO2 levels, phosphates are bad, you can't grow anything with less than 1WPG, WPG, etc... the list goes on. In all fairness, however, people were still growing plants well believing that stuff too.

 

[SuperColey1]

can't tell from the picture if it is GSA (green spot algae) but if it is it's normally a result of insufficient P!!! Common problem in low stocked (not so much fish food added) tanks that are using the off the shelf ferts, as they still use 'No N or P' as a selling point!!!

If it is GSA you will see it appear on Anubias pretty rapidly.

AC